PAGE 2, THE TOWNSMAN, Thursday, July 7, 1977

KMATYN, U.S.S.R. (AP)
— Throughout the Soviet
Union, memories.. of the
_ Second World War are still
fresh. But nowhere are they
stronger than in
Byelorussia, the
westernmost Soviet republic
and the one that suffered
most from the Nazis’
onslaught.’ :

Here at Khatyn, 43 miles
from the Byelorussian
capital of Minsk, there isa
massive memorial to 149
villagers who were killed by
German troops in 1943. The
memorial, which thousands
visit every year, is also a
general reminder of war-
time évents throughout the
republic. _

. Loudspeaker “~~ ~~~ ~ everybody ~~here ~~ was.

announcements on planes
arriving in. Minsk still tell
‘visitors that a fourth of
. Byelorussia’s 2.2 million’
citizens died in the war.
Minsk’s own population only
regained its pre-war level in
1971, and that was largely
* due to the import of workers
from other cities. \
Propaganda about the
war is also designed to
strengthen present-day
- Soviet defence. In the
official press and on public
bulletin boards, reminders
of past military events

ee

r

dovetail into glorification of
the modern Soviet army.
DRILLS SHOWN

In one display outside a

local movie theatre, a
bulletin board displays
pictures of local civil-

defence drills aimed at

surviving the effects of 4
nuclear war, 0

“My father -was a
resistance fighter during the
occupation,” said a young
Minsk woman. ‘‘He fought
for years in the forests,”

Another resident added: “In;
everybody! |

Byelorussia,
‘during the war was a

resistance fighter—or

sometimes .a_ collaborator
with the Germans. But there
was no middle ground;

thoroughly invoived.”
The destruction of Minsk

‘ by “the “Gérmans was ‘the ~

eighth time the city had
been destroyed since the
ith century. German
troops, in their surprise
attack on Russia in 1941,
managed to take the city in
eight days although another
Byelorussian fortress,
Brest, held out for 32 days.

German
established

THEATRE.

} ess a

‘ destruction of

fForees
260
concentration camps in
Byelorussia, according to
Soviet accounts, and soon

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systematic
arts of the
republic’s population. Jew-
ish sources here said 100,000
people were wiped ‘out in
.Minsk’s ghetto.
OTHER CITIES
SUFFERED a
Other Soviet cities, such
as Leningrad with its: 900-
day siege, also suffered
heavily in the war. But a

began the

visitor is likely to hear less -

about the war -there than in
Minsk. Here, the war is not
only a historical fact but the
official excuse for many of
the city’s shortcomings and

the drab appearance of most’

.of its buildings.

uv MEMORY DIES HARD |
Russians remember the

More than 85 per cent of
its buildings were destroyed

by the war and
replacements were thrown
up hastily in the postwar
years. Few of the pre-war
and pre-revolutionary
buildings that have become
tourist attractions in
Moscow, Leningrad and
other cities were left stand-
ing here.

“In Leningrad at least
they have an old cultural life
and buildings that survived
the war and provide some

‘distraction for them,” 4
Minsk resident said. “Here
the war destroyed
everything and it’s all we

war

have to think about.”

Even public officials, who-
and
and.

are aggressively —
new  agricultura
industrial production in
Minsk, pause frequently: to
reflect on the war.

“Just look out the window
at the new central ccty
we've built,’ said one
official in-his fourth-floor
office. ‘‘There has been a lot
of progress since the war.
But there is stil] a lot to do.”

Khatyn in Byelorussia has
no relation tona site with a.
similar name jn Poland
where hundreds of Polish
officers were found dead
after the war.

~_The sudden killer

— Leoand Nancy Lefebvre
tucked in their apparently
healthy - three-months-old

son -Peter Douglas for his -

‘afternoon nap on July4, 1964.
They never saw him alive
again. .
Peter was victim of the
mysterious sudden infant
death syndrome (SIDS),
comma: y called crib death,
which kills 10,000 babies in

’ the United States each year.

‘“Pive to 10 minutes later
he was dead,” Lefebvre said
softly, as the painful
memories of that Sunday
afternoon rushed back. “His

body was still warm. The.

ambulance was there within

a few minutes, and they just

couldn't revive him.”

