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Show Listen up News editor: Angela Wadman Phone: 626-7655 CONVOCATIONS AND OPEN HOUR A chaoce i By Angela Wadman news editor-The Signpost It has been 50 years since the Holocaust took place, and Marianne Elsley remembers it vividly. Elsley escaped Germany in 1939. Though her parents Franz and Edith Josephy died in Auschwitz in 1944. She said the Holocaust will always be news and should be remembered. "I am very glad of that because I want to remember it. I am very thankful that it will go rumbling on for the next 10, 20, 100, 1 ,000 years, because it was so unusual. But what won't go on is me. I am getting old. I am an old women now. I'm 75, and I'm one of the last of the generation who came over to England as child and who could stand here and say, 'Wait a minute, don't say that because I was there.'" Elsley addressed Weber State University students, Ogden High School students and community members Thursday, as a part of the WSU's Holocaust Remembrance Week. "Six million is a lot of people. It-doesn't mean anything. Six million is a crowd, so I want to tell you about my life. Just two or three people that means myself, my parents, my family. It is important to point out that people like us suffered so much although we did nothing to provoke this." She grew up in a small town north of Hamburg. Her father Franz was a judge and her mother was a doctor. In 1929, Germany became unsettled and soon after Hitler came into reign. She said Hitler stated in his book "Mein Kampf that he would make sure he would get rid of the Jews if he ever got any political power. "He didn't like them. He wanted to get rid of them. He carried out this idea Knowledge principal key to By AHyson Reeder news writer-7je Signpost The Honors Issues guest speaker told Weber State University students what life is like living with AIDS. The guest speaker, who wished to remain anonymous, was diagnosed HIV positive 14 years ago. Out of the many people who were diagnosed that year in 1984, between 95 to 97 percent have already died. He said because being unaware of the risks involved with right until the end of his life." By 1933, Hitler had made them a stateless people. Her parents lost their jobs, she was kept a part from the other children in her school and he took away their passport His laws came bit by bit, she said. "The Germans chose him and I have to say the Germans were willing to go along with this idea." Her father thought they should move into a larger city where they were not so well known. She said her father at this time should have left Germany. "My father and a lot of people like him... he thought Hitler would pass and then it will all get back to normal. Well, it didn't" They moved to Berlin. She said people would disappear all the time. Her common fear she had was coming home to an empty house finding her parents had been taken. "It had happen to a number of people I knew. They said they were not there, the SS had picked them, they had gone to a camp and were never seen again. It didn't happen in my case," Elsley said. Soon after these incidents, her family decided they must leave. But because of all the strict regulations, it was a difficult task to get a passport and leave. The Nazi government was restricting the movement of Jewish people. Anyone under the age of 60 could not leave, she said. In 1939, Elsley had a chance to leave Germany. Through the Red Cross Kinder Transport project which only allowed 10,000 Jewish children to leave the country and go to England, she was fortunate to leave. "It was very heart-breaking. It seemed to be the only thing we could do," Elsley said. Elsley was 15 when she reached England in January. When the war Listen Up HONORS ISSUES FORUM unprotected sex, he contracted HIV. "I grew up in a household where they didn't even tell me about the birds and the bees," he said. "I had no idea of the risks involved with body fluids." Even though he was HIV positive in 1 984, he was just recently diagnosed with AIDS two years ago. He said if the T-cell count doesn't exceed 200 for two blood tests then the individual is diagnosed with AIDS. He told about his life on an average day. "I get up and take my pills; I work for a little while; I take ' Marianne Elsley told students 7 haven't go it in my heart to forgive. I cannot forgive, but rememberplease do." Marianne Elsley, Holocaust survivor broke out in September, the letters from her parents stopped, but they continued to write to her. Her Swiss cousin received the letters and after the war gave them to her. Soon after, her father was drafted to slave labor and later her mom was chosen to be sent to a concentration camp. more pills. Then I come home and eat and take more pills, and then I go to bed and get up the next day." Currently, his medication, which costs $1,000 a month, entails taking 36 pills each day. Through receiving financial help from the Ryan White Care Act, he can afford the medication. He said he began five years ago taking medications to keep up his health. The first medication the doctors put him on was the controversial Zidovudine also known as AZT, he said. AZT has a potentially fatal allergic reaction that can affect one out of 10,000 patients. He was the one. The reaction to AZT shut down his internal organs and left him in a coma for a week. After 14 years of dealing with disease, he said he wants to tell people how to learn and live with AIDS every day. "Being honest with yourself and petting tested is the only way cfvr rf ., I - " : 7v:77'. "ZM. " . ,-J", l i 1 .JW J I ! , 7 ' I ' - 1 1 what it was like growing up under the Nazi regime. "My father realized that unless he volunteered to go with them, he would never see her again. So he asked for permission to go too," she said. "It wasn't one of the worst camps but it was awful." Then her parents were taken to Auschwitz. "And in Auschwitz the gas cham AIDS prevention "Being honest with yourself and getting tested is the only way to survive and cope with this disease. This will never go away" Thursday's Honors Issues Forum speaker to survive and cope with this disease," he said. "This will never go away." In the end, the greatest source for strength has been his friends. "My one hope would be to find those who will stand by you and hold your hand," he said. Honors Issues chairwoman Rebeca Boyd was impressed with the way the speaker shared his story. "It was really emotional for me. I felt really moved by hear rna a r m o n c I !fo ' bers were going full blast. They couldn't accommodate all these bodies," she said. The old and weak were sent straight to the gas chambers. "That is how my parents died. I don't know if they went together or if my father went on his own and my mother after. There is a record of them actually being drafted into Auschwitz. That's all I know. I don 't know whether they were gassed or shot or burnt or buried. I don't have the courage. I'm afraid to go there. I can't really do it. That is the end of my parents story." She said students should never forget what happened. "I haven't go it in my heart to forgive. I cannot forgive, but remember please do." ing him speak about himself so openly. I think the things he had to say had a universal message," Boyd said. "The way he talked about his life applies to everyone. Be honest with yourself, and don't waste your life." Next year's Honors Issues chairman, Wesley Hanna, added, "One of the biggest things I got from the message was that you don't have to be afraid of getting tested and being truthful with yourself." |