Local journalist and author Susie Davidson will speak on her experiences interviewing and documenting the stories of local Holocaust survivors and WWII soldiers involved in liberating them, and how it has enriched her life.  World War II veteran Ellsworth "Al" Rosen will give a first-hand account of liberating the Dachau concentration camp, as well as a subcamp of Roma (Gypsy) inmates. The program will begin with a brief commemoration ceremony.

Susie Davidson, in addition to being a journalist and author, is an editor, poet and filmmaker who has contributed to many prestigious local and national news sources, including the Jewish Daily Forward, the Boston Sunday Globe, and HuffPost. Among her books is “I Refused to Die: Stories of Boston-Area Holocaust Survivors and Soldiers who Liberated the Concentration Camps of World War II” (2005). 

Al Rosen is a cofounder of the genocide awareness educational organization Facing History and Ourselves. "Words of hate too often turn into deeds of hate, and we must constantly be on the alert to recognize that new Holocausts can still happen, as we have seen with Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and other modern genocides," he has told an audience at the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Systems Center. Among high-level positions he has held in Jewish organizations in Greater Boston and beyond are Assistant Director of the Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston and New England Director of the American Friends of the Hebrew University.

All are welcome. Light refreshments will be served. A brief candle lighting ceremony remembering all who perished during the Holocaust will precede the presentation.