Eyewitness to history: three stories of ordinary people caught up in extraordinary times. (Special Report).

When it's time for a history lesson, most people turn to books to read about major world events and famous people. But some of history's most important lessons aren't found in textbooks. They're stored inside the minds of everyday people who have lived through significant events.

The stories that follow are just three of hundreds of interviews that students submitted to the Current Events Eyewitness to History Contest. In them, a major-league baseball player talks about the integration of African Americans into the sport: a concentration camp survivor describes what life was like for Jews during World War II; and two very different South Africans discuss how apartheid affected their lives.

A Quiet Legend

By Michael Harrington West Plains Middle School, West Plains, Mo.

It may sound strange, but when you sit in the stands of a stadium to watch a baseball game, you're watching history unfold. Often called America's pastime, baseball reflects some of the major turning point in U.S. history. Elwin "Preacher" Roe was there for some of baseball's memorable moments, including the addition of the first black player to the major leagues.

Elwin C. "Preacher" Roe was born on February 26, 1915, and played his first professional baseball game in 1938 for the St. Louis Cardinals. Dubbed "Preacher" by an uncle of his just returning from World War I in 1918, Roe has enjoyed a lifelong love of the game of baseball. He pitched in five World Series games along with three baseball all-star games, matching up against some of baseball's true legends. Now retired, Roe lives in his hometown of West Plains, Missouri, where he plays lots of golf and occasionally visits with fans who travel to the community for the purpose of talking with the quiet legend.

Question: Were you ever in a World Series that your team won?

Answer: No. I was in three, but we never did win a Series. That is the one thing in baseball that I wanted that I never got. I wanted a championship ring. I pitched in all three of them, and I won two ball games, started one, and pitched three complete games.

Q: Who was the toughest batter you faced?

A: When people ask me this, I halfway kid them with saying, "Well, left- and right-handed hitters because it was all a battle that you had to prepare for." But there is no question that Stan Musial was the best hitter I've ever seen. He was a very good friend of mine, still is a very good friend of mine. He was a good hitter. I think the best. He had the sharpest eyes I've ever seen in a baseball hitter. Some of the boys would throw bullets up there and would throw them 6 inches from his nose. He wouldn't move. He wouldn't even flinch.

Q: How did you feel about the home run you gave up to Mickey Mantle in Game 6 of the 1952 World Series?

A: I didn't like it, but those good hitters will hit 'em off ya. In the World Series, I'd pitched to Mantle three games and relieved twice against him, and all he had gotten off me was a one-base hit. So I wasn't too ashamed of my record with him. He hit that home run hard, real hard, and he had a reputation of hitting long homerun balls. When he hit it, naturally I turned my head and looked for it. Pee Wee Reese ran in from his shortstop position and said, "Preach, what are you looking for? You know that one's gone." And I said, "Yes, Pee Wee, but let's see how far." It was a monstrous home run. He didn't beat me really. The men in front of him did. Hank Bower was a line-drive hitter with two outs in that inning; he got a base hit off of me; then Mantle came up, and he hit a home run.

Q: You played with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1948, Jackie Robinson's first full season in the major leagues. Before then, only white people were allowed to play in the major leagues. What was it like being on the team that integrated baseball?

A: Well, I'm kind of proud of my career at that time. I feel like it was a change in the way of life. It was a step in our civilization, and I'm part of it. I'm really proud of it. I just felt if Jackie hit a home run while I was pitching, it counted just as much for me as if Pee Wee Reese hit it or some of the other guys who were white. It didn't matter to me. People asked me if Jackie could play baseball, and I'd say, "You never have seen a good ballplayer until you've seen him." He was that good. He was just outstanding.

The Most Frightening Place on Earth

By David Emanuel Oakwood School, North Hollywood, Calif.

During World War II (1939-1945), dictator Adolf Hitler led Nazi Germany on a campaign to eliminate Jews and other people the Nazis thought were inferior. The Nazis killed Jews or forced them to work in concentration camps. An estimated 6 million Jews were murdered by the Nazis. Sidonia Lax was held captive in Auschwitz, one of the most notorious concentration camps.

