Post Oak Mall sponsoring
trick or treat Halloween night
— Page 5
“T
<■. .
Sherrill hopes A&.M impresses
bowl scouts against SMU
— Page 6
T'Ur'ii."’D ■ « 1»
The Battalion
Vol. 81 No. 33 USPS 075360 10 pages
College Station, Texas
Wednesday, October 30, 1985
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Juan spares
Texas coast,
hits Louisiana
Associated Press
HOUSTON — Erratic Hurricane
Juan backtracked and drifted into
Htheastern Louisiana early Tues-
H, sparing the Texas coast its
heavy rains and high winds.
■The worst for us is over,” said
11 Patterson, spokesman for the
National Weather Service office in
Port Arthur.
After stalling off the western
Louisiana coast Monday, the storm
turned and crossed Louisiana’s deso
late marshlands, then moved toward
more populated areas.
oree people were dead and at
Ht nine were missing, including
five men aboard a 100-foot crew
boat.
|y midday Tuesday, the storm’s
center was wobbling northward and
was well inland northwest of New
^Kans. Juan’s maximum sustained
winds weakened to 75 mph, mostly
in squalls over open water, the
feather service said.
: Hurricane warnings remained in
effect from Port Arthur to Mobile,
Ala., and gale warnings were posted
from Port Arthur to Brownsville and
from Mobile east to Appalachicola,
Fla.
est Parkway
m
Photo by GREG BAILEY
Beat The Hell Outta’ Bottle Caps
Peter Collins (left), Jeff Mentzer (center) and Ben
jamin Smith flatten bottle caps Sunday to make
spurs, which the cadets attach to their shoes.-Corps
of Cadets freshman are required to wear the spurs
during the week prior to the Texas A&M —South
ern Methodist University football game.
Soviets accept
limited testing
of “Star Wars”
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Soviet
Union has offered to halt construc
tion of a suspicious Siberian radar
and to accept small-scale tests of the
controversial U.S. “Star Wars” pro
gram, Reagan administration offi
cials said Tuesday.
But the offer to halt work at the
Krasnoyarsk site, which President
Reagan branded as illegal in a report
to Congress, is drawing a skeptical
U.S. response because it would de
pend on the United States not going
ahead with the modernization of
early-warning radar in Greenland
and Britain.
“They have made us an offer we
can refuse,” an official said, stressing
the importance of upgrading the
Thule and Fylingdales radars in
alerting the United States to a nu
clear attack.
The Soviet gesture on Star Wars,
however, is considered a positive
move in dealing with the main im
pediment to progress on a new nu
clear arms control treaty. Reagan’s
$26 billion program to develop a
high-technology anti-missile shield
has slowed arms negotiations in Ge
neva, Switzerland.
Both proposals, through diplo
matic channels in Geneva, appear to
be part of a concerted public rela
tions campaign by the Soviets in ad
vance of Reagan’s Nov. 19-20 sum
mit meeting with Soviet leader
Mikhail S. Gorbachev.
The Soviets are resisting cuts in
offensive nuclear weapons unless
curbs are also applied to the Strate
gic Defense Initiative.
The president concluded this
month that research, testing and de
velopment of anti-missile technology
does not violate the 1972 Anti-Ballis
tic Missile Treaty with the Soviet
Union.
Soviet negotiators in Geneva ac
knowledged that tests of “small-scale
mockups” could not be challenged
when tney essentially are extensions
of laboratory research.
However, Gorbachev informed
Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., in Moscow
in September that fundamental
space research cannot be verified —
or thereby challenged by the Soviet
Union.
Terror relived
Auschwiiz survivor recounts experiences, Nazi atrocities
By ED CASSAVOY
Staff Writer
A survivor of Auschwitz described
for a hushed audience in Rudder
Rater Tuesday night a journey
that began at the age of 12, and has
remained as vivid today as the num
ber 7739 tattoed on his left arm.
®The trip from Auschwitz to
Houston is one you will never un
derstand,” said Marc Berkowitz, a
survivor of the Holocaust, who said
his purpose was not to tell a story but
to share one little boy’s life.
Berkowitz, now a retired New
York furniture salesman, was born
ini Czechoslovakia in 1932, the
vouugest of seven children — three
Doys and four girls — who had a
brutal introduction to the realities of
World War II.
1 nLf "Right after the Passover, I was
V-U*".looking out the window and saw Sol
diers running,” Berkowitz said.
“They were around all the houses
and 1 tried to tell my father what was
bpening.
Ht only took five minutes when
I two soldiers pushed their way in and
said that we had five minutes to
pack.... I tried to ask my father how
Icould help when one of the soldiers
said, ‘Where you’re going, you don’t
have to worry, you may not come
, 33% ^ | back. ”
)-!2 & $ ^Carrying odds and ends tossed in
a tablecloth, Berkowitz said his fam
ily was loaded into a cattle train and
deported in 1941 to Kolomai.
