Show Cato Persico Speaks Of Nazi Atrocities y t bv by Leslie Vance c i r I heard trucks and saw trucks coming right over the barbed wire fences I saw soldiers coming out of the trucks They were speaking a strange language One soldier knelt down tears coming down his cheeks and stretched out his arms to us The soldier was an American one from a party that had just overran the Nordhausen Nazi Gestapo concentration camp T The e speaker was Cato Persico World War II POW who spoke to a group of students Nov 1 in Room 20 of the Technology building Persico after a brief introduction by Bobby Jo Janic began her presentation with her background prior to being sent to the concentration camp Born in Amsterdam Holland Persico was nine years old when the war began Although the Nazis Nazi's were nice at first they soon put into effect a food ration of two pounds of potatoes and a half a loaf of bread for a family of four per week This was not enOl enough gh to sustain Persico's Persico s family so Persico and her older brother were forced to raid the garbage cans of the wealthier neighborhoods and take stray dogs and cats home to contribute more food to the family meal When friends who had joined the Nazi Youth group suggested Persico and her brother rother go to a Nazi Youth party because there would be food there they went After eating they stuffed their pockets full of food to take home for the rest of the family They were apprehended outside the building Accused of stealing from the Nazi Party Persico and her brother were sent to Nordhausen to repay their debt to the Nazis azis It was at Nordhausen that Persico saw the atrocities she told the group about Persico also told the students about t the e shower chambers Prisoners were stripped and made to walk across the camps camp's grounds gh men to the chambers where they d w were e locked into the building and gassed Bo Both men and women were accosted Sted molested and raped on their naked journey to the showers Persico said She add added d that for the next next five five to ten minutes after they were locked up she could hear the people screaming and clawing to get out As horrible as the showers showers were the communal burying holes Dead and live bodies were layered into a huge hole lase doused with gasoline and incinerated Persico's brother was one of the men w whose duty Y was to run the bulldozer that pushed the mounds of dead into the hole Finishing up the retelling of her experiences Persico u handed out booklets which v- v vu u included xeroxed pictures she had collected of concentration camps that graphically visualized for the student the horrors that had been endured Persico offered to answer any questions students might have It was during this question answer session that Persico said despite the years Nazism has managed to survive and a sizable number of Nazis can be found here in Salt Lake City She also told of a writer Pat Jensen who is currently working on a book about Persico's experiences and of a possible movie about her being made in the future This will be of special interest to students who would like to know more about Persico She concluded her presentation by saying it is important not to forget what happened in Germany during the second World War for to forget makes the possibility of another holocaust much too real I will have a nightmare tonight said Per Persico ico as I always do after reliving my past at Nordhausen but that is is' is isa a small price to pay for keeping people aware of what happened |