UpDate - Vol. 12, No. 17, Page 11
January 21, 1993
PBS documentary on WWII black soldiers focus of talk

     The producer of a documentary on the role of black soldiers during
World War II and an Oscar-winning actor are among the speakers this month
at the University of Delaware as part of a film and lecture series on
"World War II: The Homefront."
     Upcoming speakers in the series are Bill Miles, producer of the
documentary Liberators that aired on PBS in November, on Wednesday, Jan.
27; Harold Russell, the disabled World War II veteran who won two Oscars
for his 1946 performance in The Best Years of Our Lives, on Tuesday, Feb.
2; and Willard Fletcher, professor emeritus of history at the University,
on Thursday, Jan. 28.
     All lectures are free and open to the public and will be held in the
Perkins Student Center.
     Miles, head of Miles Educational Film Productions Inc., will speak at
7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Jan. 27, in the Rodney Room.
     He will discuss the roles of African-American soldiers in the
liberation of Jews from Germany's concentration camps.
     Narrated by Denzel Washington and Louis Gossett Jr.,
Liberators-Fighting On Two Fronts In World War II, tells the story of
African-American units that spearheaded Patton's Third Army and helped
liberate the concentration camps of Buchenwald, Dachau and Lambach.
     It is also the story of the treatment of black Americans at the onset
of World War II. While millions of blacks flocked to recruitment centers,
some were discouraged from enlisting.
     In l941 the U.S. Armed Forces and defense industries, like other
institutions, practiced rigid racial segregation and discrimination.
     Those blacks who enlisted were assigned to one of only a few
segregated regiments, and most of them were regulated to noncombat duties
such as loading ships and serving in mess halls.
     Continued pressure from black leaders, however, did result in the
formation of "model" black combat battalions.
     In fighting both racial prejudice and the Nazis, these black soldiers
fought a war on two fronts.
     A reception will follow Miles' talk.
     Speaking at 3 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 28, in the Collins Room, Fletcher,
who grew up in Europe during World War II, will speak about his experiences
there.
     He will discuss the historic perspective of the German homefront to
the Holocaust. Fletcher teaches a course on the Holocaust at the University
and is involved with the establishment of the Holocaust Memorial.
     Russell, who was in the news recently when he sold one of his Oscars
to pay for his wife's eye operation, will speak at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, Feb.
2, in the Rodney Room.
     For more information, call the Student Center Programs Office at
831-1296.