June 11, 2012
Contact Rick Kyte at
608-796-3704 or rlkyte@viterbo.edu
BOOK SIGNING AND RECEPTION FOR SQUIRREL IS ALIVE: A TEENAGER IN THE BELGIAN RESISTANCE AND FRENCH
UNDERGROUND BY MARY ROSTAD AND SUSAN T. HESSEL AT VITERBO UNIVERSITY JUNE
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LA
CROSSE, Wis. – A reception and book signing for Squirrel is Alive: A Teenager in the Belgian Resistance and French
Underground by Mary Rostad with Susan T. Hessel will be held from 5–6 p.m.
Tuesday, June 19 in the Viterbo University Reinhart Center Board Room.
Squirrel is
Alive: A Teenager in the Belgian Resistance and French Underground is the incredible story of Mary Rostad’s early life
as told to local author Susan Hessel. Hessel will sign books at the event,
which will also be attended by members of Rostad’s family.
Rostad passed away in October 2011 at the age of 87.
She was 16 years old when the Nazis conquered her home city of Brussels in
1940. She joined the resistance movement, serving in Belgium and later France,
primarily as a courier of underground documents.
At the end of World War II, Rostad met U.S. Army
Staff Sergeant Allen Rostad. They married and moved to Houston, Minn., in 1946.
Professor Greg Wegner, author of Anti-Semitism
and Schooling Under the Third Reich, said that Rostad’s “civic courage
remains a model for teachers and students in Holocaust education.”
Hessel is a personal historian dedicated to
preserving life stories of individuals. A board member of the Association of
Personal Historians, she is especially honored to work with those who have
stood up in the face of repression and adversity.
Squirrel is
Alive: A Teenager in the Belgian Resistance and French Underground is the third book published by the D.B. Reinhart Institute
for Ethics in Leadership. It is available for purchase in the Viterbo
University Bookstore.
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