CHESTERFIELD’S WWII HEROES:

A Holocaust Survivor, Nazi Camp Liberator,

and a P.O.W. in Germany

The Heritage Foundation of Chesterfield will host a public event

celebrating the lives of three local citizens, each with a unique first-hand experience of WWII.

The ceremony will be held at the Chesterfield Community Center at Chesterfield Mall,

followed by a book signing and open house at the Chesterfield History Museum.

Both are located on the upper level adjacent to Macy’s.

RESERVATIONS REQUIRED Click Here to Register                  OR BY LEAVING A PHONE MESSAGE: (484) 393-1734

Register early, seating is limited

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Immediately following the ceremony, the Museum will be open, and attendees may tour it at their leisure and watch a slideshow, Chesterfield’s WWII Heroes, shown on a continuous 10-minute loop.  Sharon Berry and Mark Leach will be available to sign books and answer questions.

Thank you to St. Louis County Library Foundation for their dedication to Holocaust Education and building a better humanity

Hitler greets the Protestant Archbishop of Nuremberg, Ludwig Müller, and Benedictine Abbott Albanus Schachleitner at the Reich Party Rally of 1934

Follow this link to watch the recorded program

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In this educational program, we will look at the Catholic Church’s response during WWII, as the Nazi party rose in power and waged war across Europe killing more than 15 million Jewish and non Jewish people (USHMM).  

Bryan Rigg, PhD is a WWII military historian and the author of five books – each one giving the reader an in-depth view on World War II from different and unique perspectives.  He holds a Ph.D. from Cambridge University and an undergraduate degree from Yale University.  Rigg served as a volunteer in the Israeli Army and an officer in the United States Marine Corps. He has served on the boards of the Iwo Jima American Association and the Dallas Holocaust Museum, and is currently serving on the American Jewish Committee Board in Dallas, Texas, where he currently runs his own financial advisory firm, Rigg Wealth Management, LLC.

Sharon Berry is a daughter of Ben Fainer, of blessed memory, a St. Louis Holocaust survivor from Będzin, Poland.  She is a co-founder of The Hannah Ida Urman Foundation that continues her father’s legacy of Holocaust education. Born in Toronto, Canada, her parents immigrated to the U.S. to St. Louis, where she grew up.  She relocated to Philadelphia with her husband and son in 1999.  Berry is writing her first book to be titled After the Silence -- it follows her father’s memoir Silent for Sixty Years, co-authored by Mark Leach.

In this educational program, we will reflect on the liberation of a Polish, Jewish young man, and the Jewish Sargent from Brooklyn who liberated him. 

These stories will be told through the eyes of their respective children who, through serendipity, found one another decades after their parents' encounter on that historic day in April 1945.

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Richard Friedman is a former lawyer and teacher. He lives with his wife in Lacey, Washington.

Sharon Berry is a daughter of Ben Fainer, of blessed memory, a St. Louis Holocaust survivor from Bedzin, Poland.  She is a co-founder of The Hannah Ida Urman Foundation that continues her father’s legacy of Holocaust education. Born in Toronto, Canada, her parents immigrated to the U.S. in 1957 to St. Louis, where she grew up. She relocated to Philadelphia with her husband and son in 1999.

Thank you to the St. Louis County Library Foundation for supporting Holocaust Education and building a better humanity