2016 Fall Program

We have great series of lectures lined up for this fall, including a bonus lecture on Monday, November 7, 2016, courtesy of Friends of the Millburn Library.

To pay for these programs, please remit your dues for the 2016-2017 season for $40.00 to: NJ WW2 Book Club. Please send the check to:

Richard Schonberg
225 Millburn Avenue, Ste. 205
Millburn, NJ 07041.

Any extra donations are appreciated. I look forward to sharing a great season with you.

The schedule for the NJ WW2Book Club meetings at the Millburn Public Library at 7 p.m. are on the following dates:

September 14: Paul Goldhersz on "From Lodz to Fairlawn: My Journey of Luck and Survival. Mr. Goldhersz is a holocaust survivor indwell walkabout his life as written in his book.

October 19: James P. Duffy is the author of eighteen books. Many of these books are on World War II subjects, including his most recent, War at the End of the World, Douglas MacArthur and the Forgotten Fight for New Guinea, 1942-1945. His previous World War II books include The Sinking of the Laconia and the U-Boat War, Disaster in the Mid-Atlantic; Target: America, Hitler’s Plan to Attack the United States; Hitler's Secret Pirate Fleet, The Deadliest Ships of World War II; Target Hitler: The Plots to Kill Adolf Hitler; Hitler Slept Late: And Other Blunders That Cost Him the War.

November 7 (Monday) Bonus Lecture: The Friends of the Millburn Library will be hosting a book/author event tentatively set for Monday evening, November 7 at the Library. The author is Michael J. Tougias and his latest book is So Close To Home; a true story of an American family’s survival after their freighter, the Heredia, is torpedoed by a German U-Boat about 50 miles off the coast of New Orleans. Mike has written many books, one of which is The Finest Hours, which was also made into a movie by Disney.

November 16: Karen Huntsberger on her book, Waiting for Peace, which tells the true story of Richard Berkey, a combat medic who served with the 68th Armored Infantry Battalion in France and Germany. His story is told through the voices of the people who lived through the momentous events of the war. The book brings together hundreds of original sources: Richard’s secret war journal, his letters to family and friends, and the letters sent to him by his parents, brothers and sisters. The letters of Richard's mother are especially powerful as they speak of home, love and encouragement and share news of three sons and a daughter serving their country. Other sources include letters from friends who were in the service, Army Morning Reports and Unit Histories. Extensive footnotes, period photos and maps provide background and context for readers.

December 14: The lecture by Dr. David S. Foglesong will coincide with the NJWW2 Book Club Holiday party at Mayfair Farms. Dr. Foglesong will speak on "Harry S. Truman and the Origins of the Cold War." The talk will detail President Truman's humility and quiet courage, which helped him make the tough decisions that defined his presidency. During his time in office, President Truman desegregated the military, led the U.S. into the Korean War, created the Marshall Plan to rebuild post- World War II Europe, and made the decision to drop the atom bomb on the Japanese.

January 11, 2017: Cathryn Prince other book Shot From the Sky: American POW's in Switzerland. Shot from the Sky uncovers one of the great, dark secrets of World War II: neutral Switzerland shot and forced down U.S. aircraft entering Swiss airspace and imprisoned the survivors in internment camps, detaining more than a thousand American flyers between 1943 and the war’s end. While conditions at the camps were adequate and humane for internees who obeyed their captors’ orders, the experience was far different for those who attempted to escape. They were held in special penitentiary camps in conditions as bad as those in some prisoner-of-war camps in Nazi Germany. Ironically, the Geneva Accords at the time did not apply to prisoners held in neutral countries, so better treatment could not be demanded. When the war ended in Europe, sixty-one Americans lay buried in a small village cemetery near Bern.

Richard Schonberg, President

Operation Anthropoid Now a Film!

Back in May, 2015 Pat Shuber lectured on the attempted assassination of Reinhold Heydrich.  The story is now a major film (see the teaser below).  Mr. Shuber's presentation was fascinating.  Hopefully the film will be equally so.