is pleased to announce A,p arhments the winners of our 2003 8services Eight Over Eighty Event! 'Lester Burton Leonard P. Baruch r rita Roth Drapkin Alan Kandel Irene Butter greets the Dalai Lama, who received the Raoul Wallenberg award at U-M in 1994. ing room that overlooks Geddes Lake. Though her mother was reticent, Pam says, "the Holocaust was in my genes." As a child, she remembers ask- ing her grandmother (Irene's mother) what happened to her husband — the grandfather she never met. Her grandmother simply replied that she lost him. Mother and daughter hold back tears as Pam retells the story. "I imagined my grandparents hold- ing hands while crossing the street, and she lost him. I've been trying to find my grandfather ever since," she says. "Trying to learn about his life, their lives [those in the Holocaust]; I'm still on that journey." U-M Director of Dutch Studies Ton Broos, a friend of the Butters and the creator of U-M's course on Anne Frank, remembers when Butter first spoke to his class eight years ago. "She wasn't as outspoken about her experiences at first," he says. "I see a development since she's been talking to people. She's more comfortable with herself." He adds that Butter teaches more than the Holocaust. She demonstrates how positive one can be about life even after the extreme adversity she suffered. "She's inspiring," Broos says. "She's also come to terms with the Holocaust, especially after her visits to Germany with her children and grand- children." Triumph And Suffering Butter's first visit back to the camps with her son, brother and nephew was a triumphant experience, a turning point, she says. She had survived and had children and grandchildren. Butter says that she began to transform herself from being a victim to being a survivor. "A victim is weak and powerless; oppressors have triumphed over you," she believes. "Whereas, when you think of yourself as a survivor, you've conquered that strength; you can sur- mount other challenges because noth- ing will ever be quite as hard as what you've already experienced." There was yet another step in her healing process that would take several more years. Her distaste of Germans, their language and anything German, still filled her. Her daughter remembers when she was young, her grandmother would speak German to Irene — but Irene, unable to bear the language, refused to - speak German, and answered in English. But to learn how to forgive took both a meeting with the Tibetan spiri- tual leader, the Dalai Lama, and a German high school teacher she met just last year. Butter became active in the U-M Raoul Wallenberg project that honors the Swedish U-M alumni who saved more than 100,000 Jews — and shows how one person's life can make a differ- ence. In 1984, Butter spearheaded the fund-raising for the Wallenberg endow- ment that eventually honored people such as Elie Wiesel; Miep Gies, who protected Anne Frank's family; and the Dalai Lama, who all came to he uni- versity to speak as part of the award. Butter had a meeting with the Dalai Lama when he accepted his award in ODYSSEY on page 56 . Lenore Dunsky Weiss EIGHT EIGHTY over VottigtstA„)k *14*144.*I Celebrating Our Heroes Eight Over Eighty is a yearly event recognizing distinguished senior adults who have dedicated themselves. their time, talents... their lives to our community. Tickets are $65.00 for brunch prepared by Unique Restaurant Corporation. Your tax deductible gift goes directly to provide food for those Jewish Apartments & Services older adults with low incomes. • Sunday, May 4, 2003 • 11 8.111. brunch • Noon induction ceremony • Nonna Jean and Edward Meer Jewish Apartments - .6760 West Maple Road, West Bloomfield • For more information, please call (248) 592-1101 Ce d4ES WE'RE PART OF THE TEAM Cr = tWt 4/25 2003 70845 0 55