(COLUMBIA, Tenn. - April 18, 2018) - - - Dr. Anna Duch, Columbia State Community College assistant professor of history, will present "Concentration Camps: Survival and Liberation" April 24 at 4:30 p.m. in the Ledbetter Auditorium.

Duch will discuss concentration camps and their impact on her maternal grandfather, an American liberator, and her paternal grandparents, Ukrainian forced laborers and refugees.

"One thing I should mention is that I'm discovering much of this for the first time," Duch said. "My grandparents have been gone for many years now and they didn't like to talk about what happened. It's only now that I'm putting together the picture with random pieces of information that was given to my parents - things like food they were given or what the countryside looked like at the time. It is like repairing a broken stained-glass window - very common after the war in Europe. Difficult, but not impossible."

The lecture addresses common misconceptions about concentration camps as used by Nazi Germany and asserts the importance of ongoing research at the professional and family history levels.

"Alongside the discussion of concentrations camps, we will be discussing how families can find their relatives in historical records as well as the limits on gathering such information," Duch said.

The event is free and open to the public. The Ledbetter Auditorium is located in the Frank G. Clement Building on the Columbia Campus at 1665 Hampshire Pike.

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