Edited Transcript
Sister Christine Rausch Interview: July 18, 2019
Interviewer: Azen Jaffee, Hannah Crummé
Azen Jaffee: Okay it just started recording.
Sister Christine Rausch: Well in 1975 when it became apparent that we were losing the Vietnamese War to the Viet Cong. They were taking over, and in Saigon there was Father Crawford who had a group of orphan children. There was an orphanage, and he had children who were crippled from polio. One of the things he feared was that if the Viet Cong got in there they would get rid of the people that were useless to society, or which they would consider useless. They were afraid they would be killed off. So he knew a man in Mount Angel, Kernel Lambert, who he called him and asked him if it was possible that he could take care of a bunch of refugees. From this orphanage and some other orphanages around. So he called and Lambert had a farm outside of Mount Angel and he thought about it. Well, we will do something so he said,"Bring them." They were loading at that time a plane full of several groups of orphanage people. Sisters had the orphanages so they were getting the children on the plane and there was very little time. They knew Vietnam was on its way being taken over. In the meantime, there were other people that were coming on too, families. But they didn't have very much time to do this.
Hannah Crumme: Was this 1975?
CR: 1975, and the day before I think a planeload of babies, orphan babies, were ready to take off. Right after they took off they crashed, and everyone was killed. But this was one of the last possibilities. There were nine sisters, two different communities.
HC: What were the communities?
CR: I am not sure of the name of the one, but the other one was Good Shepherd Sisters. From that group one the sisters entered our community for a while. But anyway they brought the children that they were responsible for, and they were helping. One of the sisters argued with the pilot and he was afraid to take off because he was going against all the rules. She kept arguing with him and she even had some money that she had tucked away and she gave it to him and bribed him to go ahead with it.
HC: Who was he? Was he a military pilot or he was a local pilot?
CR: Probably a military man and probably American.
HC: American Military.
CR: But military. Anyway, she finally convinced him.
HC: Sorry to interrupt.
CR: You ask the questions.
HC: Are the Sisters American or are they Vietnamese?
CR: No they are all Vietnamese, and they speak Vietnamese. One of them, the one that entered our community spoke pretty good English. She served as a translator and a couple of them spoke some English.
AJ: Do you remember her name?
CR: Sister Teresa (name?) she was here for a while and then she left and got married. One young girl who had no time to go back she said, "I want to go back and tell my mother she decided she wanted to go along." She was probably about eighteen or so. They said, "No you have no time to go back and tell your mother." So she came without telling her mother and said goodbye, it was just spur of the moment. She ended up entering our community, but also didn't stay. We see both of them every once in a while.
[00:05:29]
HC: That is nice.
CR: So anyway they loaded the plane and got these different groups going, of getting and filling it up. I think it was loaded with more people than they should have put on a plane, when they landed first in the Philippines, and some of the people got out and stayed there. But about 162 or three the numbers kind of vary with whoever is telling it. People continued on and they came to the United States. In the meantime what was going on in Mount Angel after Lambert got the message. Well he first of all called the city, and asked if there was anything they could do to help take care of these refugees, crippled orphans. We didn't know if they were older or younger or what. We didn't know much about them, and the city said well you can use the Oktoberfest building. Have you ever been to the Oktoberfest?
HC: I haven't although I have attended to come twice, but I haven't ever come.
CR: Well it is a wonderful festival, and you would enjoy it.
AJ: This is my first time in Mount Angel.
CR: There is a lot to do here. A lot of entertainment, and it is not just beer drinking. There is a little of that but that is not what it is all about. It is about having fun with a lot of people and booths, and just all kinds of fun. Anyway, it was empty and it wasn't being used so they said, "You can use the Oktoberfest building.” So they started, and then at one point he called the monastery and said, "Can you help with doing something about these people?" Sister Antonietta tells that quite nicely. She was the (unintelligible 7.58) and he called her she said, "Yes we will do it." Her second menstruation person was a very good organizer Sister Adelle. She got busy and she got right down doing what she loved to do which was organized, and do things big. She really got in there. Pretty soon the whole city was mobilized, everyone was busy finding things. Bedding, someone provided cots for them, somebody else brought in food, they had lots of rice, and clothing. All the needs that people would have. They were coming to our place leaving some of it here and then taking it down there. Starting to prepare a meal because we thought they were coming that same day. I was teaching in the first grade down at the parish. It was a parish school the first three grades belonged to the parish. So I was a sister and I was teaching my first-grade class. We got word that the school was going to be closing at twelve o'clock, we would close and the school busses would go off to pick up these Vietnamese. We knew that they were refugees, fleeing the country and that they were orphans. We thought maybe they were babies. Some of the children in the class said, "I am going to go home and ask if we can adopt an orphan baby [laughs]. The kids were all excited, and some of them wondered what they looked like. I said, "Well if you have been watching television, they will all have black hair and they won't look quite like us. They are fleeing their country." So they understood what we were all about. At noon then the children were dismissed, and the busses took off and they went to Portland. They got there and finally got word, I mean they didn't have cell phones in those days. They got word that the planeload landed in the Oakland area, around San Francisco. They were being processed, some sort of process there. They were going to stay overnight and then they would be here the next day. So the buses came home and it gave us a little bit more time to get things ready. By the next day then they got the kids to school. They took off and brought in the Children from Vietnam, and the people who were there with them taking care of them.
