Saturday, February 27th at 1pm in the Winn Room
Immigrant Soldier: The Story of a Ritchie Boy is based on the true experiences of a refugee from Nazi Germany and combines a coming-of-age story with an immigrant tale and a World War II adventure.
Ms. Slattery became fascinated and inspired by her uncle’s World War II stories, and began interviewing him in 1996. She then interviewed other men who attended Camp Ritchie and researched the details necessary to make the novel historically accurate.
The author will give an overview of Camp Ritchie and the Ritchie Boys, discuss their contributions to the WWII effort, and profile a few of the men she has interviewed or researched.
The Ritchie Boys were a US special military intelligence unit in World War II composed largely of German-speaking immigrants to the United States. They were predominantly Jews who had fled Nazi persecution. They were primarily utilized for interrogation of prisoners on the front lines and counter-intelligence in Europe because they knew the psychology and the language of the enemy better than anybody else. Based out of Camp Ritchie, Maryland, they were trained in intelligence and psychological warfare. Determined, bright, and inventive, they fought their own kind of war and saved lives.
For information call the library at 522-7390
