The Osher special program entitled, “Needle in the Bone: How a Holocaust Survivor and Polish Resistance Fighter Beat the Odds,” begins at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 1, in the Communtiy Room. 

The class tells the story of Lou Frydman, a nine-year-old Jewish boy during the Nazis’ invasion of Poland. When the Warsaw Ghetto was liquidated, he and his brother were sent to six concentration camps and on three death marches, miraculously surviving until they were liberated in 1945. Jarek Piekalkiewicz joined the Polish Resistance Army at the age of 16 only to discover much of his family were already involved. He was captured by the Germans and sent to a POW camp and on the notorious Sagan POW march. Both young men lost their homeland, much of their family and their world, but after the war found the strength and vision to create a new life and family in America and a lasting friendship with each other after meeting at KU. Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg tells their story as a way to explore the Holocaust and the Polish Resistance, and what it means, after losing everything, to begin again.

There is a $10 fee to attend the class. To register, call the Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes at (785) 864-5823.