[00:11:10]
HC: Was it still this same group that had left on the plane?
CR: Yes, yes it was the same set of people and there were a lot of orphan children. There were children who were crippled with polio. Some of the children weren't exactly orphans but they had been in the orphanage being taken care of. Then there were families some of the sisters brought some members of their family. There were individuals here and there that came. So it was kind of a conglomeration of people, but mostly children and crippled children. Not all of the children were crippled. Like one family I met the man he came to visit a couple of years ago. Actually two of them. Two people who had been children at that time came to get in touch with where they had been. This one young man said his father was some sort of official and he knew the man that was some sort of official that had connections with the airport. So the two of them sent their sons and they said, "We will get over there and we will connect with you."But they wanted to get them out of the country. So the two boys didn't really know each other but they came. They were among the children who had a ride. This one fellow when they closed the shelter he had a foster home in Silverton until his father finally connected with him. But anyway they brought the children in, and a lot of them needed help. They had to be carried down the ramp. You will see pictures of that. Everybody in the surrounding area, they were donating money, food, and, all kinds of things. So they had the building and its a big open space. They had it fixed up, and there was a kitchen and they were preparing meals. So that when they arrived they had a place to stay. A lot of caring people, not like what is happening at our southern border. It was a very nice shelter and they were well taken care of and excepted. There was a fence around because they didn't want them leaving so that they could process them. To find out who they were and make connections with their families. So the children would come to the fence and sort of communicate with the children. They talked to each other in whatever way they could.This one boy, when he was a boy, he told about how he saw the cars and vehicles passing by, and there was a police car that went by. I mean he was just kind of describing what he had experienced with the children. So anyway they were here for a month and that is what they planned. In the meantime Sister Adele, her little crew, and with the help of Sister Teressa, they processed each child and found out who they were. They found out where they came from and whether they had any family. They were able to connect some of them with their own parents and families. But the sisters also had connections, and they knew quite a bit about them. So they were all processed and numbered. I have pictures of the children.
[00:15:43]
HC: Oh that is great.
CR: That I will show you. So at the end of the month, one group of sisters took the ones they were responsible for and they went to either California or Texas. The other group did the same they went either to...
HC: California or Texas?
CR: To one of the places. So they took the Orphan children, and some of the orphan children were adopted. There were about three or four who were adopted in the area. Some were taken as foster children. I mean people reached out and did what they could to help. If they didn't have family or couldn't find a family then they were taken care of by somebody.
HC: What were the sisters who were responsible for some of the children? Were those the sisters from Vietnam?
CR: They were from Vietnam.
HC: So they just stayed with their original set of children.
CR: They stayed with their original set of children. Many of them grew up as orphans, or wherever they were. A lot of them have done very well. I had some in my classroom when I taught, and they learned English so fast. The Vietnamese language was taken from the French and adapted. There was a priest that did missionary work in Vietnam, and he worked out an alphabet so they could have a Vietnamese language. So that was in the early, early days.
AJ: Was that a priest in Portland?
HC: When they left from here and went to California or Texas, did they go to other religious communities in California or Texas? Where did they go to in California or Texas?
CR: I really don't know where they went, but I know they were taken care of in some way. This young man became a doctor. The other one that visited from Maryland I think he came especially to visit, and he also was a doctor. So many of them really did very well. They were people who really loved to learn and were very industrious, and so they did very well.
HC: How was the town impacted by that? What was the effect on Mount Angel?
CR: Well it was a very positive effect really. Everybody remembers, oh yes when the Vietnamese were here and we did this and we did that. The children were all excited, they wanted to adopt some. So it was a very positive effect. Of course, the Vietnamese War was very difficult, and a lot of people opposed it. We did some awful things over there too. So it was sort of like we need to take care of them now.
HC: Two of the sisters stayed in the community here?
