Waterford Library Looks Back To The Holocaust

Former U.S. Army officer Robert Boedecker was just 20 years old when he led a team of combat engineers to help liberate the infamous Dachau Concentration Camp. The horror he witnessed has stayed with him ever since. On Thursday, this Mystic resident will share his story and those same images in an illustrated lecture on the liberation of Dachau at Waterford Public Library at 6:30 p.m.

Boedecker was a young officer in charge of a group of combat engineers whose job was to support the infantry by removing obstacles, such as road blocks and mines. Boedecker earned a Silver Star and a Bronze Star for his service. His free lecture will cover the liberation of the concentration camp and the end of World War II. A question and answer period will follow his first-person account of this historic event.

Survivors Keep History Alive For Students

Waterford students have also been learning about the Holocaust from people who lived through it. During the past school year, students of Waterford High School teachers Brian Ash and Matt Cadorette participated in the "Encountering Survivors" program sponsored by the Rose and Sigmund Strochlitz Holocaust Resource Center of the Jewish Federation of Eastern Connecticut.

This year's participants interviewed Henny Simon, Rae Gawendo, Oleg Elperin, Romana Strochlitz Primus, Judith Hopfer Deglin, and Connie Sattler. You can find out what they learned from these firsthand accounts of one of the darkest chapters in modern history by viewing the students' final projects. These are currently on display at the East Lyme Community Center on Society Road in East Lyme.