Veterans' Night - November 17

The next meeting is on Tuesday, November 17 at 7 p.m., “Veterans' Night.

1. Travis and Justin Conley who talk about their grandfather who survived the Bataan Death March, was transported to Japan in one of the "Hell Ships" and finally liberated in August 1945. He wrote an amazing journal which I and Steven Lomazow are co-authoring a book about the experience.
2. Maxine Giannini, author of the book Drawing D-Day will talk about her husband who served with the 116th Infantry Regiment of the 29th Division (same unit that was the subject of Paul Zigo's lecture last week). He penned many sketches of the unit in grim detail, which Maxine narrates in her book about her husband.
3. Alfred Deluca, a World War 2 Book Club member. His brother also served with the 116th Infantry. Alfred has pictures and letters he will share with us about his brother's service in this remarkable unit.
4. Dr. Richard Riva, also a Book Club member will tell us about his father's service in China during World War 2
5. Dr. Schonberg, the President of the Book Club will talk about his father's combat experience in North Africa, Sicily and Italy during the war.

Remembering Ursula Pawel

Ursula Pawel at the United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum

This past May, one of our most well received speakers, Ursula Pawel, passed away.  Ursula Pawel gave a lecture about her book My Child is Back at the New Jersey World War II Book Club on May 17, 2011.  

We are also fortunate to have an additional video taken by Nancy Webster from an August, 2012 visit with Dr. John McLaughlin and his wife, Mary Jean to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C.

Ms. Webster videotaped the entire trip and made special arrangements with the Holocaust Memorial Museum for an early morning tour of the exhibits with no other tourists in the building. More importantly, Ms. Webster made special arrangements for Ursula's personal diary, which had been donated to the Museum some ten to fifteen years previously, to be transported from a warehouse some 10 miles away so Ursula could see it again. Ursula was unaware of the special arrangements that Ms. Webster had made with the Museum and was completely overwhelmed to see this precious diary after the lapse of so many years. The video of Ursula examining the diary follows immediately after the video of the trip through the Museum:

• View the video »
• View The Diary »

Our next meeting scheduled for Wednesday

We are looking forward to hearing Paul Zigo speak about his book, The Longest Walk, the story of the 116th Regiment, this Wednesday, October 21 at 7 p.m. in the Millburn Library.

Our line-up of speakers for the winter and spring of 2016 promises to be an exciting one.  A full calendar will be posted on this blog soon.

Other events coming up:

November 2 (Monday)

2 p.m.

Millburn Public Library

Dr. John J. McLaughlin will host a book review of Dead Wake by Eric Larson 

December 7 (Monday)

The Holiday party will be held at the Mayfair Farms in West Orange.  (The day may live in infamy but the night should be fun!) Mark your calendars

November 17 (Tuesday)

The next meeting of the New Jersey World War II Book Club.  

Please pay your dues

If you have not yet done so, please pay your $35.00 dues to: WW2 Book Club of New Jersey and mail to Richard Schonberg, 15 Ballantine Road, Mendham, NJ 0945.