- Just a couple of weeks
before, Peter had a routine
vaccination which caused a
had reaction, Lefebvre said.
The child was given tests
but. they indicated that

i Peter was in good health,

'

Peter’s case was typical
of SIDS victims. They are.
‘apparently healthy infants,
_usually between the ages of
four weeks and seven

months, who are put to bed"
without. the slightest sus-

picion that something is
wrong, said Stanley L.
Weinstein, director of the

Central Maryland SIDS

ntre.
NO CAUSE FOUND
He said post-mortem

examinations fail to find an .

‘adequate cause of death, In
most cases. autopsies are
performed and- in many
states crib death is listed as
the cause on the death cer-
tificates. |

Back in the early 1960s,
the Philadelphia couple
lacked the extensive support

systems which are being set ©

up today by 31 federally
funded SIDS centres across
the country. ,
“We had to go it alone,”
Lefebvre said. ‘‘There were
only a few parent groups set
to help parents deal with

eir guilty feelings, and we
had almost no information
.about SIDS or these

_ groups.” .
ony in the last five years ah help them deal:

have doctora, police officers
and the public learned about
crib: death, Lefebvre said.

“After it happened, we

wnasmanens

didn’t know where to go or
what to do. We were totally
numb, I had to go to the
morgue and identify my son
and seeing his small body

lying there was too much.”

SOUGHT ANSWERS

An hour after the
Lefebvres were playing with
their son, they” were
searching for answers about
what they might have done
to cause his death.

“Guilt feelings play a bi

rt with SIDS parents,”
efebvre explained.

“Neighbors; in-laws and
your co-workers can some-
times reinforce those guilty

- feelings, too.”

Many of their neighbors
didn't know how to approach
the couple with the recent
loss, so they stayed away.
_ “You ,become very
isolated because they
wrongly believe that it

i e@ contagious,” he

said. a oe
Weinstein said recent
findings show that crib
death is not contagious in
the usual sense. Although
the cause-of the disease ..is
unknown, research
indicates it is not a “‘killer
virus” that threatens other
family members or
neighbors,

Other known facts about

SIDS are that it is not
hereditary, it cannot he
revented or even predicted
y a doctor and it is not
caused by suffocation, aspi-
ration or regurgitation.

BECAME BITTER
Lefebvre, .now program
co-ordinator for — the
Delaware Valley SIDS
Community Resources
Centre in Philadelphia, said
his wife became bitter,
angry and ‘“anti-God’’ for a
long time after the tragedy.
Julya still is an “open
wound” for the couple 13
years later, but Lefebvre
said through their religion
and their belief in each other
they have realized that
something good has come
out of the experience. The
both work closely wit
newly-bereaved SIDS

with their feelings because
-we've gone throughit. There
“is no way of going around
grief, You just have to work

called crib death ©

LINTHICUM, Md. (AP).

through it and, although it’s
the most difficult thing to
do, you become a better,
stronger person for it.

"T also let them know that
they are going to have some
good days too. Although
every individual is different
time does heal the wounds.’
SPREAD INFORMATION

The 31 SIDS centres in ‘the
U.S. try to provide new!

bereaved families witn-

information about SIDS, to
educate the general. public
support research an

facilitate change in-the way
communities respond to the
problem.

— Weinstein said the centres

teach local medical
examiners, police,
emergency-room personnel,
clergy, physicians and un-
dertakers how te cope with
the side spectrum of painful
feelings of SIDS parents.

Parents who lose a child to
crib death sometimes. have
psychological
with subsequent. children,
health officials said,

Lois. Barclay Murphy of .

the National Hospital Centre
in Washington, D.C., said it

is important for them to
remember that another
baby cannot take the place
of the lost one.

Although Lefebvre agrees
with this in principle, he
said it’s. harder than that.
“With each child it was. like
reliving the first episode,”
he said. “We were always
protective and careful of
any illness with any of our
other children.”

Pleading Ignorance

A man charged with theft

showed up in court without
an attormey. “Do you want
“me to assign you an attor-
ney?” the judge asked. —
“No,” replied the defendant.

“If it’s alright with you, V'd .

hike to throw myselj upon the
ignorance ofthecourt.”.

_ BokeAgain
Leftover baked. potatoes
may be reheatéd by dipping.

_them in hot water, and. .

' baking again in a moderate’
oven, oO,

. or Yogutt a
' Many people use milk for
cleaning piano keys, . but

yogurt has an even better ef:
feet

evabeued deserencedonromrsroraariteserertadevadiceel

problems |