7 Displaced Persons End 1st Year

A couple of years ago, the Student Council decided that men in the College were being approached too often by fund-raising drives for local and national charities. The Harvard Combined Charities Drive was born to take care of all donations at once by means of a lump pledge on the day of College registration.

But at the end of last year, a second large fund drive was started in the seven Houses, sponsored by the Harvard chapter of the National Student Association. The local N.S.A. group had at the time taken a leadership in bringing displaced persons to America and arranging for placing them in colleges all over the United States.

The drive, collecting a total of $5,622, was considered a success; the experiment--the Americanizing of seven young men from Eastern and Central Europe--was, it appears, a success, too.

Share Fear of Russia

The seven displaced persons now in College share many things in common, and have many differences. They are all from the same general sector of the world--three are Yugoslavian, two are Polish, one is Czechoslovakian, and one Latvian. During the war most of them were old enough to fight the German invasions of their home countries--but in each man, fear of Russia soon grew even greater than hatred of the Nazis.

Their past experiences are thus quite similar, and these past experiences have instilled a strong desire in many of them to work some day for the U.S. State Department. They have a strong consciousness of, and concern with, the trend of international affairs; more than half speak passable Russian.

As far as grades are concerned, they range between one who received four. A's at mid-term and one who has been told that his scholarship will not be renewed. And as far as reaction to American women is concerned--they also differ widely.

The important thing to N.S.A. and to their friends is that, in the past year, all seven have decided they would like to be citizens of this country, and with apparent pride they show their first citizenship papers to visitors.

Their reaction to this country and what they have left behind is typically expressed by Sergei Yermakov '52 of Lowell House, a Yugoslavian of Russian descent. When asked if he would ever consider going home, Yermakov grins and says, "If I ever return to Europe, it will be as a touring American citizen." The others agree, adding that their homelands hold nothing for them under present conditions.

The factor foremost in the minds of all of those men is eventual graduation from Harvard, and, if possible, continuing at one of the graduate schools.

Although three of the others are borderline cases as far as retention of scholarships is concerned, Yermakov is the only one reasonably sure that his financial aid from the University will not be continued. "Astronomy 1b really floored me," he explained with a long face.

Then he brightened immediately, and added, "But, boy, what a job I have!" He explained that a New York friend had given him a position working for two months in the city, after which he will be sent to Hollywood. His job--working in a model agency, training girls in figure exercises.

Brings Out Wolf

A far-away look came into Yermakov's eyes as he explained, "I went down there over spring vacation and met some of them." Then he turned his head away and let out a low howl. Becoming serious again, he added, "But this is only until I earn enough money to come back to Harvard to stay."

On the other side of the academic fence is Eliot's Peter Danes '51, who has received such excellent marks in advanced Economics courses this year that he has been accepted for entry into the Business School in the fall without his B.A. degree.

Far from spending the majority of his time in study, as many of the others do, this political refugee from Czechslovakia is constantly in search of outside interests--and if girls are involved, so much the better.

Danes Is Sure

Danes is the only member of the group who is completely sure that he likes American women. "But the dating customs of the American girl would not go over at all well in Czechoslovakia, or any part of Europe," he complained.

"She would be considered a--er--well, it's difficult to get reconciled to the fact that what one of these girls does with you she is doing with about 25 other guys on different nights."

When reminded that men have no such "faithfulness" restrictions, he shock his head and murmured, "Well, it still wouldn't be tolerated in the women."

Andrys Grots '52 of Leverett House, has another, and a very simple criteria for judging women. Grots, who has an unpleasant past involving both the Russians and the Germans, simply looks for girls with long hair. "I guess I'm just used to it," he said, "and I prefer it greatly to the current styles."

Grots was hurriedly packing to leave for New York City. "I'm going to be working in New York this summer," he explained, "and I know-I know several very nice girls in New York--all with long hair."

Polish-born John Czernyha '51 of Kirkland House is also receiving safe grades to hold his scholarship and has no interest in American girls. Czernyha, who hopes to finish a book he is writing on Russian concentration camps (he is a first-hand authority on German ones) this summer, has been engaged for the past year to a girl he met in a Polish DP camp last year, and who is now living in Hartford. Czernyha is working in Hartford this summer and hopes to be married within a month.

"The only difficulty is relatives she has coming to the United States whom we'll have to help to settle." He added, however, that he was all set for next year, when he will be commuting from the home of a medical school professor.

Chemistry majors and close friends Robert Grasselli '52 and Benon Przybielski '51 were studying together for a final exam when interviewed. Both take difficult science courses and are worried about grades. They are on the other side of the social fence. They are both very good-looking young men, but claim that "American girls don't like us."

"But it's easy to get buried in your work and forget about women," Przybielski claims. "The only sex we get is the study of hormones in organic chemistry."

Neither man has a summer job as yet. Przybielski explained that a position offered in "chemical research" turned out to involve the washing of test tubes.

On this particular night, Dunster's Anton Bajuk '51 was out with Grasselli's sister, who holds a scholarship at Wellesley. Grasselli, his sister, and Bajuk go out together a great deal. The three were born and brought up in the province of Slovinia in Yugoslavia.

Bajuk is also a fine student, and has few worries about the future. He has a summer job as caretaker of the estate of a friend of Gordon M. Fair '16, Master of Dunster House.