CR: No the two that entered did not stay, but they are in the area and they keep coming back. We keep seeing them.
HC: That is nice.
CR: They are doing well too. So any other questions until we...
AJ: Did any of the families or people who arrived here, do you know if any of them moved to Portland?
CR: I think they might have. Sisters Terresa's family kind of came later. But a lot of them escaped some of them by boat, some of them were the boat people. They connected with their families. So there was enough of a network so that people could find out where their families were. So there are some around.
[00:20:06]
AJ: Where is sister Teresa?
CR: Sister Teresa is in Salem and Anne Marie is in Salem.
HC: One of the parts of this project is interviewing people who came so...
CR: Interviewing the people who came. Okay and Sheryl Prince lives in I think Newburg, somewhere around there. She adopted two of the children, two little brothers. One of them ended up having an accident and died in a car accident. But there is still one left. I don't know if I could, I would have to do a little looking up information to find where they are. To be able for you to interview them.
{Rausch, Jaffe, and Crumme continue to talk about the project}
(00:24:49)
CR: (shows photos and papers to interviewers) I have these, these are the papers that I gave you. This is a man from one of the leaders of Mount Angel. This is Sister Antoinette. She was the prioress who went with them on the bus to pick up the children. This is where they are waiting to load the bus. These are the laypeople, the people who got on the bus to go to Portland to get the children. Here we have the plane, and people are waiting. They are bringing children off the plane. Here is a sister and some of the children they had to carry. Another sister, they were wearing habits and all of that at that time. More unlading of the plane. This I think that was one of those men that visited me.
HC: Oh that is great.
CR: Here is a picture of more unloading of the people.
HC: What made them think to contact Kernal Lambert?
CR: Well they wanted to get them out of the country and into the United States. So this is Kernel Lambert and this is one of the sisters. One of the Vietnamese sisters. This again her. I think she was the one who finagled the pilot to keep doing it. Kernel Lambert, somewhere I had a picture of Father Crawford too. Tien Doug, he was one of the men who visited me. I put little tags so I could remember. But you see that the children were crippled some had crouches. They were you know, needed help. Here are some more pictures, here get closer.
HC: I'll put these over here.
CR: Yeah push those aside.
HC: These are very good photos.
AJ: Yeah they are treasures.
CR: They are.
HC: My parent's photos from the 70s are not that great.
CR: This shows them in the Oktoberfest building. Here is a mother with her child. There were some parents with children.
HC: What month was it when they arrived? Do you remember?
CR: Let me see it was April.
HC: It looks like April.
AJ: That makes sense. The fall of Saigon was at the end of April so.
CR: Yes it was the end of April. It was something like the twenty-third or something. That evening the nine sisters came to our monastery and the big building we have was still here. I remember they stayed with us, and I remembered we all went to the TV room and we were sitting around the tv room. We were watching President Ford came on the station, and they showed pictures of Vietnamese. You know things that were going on and the sisters were like oh yeah that is. I couldn't understand what they were saying but they recognized things. Then-President Ford said, "Vietnam has fallen." That was his announcement.
AJ: So they were here before that before Saigon was captured.
CR: Well they left about two days before.Because they spent one night in California. This was the same night that they arrived.
HC: Wow
AJ: Okay
CR: Yes. Yeah one of the families in Mount Angel adopted one of the crippled children. They had plenty of food for them. Plenty of people helping.
HC: So these women are they mothers or sisters?
CR: I think they were mothers, parents. This is one of the sisters and the little children. That fenced-in area served as a playground for the children so they could get outside.
[00:30:07]
HC: When did you put this together? When did you create this binder?
CR: Well I started working in Archives in the 2000s. Somewhere in the course of that time, I found the pictures. I think it was in another album, but it wasn't too well put together so I worked on it.
HC: It is great to have the captions, to know who is in the pictures.
CR: Oh Ann Marie I think is this one.
HC: That mother.
CR: She wasn't a mother she was...
HC: Oh she was a sister.
AJ: She was just a person.
CR: She was the one who came, but she was out there helping with the children. They even had a little school for them. They were trying to teach them some English. This is Sister Adele.
HC: She does look like she can get some stuff done.
CR: She was a teacher, and boy she did. She really was a go-getter. Then here is a picture of some of the children. The older boys, I mean they were all ages. Not all of them were crippled.
HC: How was the transition for them? Were they okay here?
