This spring, Weber State University’s Stewart Library Special Collections and the Ogden Union Station will host a lecture series to explore how WWII impacted civilian lives, particularly in Northern Utah.
“The lecture series we’ve put together is significant because it touches on complex ethical issues that we’re still facing today,” said Holly Andrew, acting executive director of the Union Station Museums. “This is the first time that WSU has collected war stories on such a large scale and we are glad to be a part of the narrative and host discussions.
The first lecture will be held Jan. 31 at 1 p.m. in the Stewart Library Hetzel-Hoellein Room 321. Scott Porter, a Utah filmmaker, will present “Splinters of a Nation,” a documentary about 8,000 German prisoners of war who were captured overseas and sent to Utah.
For more than three years, German prisoners of war worked beside Utah civilians on factories and farms across the state. The relationships that developed between German POWs and the Utahns they met long outlived the conflict, and are the focus of the documentary.
“I remember they were just laughing and jumping up and down,” said Vaunda Russell, a Utahn who interacted with the German POWs, “and I thought, ‘Boy, they don’t look like monsters.’”
The lecture series is free and open to the public.
Feb. 14 – Jennifer Robin Terry, a doctoral candidate in the history department at U.C. Berkley, will present “Extraordinary Childhoods: Growing Up in a World at War” at 1 p.m. in the Stewart Library Hetzel-Hoellein Room 321.
Feb. 28 – Luis Alvarez, a history professor at U.C. San Diego, will present “The Power of the Zoot: Youth Culture and Resistance during World War II” at 1 p.m. in the Stewart Library Hetzel-Hoellein Room 321.
March 17 – Tim Gray, a national award-winning documentary film director, producer and writer, as well as founder of the World War II Foundation, will present “The Challenges of Chronicling the Personal Stories of the World War II Generation for a Global Television Audience” at 10 a.m. in the Union Station Browning Annex.
Gray’s lecture will also mark the beginning of WSU’s Stewart Library’s Special Collections exhibit “All Out for Uncle Sam: WWII in Northern Utah,” a free exhibit highlighting Utahns’ experiences of WWII on both the home and war fronts.
The exhibit, which will run from March 17 – June 2, will include photos, letters, diaries and artifacts from Utahns who lived through WWII and participated either in Utah war efforts or fighting on the war front.
March 28 – John Jensen, an audio historian and former San Francisco broadcaster, will present “Hollywood and the Home Front” at 1 p.m. in the Stewart Library Hetzel-Hoellein Room 321.
April 11 – Alice Yang Murray, a history professor at U.C. Santa Cruz, will present “Historical Memories of Japanese American Internment” at 1 p.m. in the Stewart Library Hetzel-Hoellein Room 321.
April 13 – Andrea Kaye Carter, a master’s graduate of Utah State University, will present “Bushnell General Military Hospital” at 7 p.m. in the Union Station Browning Theater.
April 20 – Lorrie Rands, Weber State University Special Collections manuscript processor, will present “Food, Comfort, and a Bit of Home: The Ogden Canteen” at 7 p.m. in the Union Station Browning Theater.
May 11 – Lily Yuriko Nakai Havey, a watercolor artist and writer whose family was forced into Japanese American internment camps during WWII, will present “Gasa Gasa Girl Goes to Camp” at 7 p.m. in the Union Station Browning Theater.
May 25 – Paul Hibblen will present “Ordnance and Opportunity: Migrating to Weber County in the 1930s and ’40s” at 7 p.m. in the Union Station Browning Theater.
