Holocaust Lessons Drive Teacher
It isn’t easy for Bill Proser to speak to a reporter. He’s a private man with a more sensitive conscience than most. Erase the world’s troubles from his serious face and Clark Gable emerges, handsome and full of charm.
Bill’s conscience won’t allow him to rest his load, which is why he consents to an interview. People need to know what evil is so they can fight it, he says.
Bill found his definition of evil in the decades-old Nazi concentration camps in Poland two years ago. His friend, Alicia Appleman-Jurman from Buczacz , Poland, experienced the evil of the camps half a century ago.
Alicia wrote a book, “Alicia, My Story,” about her childhood during the Holocaust, and will tell her story in Coeur d’Alene next month at Bill’s invitation.
“I think all our understanding of good and evil is centered right here,” in the Holocaust, Bill says. His senior English students at Lake City High have left for the day. The classroom’s silence suits him.
Bill wanted answers all his life. Why do people suffer? Does their suffering mean anything? What is evil?
He studied English literature because many of the great minds tackled life’s lingering questions in literature. He went to college for answers, emerged a teacher so he could eat.
Studies led to deeper studies, a doctorate, a month-long seminar in Poland and Israel put on by Holocaust survivors.
On that trip he saw a pit the size of his classroom filled with the ashes of 18,000 prisoners the Nazis killed in one day. He listened to survivors who saw Nazis brutalize and kill their children, their parents. He heard stories of unimaginable dehumanization and of heroic efforts to survive, to get the story out.
“That trip convinced me that there isn’t anything more important than furthering Holocaust education,” he says.
So Bill speaks to a reporter to promote Alicia’s visit to Coeur d’Alene. His story is of research, discovery, analysis. Hers is of suffering, loss, survival. The world needs to know both.
Alicia Appleman Jurman will speak at 9 a.m., May 14, in NIC’s Schuler Auditorium. Her book is available for $6 from Bill at Lake City High.
Great groceries!
Coeur d’Alene’s Sandy Mamola was in line at the supermarket a few weeks ago when she witnessed an act she wished she’d thought of.
A woman in her 70s stood in front of Sandy with a few groceries. In front of the older woman was a younger woman with her little girl. As the younger woman’s bill was totalled, she asked the cashier to include on her tab the seven items of the older woman behind her.
Sandy’s convinced the two women didn’t know each other. “It was just a random act of kindness,” she says.
Struggling students
When Coeur d’Alene’s Ali Ward isn’t volunteering at St. Vincent de Paul’s, she’s at NIC studying to become a graphic artist. Her work and the work of six other commercial art students about to enter the work force go on display Monday in NIC’s Kootenai Room.
One of these people could design your next logo. Check them out. The exhibit is free.
History lesson
Coeur d’Alene’s Jesse “Jay” Graham turned 102 last week at Pinewood Care Center. She was a widow for nearly 80 of those years, although five men did ask for her hand in marriage.
Jay preferred to paint, and painted her way into history. Her portrait of former Washington Gov. Dan Evans hung at a recent Washington Republican convention.
Where is your place in North Idaho history? In city council minutes? In the middle of a heart carved on a tree trunk? Stake your claim in Panhandle history with Cynthia Taggart, “Close to Home,” 608 Northwest Blvd., Suite 200, Coeur d’Alene, ID, 83814; fax to 765-7149; or call 765-7128.
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