CR: The two that I talked to said it was fine. It was just an adventure, and they were taken care of, and it was fine with them. The one from California said,"There was one man anytime, anyone would mention this one event he just kind of went to pieces. So apparently for him, it was very traumatic. So I am sure for some it was traumatic. But for others especially the orphans they were better off being taken care of here then were they where. One woman had about twenty children that she considered orphans. They had a little trouble with her. She was rather feisty and demanding. They said that not all the children were really orphans either. But she went to Salem with them and I don't know how she managed, but she did.
HC: She was a Vietnamese woman?
CR: Vietnamese woman. More pictures, these are the girls.
HC: One of the organizations we have been trying hard to get in touch with is Our Lady of LaVang church in Portland. We have had a very hard time making contact with them.
CR: Yes and good many of these were catholic, I think most of them. Some may have been Buddhist or whatever. But I think the large number was Catholic. Because there had been priests and sisters evangelizing. There was a priest, a Vietnamese priest. Now he didn't come with the group, but he was in the area, and he served the people in different ways. I think that is father James, Sister Adele, and Sister Teressa her right hand helper.
HC: Did any of them get connected to Our Lady of Lavang? Do you know?
CR: They might have.
(Crumme and Rausch talk about connecting with churches in Portland)
CR: They came to our monastery and helped peel potatoes or something for their foods. We had them coming every once in a while. They did a lovely program over in the Oktoberfest building. The children with their candles, and their little dance it was just lovely. This is our sister [unclear name 34.45] in the kitchen baking something for them. Sister [unclear name 34.52] visiting with them. Sister Eileen loved babies and she held babies. Sister Perpetual loved being there with the children. They did different entertainment things and had projects for them.
[00:35:17]
HC: Looks like it was a very nice spring.
CR: It was I mean they took good care of them. This is father Crawford, the one that came with them from Vietnam, and four of the sisters. This is one order then I think there were five in the other order
HC: Was he associated with Oregon before he came here?
CR: Not except through Kernel Lambert.
HC: How long had he been in Vietnam before extracting people?
CR: Lambert?
HC: Hmm oh no sorry I meant Crawford actually.
CR: Crawford I don't know he was a missionary and I don't know how long he was there. I don't know a lot of information about some of the things. There is a picture again of father Crawford. But he was the organizer in Vietnam.
AJ: I am so glad people thought to take photos.
CR: What?
AJ: I said I am so glad people thought to take photos. These are great.
CR: Yes Yes, fortunately, it was a time when photos were being taken. I'll get out some more pictures. This is Sister Antoinette talking to Kernel Lambert. The children in the Oktoberfest Building.
AJ: How do you know her name?
CR: Well I think there was something on the photo that told me who it was.
HC: So Truong T must have been a family that came.
CR: Yes, I think mother and children.
HC: It looks like they had a good community here.
CR: They really did they did, and they were well taken care of.
AJ: Cute.
CR: You know if you can get a community involved they can do wonders. The whole Mount Angel, Silverton, Woodburn, and all around us. Even across the country, people were sending donations to help. But we had a different feeling about the people who came from Vietnam, I mean our country. We had pretty much destroyed their country with our fighting. So we felt kind of responsible for them. We don't have the same feeling for the people that come from the south, I guess. But they are refugees too.
HC: Right.
CR: Every bit as much as these people were.
{Hannah Crumme talks about the project}
CR: Anyway they gave him a guitar, and he is crippled. He probably learned it in Vietnam, and he found out that he can play. Here is a couple, a girl that was playing.
HC: The children look happy here.
CR: They do yeah, and they are. Mother and child.
HC: That child looks like...
CR: She looks like the one that was adopted by somebody in Mount Angel, I am not sure if she is the one. But she surely looks like her.
[00:40:01]
HC: Little dogs. These look like my mother's dogs but they must be different.
CR: Yeah somebody probably brought the little dogs to cuddle. Here some of them are watching television.
HC: Is the same Oktoberfest Building still up?
CR: The same Oktoberfest, it still is. It is empty a good part of the time. They built a new one. But it is still basically in the same spot.
Hc: And it is just a big empty...
CR: It is called the Beer Garden during Oktoberfest. But they have made it into more of a family-oriented place. Originally I didn't want to go in there because it was mostly just beer drinking, but now it is more family-oriented.
HC: Well the librarians keep making it their goal to come down for it but we have yet to achieve it.
CR: Well maybe someday you can.
HC: Maybe someday.
CR: So this gives you an idea of the kind of people and the kind of setting they were in.
AJ: Yeah.
{Hannah Crumme talks about the project}
HC: Do Benedictine Sisters never have habits?
