Author, liberator to speak about Holocaust
By Ken Powers Community Reporter

Author Susie Davidson PHOTO/SUBMITTED

Westborough - Susie Davidson, the author of several books about the Holocaust, and Chan Rogers, a World War II veteran who helped liberate survivors of the Dachau Concentration Camp, will visit Tatnuck Bookseller, Gift Gallery and Café Saturday Feb. 23 from 4 to 6 p.m. for a book signing, reading and talk about global genocide.

Davidson will read from her books "I Refuse to Die: Stories of Boston Area Holocaust Survivors and Soldiers Who Liberated the Concentration Camps of World War II" and "Jewish Life in Postwar Germany," as well as her poetry.

Rogers, a Purple Heart recipient, was a former platoon sergeant in the 157th Infantry Regiment of the 7th Army's 45th Infantry Division. He was among the first Allied soldiers to reach the Dachau Camp. He will speak about his experiences, still vivid and haunting, despite the passage of time.

"Chan and I have been doing these presentations for quite a few years," Davidson said. "His talk about the ordeal is very moving. He was there. His is a first-person perspective. I'm just writing about it all after the fact."

Davidson said there is a renewed interest in her book and Rogers's experiences each year beginning about now and continuing through May.

"There's always an upsurge around Yom Hashoah," Davidson said. "That is the Holocaust Memorial Day. In America all the Jewish institutions have a service of some kind marking the day, but in Israel, as you would expect, it's a very moving and somber day. At a predetermined time during the day, all the cars will pull over for a full minute or two and horns and sirens will sound for the entire time."

Davidson said Yom Hashoah is a specific day on the Hebrew calendar, but since the Hebrew calendar changes yearly, the day Yom Hashoah is observed in America is diff erent each year.

This year, she said, it will be May 1, with the beginning of the observance actually commencing at sundown April 30.