Hmoiirntf?
EiPICHOW"*
i-101 $
Later that year, the family now liv
ing in Chotkow, Berkowitz said the
Gestapo took 300 men, including his
father, and executed them.
“I found (my father) because I
recognized his leather jacket,” Ber
kowitz said. “The leather jacket
looked like a grater after the bullets
had gone through — all uneven. . . .
“I said to myself that I would
make this a better world, but also
asked my father why he hadn’t made
the world better either.”
Berkowitz said that it was the true
beginning of his journey.
“I am a victim who will be a victim
for the rest of my life,” he said.
“What has been learned in the U.S.
recently is that once a hostage, al
ways a hostage, once terrorized, al
ways terrorized.“
Berkowitz and his mother went to
work at a Gestapo agent’s house on
the edge of the Chotkow Jewish
ghetto until his family fled the city in
1942 when they discovered the Ger
mans’plan to “liquidate” the ghetto.
Constantly on the move, Berko
witz said his mother, sisters and
brothers were skin and bone after
nine months of living off of what
ever they could find.
“I would take scraps thrown out to
the pigs,” Berkowitz said. “The pigs
would not scream and that’s beauti
ful. They said nothing.”
In 1944, Berkowitz’s family was
turned over to the Gestapo and then
sent to the next stop of the ordeal —
Auschwitz.
Marc Berkowitz
Looking out of the cattle car, Ber
kowitz said he told his mother that
the concentration camp did not look
like it belonged on the planet.
Berkowitz said they were herded
out of the cars like cattle, with glar
ing lights, screams and gunfire swir
ling all around them. Berkowitz said
he ran through the lines of people
looking for his grandmother.
“The thing that my mother said to
me was, ‘this is not a place for you to
run around, you might hurt your
self,” he said. “I said to my mother,
‘this is not exactly a kosher place.’ ”
Berkowitz said his mother started
to scream at that point, asking the
Germans not to kill her twins —Marc
and his sister Francesca. He said the
Jewish word for “twins” was very
similar in German and the word got
an immediate response.
“Two men came up at that point,”
Berkowitz said, “and said that we
were very lucky. That’s when Josef
Mengele (a doctor conducting medi
cal experiments at Auschwitz) ar
rived.
“He spoke to my mother — he
made Shakespeare sound like an
amateur — and asked if we (the
twins) were from the same father . . .
he told us that no one would harm
us now because we were his.”
Berkowitz and his sister were sub
jected to a variety of medical experi
ments administered by the “Angel of
Death,” ranging from freezing
baths, chemicals smeared on their
skin, and hundreds of injections.
“Whatever he (Mengele) did, he
smiled to us,” Berkowitz said. “That
smile was very important. We were
his guinea pigs, I call it his zoo.”
Berkowitz said that as his mother
was being led to the gas chambers
she asked him to promise to do three
things for her: That if he survived
he would always love God and hu
manity, be faithful to his people, and
not to be a bitter hateful person.
Berkowitz was liberated by the
Russians in January 1945, and he
says from then on he has tried to
speak out of love not hate, and to tell
the next generation that the world is
in its hands.
“With thoughts of love, we have
nothing to fear,” he said.
Preregistration at A&M
begins Monday, Nov. 11
By SCOTT SUTHERLAND
Staff Writer
Texas A&M preregistration
will begin Monday, Nov. 11, and
students should check with their
departments early to find out
when advisers will be available,
A&M’s associate registrar said
Monday.
Don Carter said students must
preregister on their designated
days from 8 a.m. to noon or from
1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Preregistration
will begin with the graduate stu
dents.
Spring semester class schedules
will be available Tuesday in
Heaton Hall and in the registra
tion center in the Pavilion.
Carter said advisers will be
available to students Monday
through Thursday. But Carter
warns that advisers may not be
available for all four of those
days.
“Every department is going to
have its own schedule,” Carter
said. “So students can do them
selves a favor by checking with
them early.” '
The registrar’s office also said
advisers will not be available after
Nov. 11.
The registration center in the
Pavilion will be equipped with the
same computer system that was
used for late registration in Au
gust, Carter said, so students can
pay their fees right away or defer
payments.
With the deferred payment
plan students can pay fees in two
or four installment payments
rather than paying in one lump
sum.
There will be a minor change
in registration procedures this
year, Carter said. Students can
now sign up for a physical educa
tion section at the time of regis
tration. In the past students had
to register for a P.E. time and
then meet in G. Rollie White Col
iseum the first day of class to
choose sections such as scuba,
tennis or golf.
