SRU hosting author Judy Batalion for Holocaust Remembrance Program, March 22

Slippery Rock University’s Holocaust Remembrance Program, March 22, will feature guest speaker Judy Batalion, author of the New York Times bestselling book, “The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos.”

March 1, 2023

SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. — Slippery Rock University will host its annual Holocaust Remembrance Program with a presentation by guest speaker Judy Batalion, 3:30 p.m. to 5:15 p.m., March 22, at the Miller Theater in the Performing Arts Center. Batalion, a New York Times bestselling author, will present a talk titled after her book, "The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler's Ghettos." The event is free and open to the public.

In addition to Batalion, there will be two other components to the program. There will be a formal announcement renaming SRU's Holocaust Remembrance Program in honor of Richard Martin, the late SRU political science professor who started the program at the University in the 1990s. There will also be a Holocaust-related musical performance with flutist Kathy Melago, professor of music, and pianist Glenn Utsch, an assistant professor of music. Melago and Utsch will perform a piece composed by Dick Kattenburg, a Dutch Jewish composer killed in the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz.

Batalion's book is considered one of the most important stories of World War II and has already been optioned by director Steven Spielberg for a major motion picture. Her book highlights the accomplishments of Jewish women who became resistance fighters, focusing on a cadre of women in Poland, some still in their teens, who helped transform Jewish youth groups into resistance cells to fight the Nazis.

SRU's Holocaust Remembrance Program is co-sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts; the President's Commission on Race and Ethnic Diversity; the Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging; the Political Science Department; Bailey Library; the Gender Studies Program; and the History Department.

For more information, contact Eric Tuten, assistant professor of history, at eric.tuten@sru.edu or 724.738.4913.

MEDIA CONTACT: Justin Zackal | 724.738.4854  | justin.zackal@sru.edu