20th Annual Richard J. Yashek Memorial Lecture: 'Henri Matisse and the Occupation of France'

From Jewish Federation of Reading/Berks and Albright College

The Jewish Federation of Reading/Berks and Albright College present the 20th annual Richard J. Yashek Memorial Lecture on Wednesday, March 25, at 7 p.m., in Albright’s McMillan Center, South Lounge. Parking is available in the lot at the corner of 13th and Bern streets. The lecture is free and open to the public, including interested teens, college students, and adults.

This year’s speaker, Christopher C. Gorham, is a lawyer, educator, and acclaimed author whose books include Matisse at War and the Goodreads Choice Award finalist, The Confidante. His writing has appeared in The Washington Post, Literary Hub, Paper Brigade, and elsewhere. He is a frequent speaker at conferences, literary events, colleges, and book club gatherings. He lives in Boston and can be found at ChristopherCGorham.com and on social media @christophercgorham.

From Ann Pryor, Senior Communications Manager, Citadel Press/Kensington Books:

“Matisse at War: Art and Resistance in Nazi-Occupied France, is a vivid portrayal of the advancement of fascism and war into French life and culture during World War II through the lens of one of the country’s most celebrated post-impressionists and his family.

Drawing on intimate letters between Matisse and his family and friends, and benefitting from experts, archivists, and curators at fine art institutions in Europe and the U.S., Gorham has spotlighted a vital chapter of Matisse’s operatic life — a time of prodigious creation against a backdrop of the four-way war among the Germans, Italians, Allies, and the French Resistance. Matisse’s War is a unique, timely, and bittersweet biography that will be studied for decades to come.

In May 1940, as Parisians fled the advancing German Army, Henri Matisse was returning to the French capital. Sick, elderly, and stunned by the success of the blitzkrieg, the world-famous artist was compelled to safeguard forty years of artwork. From Paris, he returned to his adopted home, the ancient port of Nice on the Mediterranean, where he passed the terrible years of war and occupation. To leave France, he felt, would be a betrayal.

To examine the life of Matisse and his family during the Occupation of France is to explore the choice forced upon them and their fellow citizens: courage or survival, authoritarianism or democracy?”

Richard J. Yashek, for whom the lecture is named, was born in Lübeck, Germany, in 1929. In 1941, the Yashek family was deported to Latvia, and in March 1942, they were separated. Yashek stayed with his father while his younger brother went with his mother. He never saw his mother and brother again. In October 1944, his father was separated from him and was never seen again.

Yashek survived several concentration camps and eventually came to the U.S. with the help of members of his mother’s family. He worked for the family business, J.C. Ehrlich Co. Inc., in Pottsville, served in the U.S. Army from 1951 to 1953, and completed his high school GED while in the service. After his tour of duty, Yashek resumed working for J.C. Ehrlich as a technician and retired as company vice president in 1999. Upon his death in 2005, Yashek’s family donated a 221-folder assembly of documents, correspondence, birth certificates, deportation lists, and video interviews to the Edwin & Alma N. ’51 Lakin Holocaust Resource Center at Albright College.

About the Jewish Federation of Reading/Berks

The Jewish Federation of Reading/Berks is the planning, coordinating, and fundraising arm of the Jewish community. The Federation raises and allocates funds along with the Jewish Federations of North America and collective efforts in support of many vital local, national, and international Jewish organizations.

About Albright College

Founded in 1856, Albright College is Berks County’s oldest institute of higher learning. Located on a 118-acre suburban campus in Reading, PA, the College offers a rigorous liberal arts curriculum with an interdisciplinary focus. Albright is known for connecting fields of learning, a distinctive co-major program, and a flexible curriculum that allows students to create an individualized education.