Chemist's Sister at Wellesley

With Bajuk at Graz was 19-year-old Robert Grasselli '51, also from a small town in Slovinia, Yugoslavia, Grasselli was too young to be actively engaged in the war, but his parents were in business and, when the communist regime was established in 1945, all business went to the state.

He and his family went to Graz, where Grasselli studied Chemical Engineering in the school where Bajuk was a physics major.

Spring of 1949 saw the first separation of the Grasselli family, with Robert and his sister coming to America on scholarships to Harvard and Wellesley.

Grassolli goes often to visit his sister but is "not quite sure" what he thinks of Wellesley girls. He would like to go to graduate school to continue his Chemical Engineering studies, but he's not sure he can afford it.

Czech Escaped Bondage

Peter Danes '52, an Economics major form Prague, Czechoslovakia, calls himself a "political refugee."

Danes's father died in a concentration camp in 1939, and he and his family went through six years of "hiding and waiting for the end." At the end of the war, Danes, thinking his troubles were over, entered the School of Business at Prague.

There he became involved in a typically partisan student political campaign and was elected to an office under the auspices of the Czechoslovakian Socialist Party, Benes' Party. Because of these affiliations, soon after the internal overthrow of the government in February, 1948, Dane's name was put on a list that read:

"According to the decision of the Action Committee of this College, the following students of the School of Business are excluded from study at all Czechoslovakian colleges until the final decision of the honorable law-court of the Union of College Students."

He was threatened with "slavery" in the coal mines and was arrested by the Security Police. "It is the only place in the world," according to Danes, "where you can be proud to be in jail."

Upon release, Danes escaped across the border to Munich. He was studying in the university when he received his acceptance to Harvard.

The best thing about Harvard, as far as Danes is concerned, is the House system. In Europe the students live privately. Danes has six roommates. A brilliant student, Danes wants to go on to the Business School, and is considering writing a book on the Czechoslovakian situation.

Yugoslav Fled Commies

Sergei Yermakov '52, a Yugoslavian of Russian descent, left his homeland in 1944.