May Meeting Features Richard Breitman

The next meeting of The World War II Book Club will feature a lecture by  Richard Breitman, noted author, historian, and currently Distinguished Professor in History at American University.

Mr. Breitman, co-author of FDR and the Jews, will discuss his highly acclaimed book on Tuesday May 20, 2014 at 7PM, as usual at the Millburn Library, 200 Glen Avenue.

President Roosevelt's response, or lack of response,  to the Nazis treatment of the Jews has been a subject of sharp debate, disagreement,  and criticism by historians, Jewish organizations, and commentators  commencing in the late 1930's during Hitler's rise to power, and the issue continues to generate immense interest. The most dramatic accusations against FDR, his unwillingness to admit to American soil the Jewish refugees aboard the SS St. Louis in 1939 and to order the bombing of gas chambers and crematoria at Auschwitz are carefully examined and evaluated. Was FDR's seeming reluctance to take the initiative and initiate measures to ameliorate the persecution of the Jews a pragmatic, political decision to placate domestic opposition, or a sound strategic military determination grounded on the belief that the rescue of the Jews, even if practical, was ultimately subordinate to the overriding priorities of total war and unconditional surrender of the enemy? Mr. Breitman carefully evaluates FDR's  difficult decisions and presents the case in a scholarly and evenhanded manner while presenting arguments on both sides of the issue.

Richard Breitman received his B.A. from Yale University and his Ph.D. from Harvard University. He is author or co-author of ten books and many articles in German history, U.S. history, and the Holocaust.  He is best known for The Architect of Genocide: Himmler and the Final Solution (Knopf 1991) and Official Secrets: What the Nazis Planned, What the British and Americans Knew (Hill and Wang, 1998).  He served as director of historical research for the Nazi War Criminal Records and Imperial Japanese Records Interagency Working Group, which helped to bring about declassification of more than eight million pages of U.S. government records under a 1998 law.  He is editor of the scholarly journal Holocaust and Genocide Studies.  FDR and the Jews, co-authored with Allan J. Lichtman, won a National Jewish Book Award in American Jewish Studies and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in History.

For additional information contact Dr. John J. McLaughlin, Director and Moderator of the Book Club. Dr. McLaughlin can be reached at tel: 973-467-3313 or e-mail NJWW2BookClub@aol.com

David L. Roll Video Now Available

A video of David L. Roll's presentation of  The Hopkins Touch, from the March 18, 2014 meeting is now available for viewing on YouTube.  Click here to view the video »

Mark Your Calendar - Future Programs

• May 20: Richard Breitman - FDR and The Jews
• June 23 (Monday): Susan Butler - My Dear Mr. Stalin
• September 16: Barbara Boyer - Unit 731
• October 21: Bruce Tucker - Operation Storm: The Secret Japanese Submarine

Dr. John McLaughlin Discusses China at WWII History Round Table

Dr. John McLaughlin was invited to participate in a panel discussion of China in World War II at the Dr. Harold C. Deutsch World War II History Round Table in Minneapolis on March 27. The other members of the panel were Wayne G. "Whitey" Johnson, author of Whitey - Farm Kid to Flying Tiger, and one of the last two survivors of the famous Flying Tigers of the China Burma India Theater; Curt Hort, a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust, and later prisoner of the Japanese in China; and Dr. John J. McLaughlin who spoke about General Wedemeyer in China.  Alan K. Lathrop, Professor Emeritus of the University of Minnesota moderated the panel discussion and lectured about China in World War II.

The Round Table has been in existence for about 20 years and is "committed to preserving the factual history of World War II." The latest panel discussion with Dr. McLaughlin was videotaped and will be available on You Tube shortly.  As soon as it is available, a link will be provided from this website.

America at War 1941-45 Next Meeting Topic

The next lecture will be Tuesday April 15, 2014 as usual, at 7 p.m. at the Millburn Library. Our lecturer will be Dr. James P. Kane, B.S. in Education, M.A., P.D., Ed.D. Dr. Kane is a former teacher, prep school headmaster, principal and, for twenty five years, a Superintendent of Schools. He presently is a professor of history at William Paterson University. He holds a bachelor's degree from Fordham University, a master's degree from Columbia University and a doctor of education from New York University. Dr. Kane is a graduate of the Officers Candidate School, United States Marine Corps, at Quantico, Virginia, and holds the rank of Captain, USMCR.

