World War II Memory Panel

Wednesday, November 15th at 7pm

Performing Arts Center, East Entrance, Arts and Education Building, The J Creve Coeur 

Seeking Shelter by Cynthia Ehrenkrantz 

Cynthia Ehrenkrantz was six in 1939 when Britain entered World War II. She was 12 in 1945 when the war ended. Seeking Shelter is her vivid child'seye account of life in wartime England as she lived it: an adored only child in a large Jewish clan whose comfortable existence becomes one of food shortages, gas masks and air-raid sirens, and - worst of all - being sent away for months and years at a stretch to escape German bombs. Contending with bullies, rushing from a warm bed to a backyard shelter when sirens wail. Life is hard but also good: shining in a school play, collecting foil for the war effort, celebrating Passover: These are the mixed realities of wartime that mark young Cynthia forever in ways only adult Cynthia can understand.

Time's Echo by Jeremy Eichler -- CANCELLED

With a critic’s ear, a scholar’s erudition, and a novelist’s eye for detail, Eichler shows in Time’s Echo how four towering composers—Richard Strauss, Arnold Schoenberg, Dmitri Shostakovich, and Benjamin Britten—lived through the era of the Second World War and the Holocaust and later transformed their experiences into deeply moving, transcendent works of music, scores that echo lost time. Summoning the supporting testimony of writers, poets, philosophers, musicians, and everyday citizens, Eichler reveals how the essence of an entire epoch has been inscribed in these sounds and stories. Along the way, he visits key locations central to the music’s creation, from the ruins of Coventry Cathedral to the site of the Babi Yar ravine in Kyiv.

General Admission: $40