International House Berkeley

6 International House Times T he revised edition of e Golden Age of International House Berkeley - An Oral History of the Post World War II Era features timeless stories of love, tolerance, and intercultural friendships during a pivotal time in history. It is striking how the wartime experiences of these 18 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 fought in France (Gene Horwitz) and others who piloted planes, one ending up in a German prison camp (Bob Brewer). ere were women who served in the United States Naval Reserve (Dorelee Castello, Joan Rush and Marie Schutz) and others who attended colleges strangely devoid of men. Following are excerpts from the Golden Age of International House Berkeley book: Julia Fraser (IH 1946-51), Page 36 Once, as I will always remember, we went to see a horrible movie about the war in Italy. We came back to I-House without saying one word to each other, and we began laughing. We said, "Why did we go to that stupid movie?" As we were sitting on the front steps, talking about the war and laughing, a guy standing on the steps said, "How can you laugh, talking about the war?" Lottie looked at him and said, "Don't you think it's too late to cry, now?" Lottie always had something to say..." Reeve Gould (IH 1941-43, 46-48), Page 44 Any political tensions? e only tension I can relate was the Norwegian boy who married a Turkish girl. She was glamor- ous! She and her sister – the Sunel sisters, Esin and Suzie. e architecture student, Esin Sunel, married a Norwegian boy – Paul Olson was his name, I think. After they were married here, they tried living in Turkey, and he didn't feel he was ac- cepted in Turkish society. So then they tried living in Norway, and she didn't feel accepted in Norwegian society, so they came back to the Bay Area. Yes, that says something about the Bay Area, and it says something about people with ethnic differ- ences who get along famously at I-House but don't always find it easy to go home, particularly if they bring home a remnant of an I-House romance. Stories of Life Under the Dome from a Golden Age Students from Turkey, 1946-1947. From left to right: Ismail "Smiley" Ergonenc, Esin Sunel, Ahmet Iswan, unknown and Susan Sunel. Holocaust survivor, Lottie [Wallerstein] Salz (IH 1948-53) dancing at the 1949 Spring Festival. Marion Ross (IH 1946-51), Page 66 I can remember Ismail Ergonenc very well. He did very badly that first year, because his English was not good. So a wonder- ful man in engineering told him to buy a round trip ticket on a Greyhound bus to the East Coast and back for $99 and sit next to anybody who did not have a companion; and he did. At the end of that summer, he arrived in San Pedro on the Greyhound bus with practically perfect English. A lot of people whom he met on the bus had invited him to stay with them. We called him Smiley – he looked like a Texan, and he had a sunburnt, outdoor look. He spent a couple of nights with my family. Daddy woke up in the middle of the night, heard something downstairs, came down, and there he saw Smiley taking apart the washing machine. He had never seen a washing machine before that. But then Smiley put it back together again. n Contact the Alumni Relations Office at ihalumni@berkeley.edu to get your revised hard-bound copy of The Golden Age of International House Berkeley.

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