Description

Class Summary

Aid groups often use pictures of children when they seek support to respond to the ravages of armed conflict, natural disaster, immigration crises, or epidemics. These presentations will focus on a small village in southern France, where Jewish and Spanish refugee children were sheltered during and after WWII. We’ll learn about the fascinating and very different people who joined in efforts to care for the children. Included are profiles of two Mennonite Central Committee workers: Lois Gunden (later Clemens) and Elsie Bechtel.

About the Instructor

Nancy Heisey, Ph.D. studied at Messiah College for her undergraduate degree and during that time spent a year in France. That experience made France and the French language of lifelong importance to her academic and church-related work. She taught for 25 years at Eastern Mennonite University, and during that time she and her sister, M.J. Heisey, published a book based on the diaries of post-WWII MCC worker Elsie Bechtel. Nancy maintains contact with francophone friends in France and Africa.