It was June 8, 1927, when a girl named Sidonia was born in Przemysl, Poland. She was an only child and part of a wealthy family. She would play near the town castle with some of her neighborhood friends, and she went to public school. It was a happy life because the town was very social, and people would often get together to do something fun, like go out for ice cream.

Her parents, Isaac and Cyla, being Orthodox Jews, would go to synagogue every Saturday and then have a big family gathering. But then the simple life with three cooks, a governess, and many other values was lost when something terrible happened.

Her parents found out that the Germans were coming to Poland to help Hitler take over all of Europe, Africa, and even Russia. Her parents packed some of their important belongings and headed for Romania. At the border, people said that the Russians were coming, which made Sidonia's parents want to go back to their house to collect some more items, including pillows. Sidonia said, "This was the biggest mistake that they could have made."

Orders began to come in slowly from the Nazis. Jews were told that they needed to bring in all of their jewelry. Later they were told to bring in their artwork and other possessions, but only one at a time. Sidonia said that if the Jews had been made to turn in all of their belongings at once, they would have begun to think that something bad was going to happen.

As the Nazi influence began to expand, Sidonia was no longer allowed to go to school. Her Catholic friends became afraid of playing with her. Finally, when Sidonia was about 12 years old, the first ghettos were created. They were barbed-wire parts of town where, when Jews entered, they didn't exit. In them, there was little room or food, and there were few possessions. Many people died in the streets. Medical treatment disappeared. Sometimes, at 2 a.m., the Nazis gave some Jews ten-minutes' notice before sending them to work somewhere.

In the ghetto, Sidonia and her family decided to go into hiding. They and about 30 other people hid in a single bunker in the ground, with hardly any food or space, and lice spreading everywhere. One day, Sidonia's mother left the bunker for a while, and then Sidonia and her father heard shots and never saw her mother again. The next day, they heard that someone in the ghetto was selling apples, something very rare. Sidonia s father went to buy one for her, and she sadly never saw him again. Now, whenever Sidonia eats an apple, she is reminded of her father.

A few days later, Sidonia was found by the Nazis. They took her to a local prison and later sent her back to the ghetto. There, she was given a very tiring job; she had to break up a boulder into many pieces with a tiny pick.

Then Sidonia was taken to one of the most frightening places on Earth: Auschwitz. There, her head was shaved, and she was given a number tattoo: A14821. All of her possessions, including clothing, were taken away. The only things that she got in return were one small meal a day and a sack with holes for arms and head as clothing.

Each day in this camp was hard. The prisoners had only a few minutes to wash and use the bathroom. There was a selection every day (where people were sent to either the gas chambers or to other camps), and often at about 5 a.m. the prisoners were told to stand at attention for hours.

Then, one day, Sidonia was selected. There were two lines, one leading to the gas chambers, and one where prisoners were sent to another work camp, Bergen Belsen. She was sent there, probably because of her strength. Finally, at her last camp, she made grenades that would be delivered by trains to Nazi soldiers. At the end of the war, the trains were used to move the prisoners. Unfortunately, when one of the trains had nearly arrived in Berlin, the Allies thought that it was still filled with grenades, so they bombed it, and the train burst into flames. Sidonia was looking around for a hole so that she could jump out, and when she did, she immediately rolled on the grass to put out the fire on her clothing. The next day, Sidonia and many others found out that the war had finally ended.

Then she traveled back to Poland, but never went back to her hometown. In Poland, she worked in a hospital until her only relative who had survived the war showed up. He said that she must go back to Germany because they were giving out visas to go to America. So Sidonia became a German citizen, received her visa, and arrived in Los Angeles in 1947. Here, she met her husband, and today has three children and five grandchildren.

She still lives in Los Angeles and hopes that people today learn about the war and important lessons, like not to waste anything and that life is always more important than inanimate objects.

Fighting Back

By Dustin Braun West Middle School, Nampa, Idaho

In 1948 the South African government created apartheid, a system of laws that ordered rigid racial separation. Under the system, black South Africans had few rights and were forced to live, eat, and play though there were fewer white than black South Africans, only the white people could vote. In 1991, after more than a decade of black protests, the South African government eliminated apartheid. In this interview, one black and one white South African talk about life under apartheid.

