Tagged: World War II

The Yom Hashoah Commemoration --- or Interfaith Holocaust Commemoration --- is an annual event sponsored by the Council for Holocaust Education, which is a committee of the Jewish Federation of Tulsa. Now being presented in its 16th year, this commemoration is likewise observed by numerous other Tulsa-area organizations, including the Circle Cinema and Tulsa City-County Library.

Our two guests on this edition of ST are Michael Wright and Steven Marzolf. Both are directing plays currently being presented in repertory by the TU Department of Theatre and Musical Theatre; Wright is directing Neil Simon's classic comedy/drama, "Biloxi Blues," which opens tonight, and Marzolf is directing John Murrell's "Waiting for the Parade," which opened last night. Both plays concern the Second World War, yet they differ in some interesting ways --- for example, Simon's play is essentially an all-male saga about coming of age amid the struggles of basic training in the U.S.

On this edition of ST, we speak by phone with Andrew Roberts, a longtime historian and biographer whose many books include "The Storm of War," which was named among the "100 Most Notable Books of 2011" by The New York Times. Roberts will give a free-to-the-public lecture on "Why Hitler Lost" at the University of Tulsa's Lorton Performance Center on Monday the 12th (the day after Veterans Day) at 7pm. This address is presented by Office of the Provost at TU, and copies of "The Storm of War" will be on sale before and after the event. (Mr.

On this edition of ST, we speak with Aili McConnon, a Canadian journalist, who (along with her brother, Andres) is the co-author of an exciting work of non-fiction called "Road to Valor: A True Story of WWII Italy, the Nazis, and the Cyclist Who Inspired a Nation." This book recounts the strange-but-true, against-the-odds story of Gino Bartali, a cyclist who not only won the Tour de France twice, but who also (to this day) holds the record for the longest time-span between victories.

We're listening back, on this edition of our program, to a conversation we had in late November of last year with the widely celebrated novelist, Alan Furst. At that time, Furst was just about to appear in Tulsa to receive the Tulsa Library Trust's 2011 Peggy Helmerich Award.

Tomorrow night (Thursday the 19th) at 7pm, Temple Israel in Tulsa (at 2004 East 22nd Place, near Utica Square) will host the 15th Annual Interfaith Holocaust Commemoration; this year's commemoration is entitled "Why Memory Matters: Israel's Yad Vashem." The featured speaker at this event will be Dr. Mordecai Paldiel, the former director of the Department of the Righteous at Yad Vashem, which is Israel’s Holocaust authority. Dr. Paldiel, who's also our guest today on ST, is a leading authority on rescue during the Holocaust.