Reception: 4:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. | Event: 5:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.
This event is free and open to the public. Register today to join us in person or to view the event online.

Join us in conversation with Debórah Dwork, author of Saints and Liars: The Story of Americans Who Saved Refugees from the Nazis, which illuminates the stories of American relief and rescue workers during World War II. Drawing on a trove of archival documents, from letters to diaries and memos, Dwork offers a rare glimpse into the lives of individuals who―either with their organizations’ backing or against their directives―sought to help people find safe haven from persecution.

A reception from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. will precede the event, and Dwork will sign copies of her book following the presentation. Preorder your copy of Saints and Liars from the Museum Store.

Following the event, head to Kilroy's Bar & Lounge in The Higgins Hotel & Conference Center to continue the conversation with a Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War and Democracy Historian. Enjoy happy hour prices on food and drinks from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. while discussing Dwork's presentation.

For additional information, please email Connie Gentry, Conference and Programs Manager, at connie.gentry@nationalww2museum.org.

Support from Baptist Community Ministries provides an educational endowment for the Museum’s presentation of the role of faith in World War II, including the Faith in Wartime Lecture Series.

About Saints and Liars: The Story of Americans Who Saved Refugees from the Nazis
Long before their country officially joined the war, American aid workers were active in rescue efforts across Europe. Among them were Martha and Waitstill Sharp, who were originally sent to Prague as part of a relief effort but turned immediately to helping Jews and dissidents after the 1939 invasion by Germany.

They were not the only ones. Renowned historian Debórah Dwork follows the story of rescue workers in five major cities as the refugee crisis expanded to Vilna, Shanghai, Marseille, and Lisbon. Followed by Nazi agents, spiriting people across borders, they learned secrecy. Others negotiated with government representatives, like Laura Margolis, who worked with the Japanese to get enough food and warm shelter for the refugees in Shanghai. Women aid workers also often faced lack of support from their agencies; if part of a couple, they fought to get paid at all, despite working as long and hard as their husbands.

Selected by Apple Books as a Winter’s Most Anticipated Book, Saints and Liars illuminates the unpredictable circumstances and often fast-changing historical events with which these aid workers contended, while revealing the moral questions they encountered and the devastating decisions they had to make.

About the Author
Debórah Dwork is the director of the Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity at the Graduate Center-CUNY. Internationally renowned for her scholarship on Holocaust history, she is also a leading authority on university education in this field. As the inaugural Rose Professor of Holocaust History and Founding Director of the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Clark University, she changed the academic landscape, envisioning and actualizing doctoral training in Holocaust history and genocide studies.