
Géraldine Schwarz’s riveting account of her German and French grandparents’ lives during World War II is an urgent warning against forgetting the lessons of history in the dangerous rise of far-right nationalism in Europe, the UK, and the U.S. In her book, Those Who Forget: My Family’s Story in Nazi Europe, Schwarz weaves together the threads of three generations of her family story with Europe’s process of post-war reckoning with fascism. She explores how millions were ensnared by ideology; overcome by a fog of denial after the war; and, in Germany, eventually managed to transform collective guilt into democratic responsibility.
Schwarz will explore the lives of citizens in moments of crisis – political, social, and cultural – to underline the dangerousness of mitläufer (those who followed the current) with Nicholas Kulish, correspondent for The New York Times. She will sign copies of Those Who Forget, which will be available for purchase at the event.
Doors open at 6:00 p.m.