Jun_20_2005


	Monday, June 20, 2005, 7:00 p.m.

PROGRAM: “Rescued from the Reich”- Conspiracy and Morality Collide in WW II
Historian Bryan Mark Rigg has uncovered the true story of one of the most extraordinary rescue missions of World War II. When Hitler invaded Warsaw in the fall of 1939, hundreds of thousands of civilians, many of them Jewish, were trapped in the besieged city. The Rebbe Joseph Schneersohn, the leader of the ultra-orthodox Lubavitcher Jews, was among them. Working with officials in the United States government, a group of American Jews initiated what would ultimately become one of the strangest - and most miraculous - sagas of World War II. Amid the fog of war, a small group of dedicated German soldiers, lead by Ernest Bloch, a decorated career soldier and brilliant spy whose service to the German military earned him Aryan status, despite his Jewish father, located the Rebbe and protected him from suspicious Nazis as they fled the city together through occupied Poland and Nazi Germany to Latvia, Sweden…and on to America.

Rescued from the Reich: How One of Hitler’s Soldiers Saved the Lubavitcher Rebbe, is a heart-stopping account of the complexity of history, of human identity, and of morality. As we strive to understand and learn from the great disaster of the Holocaust, this book reminds us of the ambiguity and unpredictability of all human interactions, and of the importance of individual action in human history.

LOCATION: Jewish Community Library, 6505 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles

SPEAKER: Bryan Mark Rigg, Ph.D.

Bryan Mark Rigg teaches history at American Military University and Southern Methodist University. Raised as a Protestant in the Texas Bible Belt, Dr. Rigg was surprised to learn of his own Jewish ancestry while researching his family tree in Germany. This revelation, as well as a chance encounter with a Jewish veteran of the Wehrmacht at a Berlin screening of Europa Europa, motivated him to embark on a decade of research while a student first at Yale University and later at Cambridge University, resulting in his acclaimed first book, Hitler’s Jewish Soldiers: The Untold Story of Nazi Racial Laws and Men of Jewish Descent in the German Military, which won the prestigious Colby Award from the William E. Colby Military Writers’ Symposium. His work has been featured on programs including NBC Dateline and Fox News. Rigg served as a volunteer in the Israeli Army and as an officer in the U. S. Marine Corps, and he currently lives in Dallas, Texas.

This program is jointly sponsored by the Jewish Community Library, Peter M. Kahn Memorial.

PRE-REGISTRATION REQUIRED: Call (323) 761-8644 or e-mail
There is no fee for attendance and non-members are welcome. But, all participants must pre-register. Please provide your name and telephone number. If you are bringing guests, you can RSVP with your name and the number of guests accompanying you. You will not receive a return confirmation, but your name will be added to the list.

LOCATION: Board Room, Jewish Federation Building, 6505 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles. Free parking will be available in the Building’s garage (just west of the building entrance). Since parking is limited, attendees are encouraged to carpool. Street parking should be available if the garage is full.

For assistance and further information about this meeting, please contact:
Pamela Weisberger, 1st V.P. Programs, JGSLA
Pamela@jgsla.org