CR: At that time most of us had changed into regular clothes. But some of them retained the habit. In other countries, they often have a habit. We had a visiting sister from the Bahamas and she said that everybody wears a uniform in their country. If you are a cook you wear a cook uniform. Whatever you do taxi drivers, you know any kind of profession you have you wear a uniform when you are out. So it is very appropriate for them to wear a habit when they are out and away. In their convent, they don't necessarily wear it all the time. Well they went up to Mount Rainier, I mean Mount Hood. So they got to see snow for the first time.
HC: Oh wow that is exciting.
CR: Yeah they took them on outings, and had entertainment and different things for them to do. Now this is one of those who had come to visit me. I think that is him. I put little tags because I wanted to...
HC: Oh this is the candle dance.
CR: Oh this the dance yes. That was so beautiful.
HC: It was a Vietnamese dance?
CR: It is a Vietnamese dance, something they do. They have a candle in their hand and they go around and have different actions.
HC: That is lovely.
CR: Just lovely.
HC: I suppose most of them did not live in Oregon long term, because they went to California or Texas.
CR: Yes most of them are not in Oregon. A few who were adopted have stayed. I don't know what happened to Madams Kim's orphans. I think they would have been put into the schools, and eventually.
HC: She was the one that went to Salem with twenty children.
CR: She was the one in Salem yeah.
HC: Wow that's...
CR: Mount Hood adventure.
HC: That is lovely.
[00:44:59]
CR: This again is Father Crawford.
HC: My father lived in Salem in 1975 so he was right near here.
CR: Well yeah he would have been really close by. Well we have shown her the book.
HC: This book. Which shows the candle dance and also shows their journey, they went to Mount Hood to see snow for the first time. We will go backwards.
AJ: I can... I will probably be scanning.
HC: Azen will probably be the one who ultimately scans stuff. So he will see it. But why don't you show him...
CR: Oh well anyways they took them to Mount Hood, and let them see snow for the first time. This is Crawford, Father Crawford, and Sister Antoinette.
AJ: These are great.
CR: Let's see the candle dance, I should show you. I think that is one of the men that came to visit.
AJ: Fishing
CR: Yeah they did take them on outings. Eventually, you can decide what you want to take pictures of. Here is the candle dance that I was telling you about. A little program that the kids did for us. It was really neat.
AJ: That is awesome.
CR: I don't know if that child was crippled but enjoyed a little thing like that.
AJ: Was this one of your classes?
CR: They did some teaching hmmm. Oh this is in our old building, yeah that is. In the classroom of one of the old buildings. Let's see what was I going to... Yeah that was in the building that was here.
AJ: It is great.
CR: Yeah it was a very positive experience for all of us.
AJ: Thank you.
CR: We can start looking at that one.
AJ: Yeah seems like there is probably a lot.
CR: That one was in an old album and I fixed it up so it would be a little bit easier to handle. Because I figured it would get looked at every once in a while. But these are individual pictures of the children.
HC: You might have just said this but who is Doctor (unclear name 48.36)? Oh, oh I see yeah.
AJ: So where does he live now Dr.(unclear name 48.45)?
CR: Let's see, well I do have addresses for the two men who came. I will add those to it. The two men that visited they would probably be happy to talk to you over the phone or in whatever way you want.
AJ: So these are photos of everyone who arrived?
CR: What?
AJ: These are photos of all the people who...
CR: This is all the children, pictures of all the children. We will just go through quickly. But one of them took pictures, well they both did. They took pictures of all the children.
HC: This one had a bike.
CR: Yeah hmm.
HC: You had already lived here in Mount Angel for twenty-five years at that time?
CR: Yeah at least. I was a teacher.
HC: What brought you to Mount Angel initially as opposed to some other order?
[00:50:01]
CR: Well I had uncles who had gone to school up here and ants, who had gone to school here. So that was a drawing card. Then I had a cousin who became a Benedictine and was in Lacey, WA at Saint Martin's. Then my brother was entering Saint Martins at the same time. Actually three out five of us children left summer. My sister entered with me. Then another sister came later. So four out five of us are Benedictines. My brother became a priest, and then my cousin is up there. Then we had a cousin that came here too. So it is kind of a family affair. It was closer than some of the other possibilities. I had cousins in other communities farther east. But somehow I just resisted going east. This seemed to be the best place for us. It was, so let's see I do have somewhere where I marked pictures of the ones who visited.
AJ: That might have been on that first page.
CR: Yeah but I think I have some. I hope I kept track. Well did I lose them?
HC: She looks very happy.
CR: This is an older person. There are a couple of older ones. So that is basically what I have to show you. We do have some newspaper articles and other things. If you want more, but this gives you quite a bit.
HC: This is lovely. I think Azen will probably be the one who scans all of it.