On Tuesday, January 14, from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m., the Easton branch of the Talbot County Free Library will offer a drop-in program exclusively for teens on the art of the cookie. Participants will learn how to paint, decorate, or otherwise embellish edible sugar cookies. Who knows, one of them might win the “People’s Choice Award!” All library programs are free and open to the public. Patrons do not need to pre-register for this program. For more information, call the library at 410-822-1626, or visit www.tcfl.org.
Contact: Chris Eareckson, telephone: 410-822-1626
Holocaust Survivor to Speak at Library
On Monday, January 6, at 6:30 p.m., in the Easton branch of the Talbot County Free Library, Martin Weiss, a survivor of the Auschwitz and Mauthausen concentration camps, will share his memories of the horrors and heroism of the Holocaust. Mr. Weiss is a docent at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The following information about his experiences during World War II is quoted from the museum’s website:
“Martin (Marty) Weiss was born on January 28, 1929 in Polana, Czechoslovakia to Jacob and Golda Weiss. Jacob was a subsistence farmer and a meat distributor, and Golda managed their orthodox Jewish household and raised their nine children. Czechoslovakia had become an independent democracy after World War I, and the Weiss family were proud citizens of the newly-formed nation.
“In 1939, Nazi Germany occupied Czechoslovakia and divided the country into sections of Nazi control and Hungarian control. Marty’s home town was put under Hungarian control, but was still subjected to many of Hitler’s Nuremberg Laws. Jews lost their equal rights as Czech citizens, and Jewish children were no longer allowed to attend public schools or universities. Thousands of Jewish men, including Marty’s two brothers, were conscripted into slave labor battalions and sent to the Russian front. Although most Jewish businesses were confiscated, Jacob Weiss managed to retain his business license and continued to earn money by illegally butchering their animals at night and selling the meat on the black market.
“Between 1940 and 1944, eyewitness accounts of mass killings in Poland and Ukraine made their way to Polana. In April 1944, hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews, including the Weisses, were arrested and deported to the Munkacs Ghetto. They were forced to perform slave labor in a brick factory moving bricks by hand from one side of the factory to the other. Over a two-month period beginning in May 1944, nearly 440,000 Jews were deported from Hungary to Auschwitz-Birkenau, including Marty and his family. Marty, his brother Moshe, his sister Cilia, their father Jacob, and two uncles were selected for slave labor. The rest of their family was killed upon arrival.
“After a brief stay at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Marty and his father, Jacob, were transported to Melk, a subcamp of the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria. In Melk, the prisoners were forced to carve tunnels into the sides of mountains; Marty’s father died from exhaustion and starvation. As the Allies advanced into Germany in the spring of 1945, Marty and other inmates went on a forced march to Gunskirchen, another sub-camp of Mauthausen, from where he was liberated by the United States Army on May 5th, 1945.”
All library programs are free and open to the public. Patrons do not need to pre-register for this program. For more information, call the library at 410-822-1626, or visit www.tcfl.org.
Contact: Bill Peak, telephone: 410-822-1626.
Author to Discuss JFK Book at Library
On Thursday, January 9, at 6:00 p.m., in the Easton branch of the Talbot County Free Library, Congressional reporter and author John T. Shaw will explain how John F. Kennedy used the Senate as a policy and political training ground to help him become only the second person in history to go directly from the Senate to the White House. Shaw is a congressional reporter with Market News International and a contributing writer for “The Washington Diplomat” magazine. He lives in Washington, D.C., and on Tilghman Island. Shaw will sign copies of his new book “JFK in the Senate: Pathway to the Presidency” at the conclusion of his presentation. All library programs are free and open to the public. Patrons do not need to pre-register for this program. For more information, call the library at 410-822-1626, or visit www.tcfl.org.
Contact: Sabine Simonson, telephone: 410-822-1626.
St. Michaels Library to Offer Color Foundation Program for Artists
On successive Wednesdays, January 8 – February 19, from 10:30 a.m. to noon, the St. Michaels branch of the Talbot County Free Library will offer “Color Foundation for the Painter: A Video Course on Color with Stephen Quiller.” Artists are invited to bring their own materials and follow along or just watch the presentation. All library programs are free and open to the public but patrons are asked to pre-register for this program. For more information, call the library at 410-745-5877, or visit www.tcfl.org.
Contact: Shauna Beulah, telephone: 410-745-5877
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