The schedule for preregistra
tion is as follows:
• Nov. 11 — graduate stu
dents.
• Nov. 12 — seniors with last
names beginning A-G.
• Nov. 13 — seniors with last
names beginning H-O.
• Nov. 14 — seniors with last
names beginning P-Z.
• Nov. 15 —juniors with last
names beginning A-D.
• Nov. 18 —juniors with last
names beginning E-K.
• Nov. 19 —juniors with last
names beginning L-R.
See Preregistration, page 5
Aggies in Spain’ see relaxed, laid-back lifestyle
By JUNE PANG
Staff Writer
j.JO Si l J1 | 1 Editor's
story in a
Spain.
note: This is the first
three-part series about
J J2 4 111 I When a
fetal «**:
dents and
group
faculty
of Texas A&M stu-
acuity members spent six
wejeks in Spain this summer, they
' learned that exploring a different
culture can be interesting.
! The group spent two weeks trav-
000^ e fipg around the country and four
ELAVJ weeks taking classes at the University
m of Santiago, earning six credit hours
wthile studying the Spanish culture.
p\. Bart Lewis, associate profes
sor of modern languages, says the
■ji vi Spanish follow a different schedule
. ^ x than Americans. Lewis, along with
" ^ Dr Antonio Martinez, accompanied
39 students to Spain as part of
A&M’s “Aggies in Spain” program.
■They (Spaniards) get off work at
7 p.m. or so,” he said. “From 7 to 9,
they go out strolling with friends
“I really do think Spanish
people are happier. Peo
ple there laugh more,
smile more and seemingly
pause more.
Dr. Bart Lewis.
12 *'
hase
DAY!
leses^l
and family. Then they eat supper at
10.
“They go out again after supper
to the cafe talking with people. They
sit in the cafe until 2 o’clock.”
Lewis says this pace of life is what
he likes most about the Spain.
While the Spaniards work about
the same number of hours as Ameri
cans, there are differences in the
amount of pressure they are under
and the way they spend their free
time, Lewis says.
“They’re taking it much easier
than here,” Lewis says. “The pres
sure of promotion is not as serious as
here and people don’t have the rest
lessness as here.
“We’ve been told that in order to
succeed, you’ve got to move, you’ve
got to change jobs. You’ve got to be
available.”
But in Spanish culture, he says “. .
. being satisfied with oneself and a
happiness with others is of prime im
portance to their lives.”
Lewis says he thinks Spanish peo
ple are more social and they know
their friends longer since they don’t
move as much.
“I really do think Spanish people
are happier,” he says. “People there
laugh more, smile more and seem
ingly pause more.
“Europeans generally are like
that. America is a young country.
We’re in the process of making his
tory and our future is unlimited.
They (Spaniards) just enjoy the pre
sent.”
The students also noted the close
relationships between people and re
laxed atmosphere.
Minette Riordan, ajunior Spanish
major says,“Spaniards are more
open, more affectionate and
warmer. The life there is very re
laxed and laid-back.”
William Grimes, a senior history
major, says Spaniards aren’t afraid
of showing emotions.
“They build bonds with people
that way,” he says. “If they are mad,
they show it. A minute later they
calm down.”
If there is something we can learn
from the Spanish, he says, “we prob
ably can learn the sense of commu
nity, the closeness of the people, the
openness, the frankness.
Grimes said the laid-back attitude
of the Spanish was reflected in their
universities.
“The biggest difference is that the
class often starts late,” he says. “If
the class starts at 9, you expect the
“Spaniards are more
open, more affectionate
and warmer. The life
there is very relaxed and
laid-back. ”
Minette Riordan, a junior
Spanish major.
teacher to be there at 9:10 and the
class actually starts at 9:15.”
At first, Grimes says, he tried to be
on time, but found he was the only
person to get to the class on time.
“They (Spaniards) were never in a
hurry for anything,” he says. “It’s
funny. On the streets, you see cars
go fast, and you hear the beep of
cars. They seem to be hurrying but
no one cares if you are late.”
Sound contradictory? Grimes says
that is just the way he feels. Lewis
agrees with Grimes but offers an ex
planation to this phenomenon.
“Spanish people in general are
not very punctual. . . . Gars go fast
there because their cars are smaller
and there is no speed limit,” Lewis
says.
Although Spaniards are compara
tively more relaxed than Americans,
Spain has been undergoing a change
in industrialization that has brought
a faster pace in daily life and a
higher crime rate, Lewis says.
“It is a more industrialized coun
try now,” he says, “so the pace of life
is also changing.
“Spain never used to have the
problem of crime. But now petty
theft is more of a problem. Also, the
democracy they have now is having
less restrictions on people, so people
are abusing their freedom in some
ways.
“I really think the slow pace and
industrialization is not compatible?’