PHILADELPHIA, PA – Chestnut Hill College will host the lecture “Your Name is Renée: Ruth Kapp Hartz’s Story as a Hidden Child in Nazi-Occupied France.” on Tuesday, November 19, at 4:30 p.m. in the East Parlor, St. Joseph Hall. The lecture is sponsored by the Chestnut Hill College History and Women’s Studies programs, and the College’s chapter of Phi Alpha Theta, the National Honor Society for History.

Holocaust survivor Ruth Kapp Hartz will share her experiences during World War II as a young child hidden with her family in southern France. During this time she also hid in a Catholic convent to avoid being captured by the Gestapo and the Vichy French Police. Hartz and her parents survived this trying time, and were able to return to their home in Paris after the war. Hartz came to the United States in 1958 and has since become a dedicated speaker on the topic of the Holocaust and tolerance. Her childhood memoir “Your Name is Renée” was published by the Oxford University Press in 1999, and the French translation was released in 2005 by Beach Lloyd Publishers.

She is a member of the Pennsylvania Holocaust Education Council, the American Association of Teachers of French (AATF) and the Alliance Francaise. Hartz taught French for more than 30 years in Pennsylvania at Bryn Mawr College, Arcadia University and the Springside School in Philadelphia, Pa., where a library section dedicated to Holocaust studies is named in her honor. More information on Hartz can be found at www.yournameisrenee.com

The lecture is free and open to the public. For more information, please contact Dr. Lorraine Coons, chair of the history and political science department at 215.248.7184 or emaillcoons@chc.edu.