MORE.
Thursday, June 1, 2006
Holocaust focus of book on FDR
Author to visit Hyde Park

“Roosevelt and the Holocaust,” by Robert L. Beir is personal memoir and a scholar’s quest for the truth.

In the book, Beir addresses the question: Why didn’t Roosevelt do more to help the Jews of Europe?

The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park will host Beir for a talk and signing Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Henry A. Wallace Visitor and Education Center, Route 9, Hyde Park.

Beir was born in New York City in 1918, the year World War I ended. His parents were both born and raised in the U.S., but continued to retain pride in their German Jewish heritage.

Beir encountered anti-Semitism for the first time at private school when he was 14 years old.

It left a deep impression, and was the beginning of the anti-Semitism that would haunt him throughout his education at Taft Prep School, Brown University and Harvard Business School.