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World War II Discussion Group

Event Type: Adults
Age Group(s): Adults
Date: 3/2/2017
Start Time: 7:00 PM
End Time: 8:30 PM
Description:
 Beth Dawson, daughter of Captain Whitney A. Langlois of New Roads, La., will discuss her father’s participation in the Bataan Death March at 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 2 at the East Bank Regional Library, 4747 W. Napoleon, Metairie.

Dawson’s presentation occurs as part of the monthly meeting of the library’s World War II Discussion Group that meets on the first Tuesday of each month.

This event is free of charge and is open to the public. Registration is not required.

Captain Langlois was among the survivors of the forced 65-mile march of approximately 75,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war to prison camps. It occurred after the April 9, 1942 surrender of the Bataan Peninsula on the main Philippine island of Luzon. The marchers made the trek in intense heat and were subjected to harsh treatment by Japanese guards.

Of the estimated 22,000 Americans (soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines) captured by Japanese forces on the Bataan Peninsula, about 15,000 returned to the United States. By comparison, the Allied POWs held by the Nazis and other Axis powers during World War II suffered a death rate of about three percent.

The World War II Discussion Group, headed by local teacher and historian Brian Altobello, meets the first Thursday of every month to discuss the events of the 1930s and 1940s. Free and open to the public; registration is not required.
Library: East Bank Regional Library    Map
Location: Jefferson & Napoleon Rooms
Contact: Chris Smith
Contact Number: 504-889-8143
Presenter: Chris Smith