*NO MONEY. NO ENGLISH* : US WELCOME

ONE of the things I'am grateful for this Thanksgiving weekend is the warm welcome that America extends to a man born 100 years ago in what is now Ukraine.

WIadyslaw Krzystofowicz was born into an Armenian family in a dangerous region : you might think of it as the Honduras of its day.
During World War II, some family members were murdered by the Nazis; afterward some survivors were killed by the Soviet ''liberators.''

WIadyslaw escaped by swimming across the Danube river from Romania to Yugoslavia, was almost executed, made his way to France - and began to dream of coming to America.

My father, for that's who he was, explored illegal options, including a fake marriage with a U.S. citizen, but in the end the  First Presbyterian Church in Portland, Ore sponsored him - even though he was Catholic, spoke no English and originated in a Communist country that was then our enemy.

There ere many reasons not to take him : The sponsors had to pay his transportation to America, cover his expenses and find him a job that didn't require English. They did all this with tremendous generosity; Im still trying to pay it forward.

So in 1952, my father was on the deck of the ship Marseille as it approached New York Harbor. A white-haired Bostonian woman tried to chat with him, but my did couldn't understand her.

The woman took out a piece of paper and wrote down the famous lines on the  Statue of Liberty in front of them : ''Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.........''

''Keep this as a souvenir, young man.'' she told him. Then she corrected herself : ''Young American''.

My father was moved that he should be welcomed as a ''young American'' before he had even set foot on American soil. He kept that piece in his wallet for years as a momento of the values of his new homeland.

There were difficulties, of course. No one could pronounce a first name bristling with consonants or a surname with thee Z's, so he shortened his name to Ladis Kristof.

He learned English, and Reed College and then the University of Chicago admitted him on scholarships.

Eventually, he became a university professor.

The World Students Society honors writer, author and researcher : Nicholas Kristof.