International House Berkeley

PREFACE T his book began in July of 2008 at the 90th birthday party of Julia Fraser, who had fled Soviet- and Nazi-occupied Lithuania and arrived at I-House in 1946. Also at the party was Julia's good friend and I-Houser, Paul Salz, a refugee from Czechoslovakia rescued by the Kindertransport. As I spoke with Julia and Paul, I was struck by the compelling nature of their life stories. These were narratives that ought to be recorded. It was not until fall of 2009 that I started collecting the stories of the post–World War II I-House, the so-called "Golden Age." In the interviews that ensued, the "Golden Agers" shared remarkably vivid memories of how they had spent the war and how their postwar days at I-House had left an indelible mark upon them. It was striking how the wartime experiences of these eighteen interviewees varied greatly. Experiences ranged from participation in the Norwegian underground (Terje Jacobsen) and survival of Auschwitz (Lottie Salz), to isolation in neutral Sweden (Ingrid Borland and Mopsen Ohlsen); among the Americans, there were men who had fought in France (Gene Horwitz), and others who had piloted planes, one ending up in a German prison camp (Bob Brewer); there were women who had served in the WAVES (Dorelee Castello, Joan Rush and Marie Schutz), and those who had attended co-ed colleges strangely devoid of men. Finally, there were the numerous refugees who had sheltered in Shanghai during the war and now landed at I-House "stateless." What was perhaps even more striking than the disparity of the wartime stories was the similarity of the postwar cohort's experience at I-House. The cohesion achieved at I-House despite widely differing experiences was due no doubt to the dedication of the Golden Age staff. The staffers, partly composed of students themselves, went out of their way to create a caring environment for the recent arrivals. The familial atmosphere that filled the halls was quite an achievement, given the potential for tensions present in the eventful postwar years of 1946 to 1953. Gathered under the I-House roof were Germans and Jews, Israelis and Palestinians, as well as Indians and Pakistanis. The harmony which prevailed during the Golden Age is perhaps best symbolized by the nightly singing at the foot of the Home Room stairs. Through spontaneous gatherings such as these, the students were able to bond and rebound from the tragedy of World War II and find an antidote to the Axis's toxic racism in the tonic of the House's welcoming and inclusive atmosphere. The stories in this volume provide a fascinating window on the power of the I-House experience to bring together disparate cultures, even in the unsettled postwar period. Jeanine Castello-Lin 5

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