I interviewed Johan, a white South African, and Sakhile, a black South African. Both of them experienced the effects of apartheid firsthand.

Dustin: What is your earliest memory of apartheid?

Sakhile: As a small boy, I lived with my mother, father, five brothers, one sister, uncle, aunt, and three cousins in a two-room shack: fourteen of us in a "house" constructed of wood, cardboard, and metal. Every day I would walk with my mother to the white house she served. I was amazed at the size of the house and all the nice things. My mother would work, and I would play inside the walls with my white "friend," Tiann.

Dustin: You were allowed to play with a white boy?

Sakhile: Only in the walls of that home, where no one else could see. Once I left, I could not even look into the eyes of anyone white.

Dustin: How did this make you feel?

Sakhile: As a child, it was what I knew; I didn't question it. As I grew and saw all the differences, I was confused and angry.

Dustin: What were some of the differences?

Sakhile: Whites lived in big houses, and drove cars. They were allowed in all shops and had a public swimming pool. Blacks lived in townships in cardboard shacks with metal roofs. We could not drive or ride the buses. We had to be in our townships by 10 p.m. every night. We were spit on, beaten, and called names.

Dustin: Did you fight back?

Sakhile: Not at first, I was afraid to die. But after Soweto, I would rather have died physically because I was not living my life--I felt my spirit was already dead.

Dustin: What is Soweto?

Sakhile: Soweto was a black township. The Dutch government required that all black pupils learn and use the Afrikaans language (which was introduced by Dutch settlers) instead of their mother tongue. On June 13, 1976, police shot at a crowd of schoolchildren who were protesting the requirement. More than 20 were killed. This picture (below) was flashed around the world, arousing universal denunciation. After that, the United Nations Security Council demanded the end of apartheid. It was the beginning of many riots and much violence. The blacks began to fight back.

Dustin: Johan, listening to Sakhile, what are you thinking?

Johan: It makes me sad and disgusted at what my ancestors did. I have so many questions myself, the biggest being "why?"

Dustin: How did you feel about apartheid?

Johan: As a boy, it was like Sakhile said, you're a child, you accept it. But as I grew, I too became confused and eventually angry at the treatment. I hated when the blacks addressed me as "boss" or "master," but I did not know what I could do.

Dustin: How did you feel when apartheid ended?

Johan: That is a hard question. I did not like the way blacks were treated. I wanted to see a multiracial democracy. At the sane time, I was very much afraid, not knowing what the outcome would be. The rest of the world looked on the inauguration of the new government, expecting to see a civil war and more bloodshed, but to the shock and relief of many, we saw a peaceful beginning to this transition. We have a long way to go, but healing has begun.

Dustin: How do you feel, Sakhile?

Sakhile: Very much like Johan. Of course I was excited in 1994 at my first chance to vote! It is true, though, we have much work to do, but restoration has begun.

Dustin: After this interview, I feel very fortunate to live in the United States. A person doesn't realize true freedom until he or she has talked to someone who at one time had no freedom at all. The color of a person's skin should not determine the type of freedom he or she has.

Honorable Mention
Congratulations to these students for their outstanding effort

Sandra Cottrili
"Life in Germany
During World War II,"
Northside Middle
School.
Columbus, Ind.

Akira Franklin,
"Life in an Internment
Camp During World
War II," St. Raphael
School, Santa
Barbara, Calif.

Kent Kanenaka,
"Pearl Harbor,"
Honolulu, Hawaii

Jennifer Milanak
"Nine Years of
Hardship,"
Elizabeth, Pa.

Shea Pothering
"Korean War," St.
Ambrose School,
Schuylkill Haven, Pa.

Stephanie Spratt
"On the Run on
September 11,
2001," Elizabeth, Pa.

Tasha Tkach
"Rescuing
the Miners,"
Elizabeth, Pa.

Nikole Young
"Face to Face
With the Enemy,"
Eckert, Colo.