Beacon College’s next Salon Speaker Series will feature author Barbara Bergren at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Venetian Center, located at 1 Dozier Circle, Leesburg.
Bergren, who is also a lecturer and Holocaust educator, will be discussing her book, “A Witness for My Father.” The presentation will chronicle the story of her father, Martin Weigen, before, during and after WWII, highlighting the reunion between him and the former lieutenant John Withers who was in charge of a segregated African American army unit during the war.
Through acts of kindness, Weigen finds his way to recovery after his liberation from the Dachau concentration camp. A true story of the worst and best of humanity where two men are touched by discrimination and the horror of war and experience resilience, hope and inspiration.
In its seventh year, the Beacon Salon Speaker Series at Beacon College is the school’s flagship community education outreach program. The Speaker Series brings in speakers, educators, authors and entertainers from Florida and around the country to educate, edify and entertain by exploring Florida history, waxing poetic, delving into popular culture and clenching the political third rail.
Channeling its ethos from the Parisian salons of the Enlightenment, the Speaker Series honors the college’s sacrosanct duty as an institution of higher learning to uplift the community in which it operates, spark engagement and sow seeds of conversation and discovery.
