Holocaust Heroes: Three Asian Diplomats Saved Thousands of Lives

Wednesday | Nov. 2 | 2-3 p.m. | via Zoom

Meet SSA Member Liliane Willens, Ph.D.  Dr. Willens will discuss the saga of three Asian diplomats who saved countless lives during the Holocaust despite objections from their governments.

Liliane was born of Russian Jewish parentage in the former French Concession of Shanghai, China, where
she attended a French lycée. She and her family - all stateless - experienced World War II under the Japanese military occupation, later the Chinese Civil War between the nationalist government and the communists, the arrival of the victorious People’s Liberation Army and subsequent establishment of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). 

Because of difficulties to obtain an immigration visa to the United States under a very restrictive quota system, she lived two years under the PRC. After Liliane emigrated to the United States, she studied as an undergraduate at Boston University where she also received a Ph.D. in French language and literature. She taught these subjects at Boston College and at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Later moving to Washington, D.C., she worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Peace Corps.

Liliane speaks at various organizations and book clubs on old and new Shanghai and her book Stateless in Shanghai.

Please register at here; or e-mail [email protected]; or call 202-364-7602 at least one week in advance.
Wednesday | Nov. 2 | 2-3 p.m. | via Zoom