ROTARY FLASHES

08/05/2010

Greeter:  None

Presiding:  Tom Theller

Invocation:  Offered by Dan Dailey.

Visiting Rotarians:  (Read by Dick Tootle) Sunrise – Steve Gary; Grove City – Shawn Kitchen; Lancaster - Warren Searles.

Guests:  Walt Spangler brought a “cheering section:” Warren Spangler, Carol Baker, Annabel Spangler, Max Spangler, and George Hamick.; Earl Palm introduced Tony Robinson & Bob Temple; Gary Gillen presented Nancy Alkire; Kelly Feely introduced Jennifer Keller.

Absentees:  Brown, Chamberlain, Dean, Dan Delong, Dutton, Eitel, Elsea, Ely, Fluhart, Gaugh, Kuehnle, Mabe, McIlroy, Poling, Smith, Stickel, Taylor, Bob Tootle, Vickers, Wilson, Wolford, Woodward, Yingling.

Make-ups:  Hilton Head, SC – Charlie Hedges (2); Flagstaff, AZ – Clark Cellio; eClub One – John Prince.

**New member proposal:  Dave Pigion.  Dave is the new Plant manager of DuPont – Circleville facility.  He and his family just moved into their home in Circleville, so welcome to the community Dave!  Comments regarding this proposal need to be addressed to Drexel Poling.

August Birthdays: 3^rd – Glenn Reeser; 5^th – Bill Stout; 9^th – Bob Cole; 15^th – John White; 16^th – Bud Brehmer; 21^st – Dick Tootle; 31^st – Kelly Feeley.

August Anniversaries: 3^rd – Jack Hooks, John Prince; 4^th-  Drexel Poling; 7^th- Jerry Leist, Charlie Pockras; 14^th – Dan Fouts; 18^th – Tom Tootle; 19^th – Bob Sneed; 20^th – Mark Smith; 26^th – John Stout, Bob Tootle; 30^th – Tom Theller.

Piano: Don Metzler

Songs:    Due to length of today’s program, Ian Webb was only able to pick one song, “Roll Rotary.”

Student Guests: None, due to summer break.

Announcements:  

• Tim Tener gave a formal thank-you to those who volunteered at the recent Community Kitchen: Harry Canfield, Walt Spangler, Carlos Alvarez, Dave Moss, Jack Hooks, Carly Neff, Earl Palm, and Bob Sneed.

• Chuck Wellman announced that the Nazarene Church will be hosting a corn-hole tournament on August 21^st.

• Dave Moss reminded us that our club’s 13^th Annual Golf Scramble will be on Thursday, Sept. 9^th at Cooks Creek Golf Club!  Volunteers & golf teams are still desperately needed so please jump in to help!

• Angie Beavers piggy-backed on Dave’s announcement by stating that raffle tickets are available as well, and that the funds from this tournament & tickets go to a most worthy cause…our Rotary Scholarship Fund!!

SAA:  Jeff Spires to a very simplistic yet straight forward approach today.  Everyone who had brought in a new member in the past year was asked to stand.  All those seated still were asked to pay a fine. 

Lottery:  Bob Sneed had the lucky ticket and gained $22, but the golden pebble remained out of grasp.  The pot has grown to $1,498.

Program:  Dave Webb introduced today’s speaker, our fellow Rotarian, Walt Spangler. Walt stepped to the podium and began his emotional and quite memorable PowerPoint presentation regarding his trip to Weimar, Germany.

Due to the fact that Walt was a veteran of WWII & served in the Weimar area, he was invited by the officials there visit for the 65^th Anniversary of the liberation of Buchenwald Concentration Camp. And so, he went.

He stayed in a 314 year-old hotel named Hotel Elephant.  Interestingly, this hotel had a meeting room that hosted their local Rotary club.  (Rotary truly is everywhere!)

Walt showed current & historical photos of the landmark.  In addition, he shared some of his amazing personal stories of that time and place 65 years ago.  (Editor’s note: I apologize in advance for my inability to convey in writing the emotions that Walt relayed to us regarding the liberation and of the ceremony itself.  The original is always better than a copy.)

Here are some of the highlights:

·        Housing of the prisoners was akin to the warehousing of humans.  Up to five people lived in the space meant for one, and their bunks were nothing more than shelves.

·        Caracho Path: a.k.a. “Blood Path.”  This was a death march the prisoners were forced to take.

·        Housing for the Germans’ dogs was in better condition than the prisoners.  Dogs were used for reinforcement and security purposes.

·        Mustering Area: a large open space/yard that was used to gather the prisoners for roll call twice daily.

·        Electrified fences were used in addition to barbed wire fences.

·        There was a “kids’ camp” where prisoners 7-16 years old were kept.  They were not forced to work, but the conditions were no better.

·        Disinfecting Area:  New prisoners were stripped and sent naked into this structure to endure hours of extreme heat in order to “disinfect” them.  They were then issued stripped prison uniforms.

·        Prisoners were forced to work in the nearby quarry.

·        Two crematoriums were built to dispose of the dead prisoners, regardless of whether the deaths were homicidal or natural.  First was built in 1940, and the second in 1942.

·        A pathology lab was next to the crematoriums, and “medical experiments” were indeed performed.

·        Various forms of punishment were inflected upon the prisoners: hung on a pole which often resulted in death; lashed while strapped down in a chair; hanging by the neck.

·        During that time, both German officials and citizens denied the existence of these camps.

·        15 veterans were able to attend the 65^th Anniversary ceremony, and former prison survivors came as well.  Some even wore their former prison uniforms.

·        The ceremony attendees visited 3 mass graves at the base of a monument.  Approximately 1,000 are estimated to be in each of the graves.

·        Attendees were also invited to attend a Q & A session with local students.

In conclusion, Walt shared a story of one of the prison survivors, Sol Lurie.  He was 11 years old at the time of the liberation.  He was also a survivor of four years in another prison camp ( I believe Walt said it was Auschwitz).  After he was freed by American troops, and then Sol moved to America and joined the military.  Due to his expertise in German language and culture, he was then stationed back in Germany.  When asked if he was afraid to be back in Germany, he stated that he was not because he was on the right team.  What an amazing story of survival and forgiveness!

Contact info: 

 None provided.

Tom Theller regained the podium to thank our speaker and to announce that a donation will be made in his name to the Mike Harrison Park Fund.

Meeting adjourned.

August’s program schedule:

• Aug. 5   Walt Spangler   65th anniversary of the liberation of Buchenwald.   

• Aug. 12   Motorcycles! with Mike Allen of Motohio Motorcycles  

• Aug. 19  Gerhard Maroscher  Experiences as WW2 refugee.  

• Aug. 27    Rhoads Market and Landscaping with Carly and Jeremy Neff

Until next week…,

Patty Rothe,

Editor

E-mail: pjrothe@rpjohnson.net