The subject of Dr. Kane's lecture will be America at War 1941-1945. He has given this lecture often to enthusiastic audiences and we are fortunate to have him lecture to our organization. The lecture will include unusual and rarely seen slides of Pearl Harbor, life on the Home Front, the war in the Pacific, the landings at Normandy, the the Battle of the Bulge, and the flag raising at Iwo Jima.

Mark Your Calendar - Future Programs

• May 20: Richard Breitman - FDR and The Jews
• September 16: Barbara Boyer - Unit 731
• October 21: Bruce Tucker - Operation Storm: The Secret Japanese Submarine

David Roll at Next Meeting

The next meeting of the NJ World War II Book Club will be on Tuesday March 18, 2014 at 7 PM, as usual at the Millburn Library 200 Glen Avenue Millburn, NJ.

Our speaker will be David L. Roll who will talk about his just released and highly acclaimed book The Hopkins Touch. In The Hopkins Touch, David Roll shows how Harry Hopkins, an Iowa-born social worker who had been an integral part of the New Deal's implementation, became the linchpin in FDR's, and America's relationships with Churchill and Stalin, and spoke with an authority second only to the president's.

 In 1940, gaunt, nearly spectral, and malnourished following an operation to remove part of his stomach, the newly widowed Hopkins accepted the president's invitation to move into the White House. Hopkins thereafter remained Roosevelt's closest advisor, speechwriter, sounding board, and friend nearly to the end.

 Between 1940 and 1945, with incomparable skill and indefatigable determination, Hopkins organized the Lend-Lease program and steered the president to prepare the public for war with Germany. He became FDR's problem-solver and fixer, helping to smooth over crises. Beloved by some, such as Churchill, who believed that Hopkins "always went to the root of the matter" and trusted by most, including the paranoid Stalin, there were nevertheless those who resented the influence of "the White House Rasputin."

 To be with us David is traveling from Washington, D.C. and will be introduced by Dr. Steven Lomazow, one of our members, who is a Trustee of the Board of the FDR Library and who arranged for this event.

February 18 Meeting Cancelled

Due to the weather, tonight's meeting is cancelled and will be rescheduled.

The next meeting of the NJ World War II Book Club will be on Tuesday, February 18, 2014 at 7 PM, as usual  at the Millburn Library.

Our speaker will be Barbara Boyer. Barbara is currently a teacher at South Plainfield High School. She is a summa cum laude graduate of Rider University. She holds a Master's Degree in Spanish Linguistics from Penn State and a second Masters Degree from Kean University.

Barbara has a keen interest in Asian history and in the summer of 2012 she traveled to China on a scholarship to study Chinese history. The focus was on China and Japan during World War II. Barbara will present a lecture on the little known but  profoundly disturbing  book by Peter Williams and David Wallace,  Unit 731 Japan's Secret Biological Warfare in World War II.

During World War II Japanese scientists, with full knowledge and approval of their superiors,   secretly carried on a series of cruel and painful  medical experiments on prisoners of war, such as  injecting them with deadly bacteria, subjecting them to oxygen deprivation, submersing them in freezing water,  operating on them without anesthesia and much more, all in an effort to determine the outside limits of human endurance.   Thousands died from these callous experiments, yet the persons responsible were never punished after the war. Barbara will tell of of the secret agreement made between those responsible for these inhuman acts of torture and the Allies, and the reasons for the suppression of this story of man's inhumanity to man, and its legacy.

This lecture was originally scheduled for June 13, 2013 but was cancelled due to a severe weather forcast.

           

Tonight's Meeting Cancelled

The scheduled meeting of the World War II Book Club this evening January 21, 2014 is cancelled due to the severe snow storm warning. Richard Osborne's lecture about the life and times of Prime Minister Winston Churchill will be rescheduled.