Friends of the National World War II Memorial

Monthly Virtual Education Conference Series

September 2021 – April 2022
10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. ET

Next Conference: Saturday, September 18

Learn more Learn more

Friends of the National World War II Memorial presents a Monthly Virtual Education Conference Series focused on teaching the lessons of yesterday to unite the generations of tomorrow.

Please join Friends of the National World War II Memorial monthly, from October to April, to learn more about the spirit of unity and shared purpose that defined the character of our country during World War II.

Friends’ new conference series will feature monthly one-day virtual conferences beginning on Saturday, September 18, 2021 and will continue on the third Saturday of each month after, through April, 2022, from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. ET.

Register today for free to join this unique digital experience brought to you by educators, World War II veterans, and published authors.

Companies like you trust us:

Saturday, April 17

The Asia-Pacific War and the Japanese-American experience.

10:00AM to 10:50AM (ET)

Click to Enter

Hürtgen: A Visual Journey

Mark Frederick

Mark Frederick is a filmmaker, educator, and reenactor who is currently producing a short film about his grandfather's service with the 4th Infantry Division during World War II. He graduated from Penn State with a bachelor's degree in Communications and a minor in History. He is also one of the founding members of the Furious Fourth World War II Living History Association. Frederick currently serves as the Director of Digital Outreach at the Railroaders Memorial Museum in Altoona, PA.

Inspired by the harrowing story of director Mark Frederick's grandfather, Hürtgen will be a short film chronicling isolation and survival during one of the costliest battles of World War II. To prepare for his film, Frederick conducted an in-depth expedition through the Hurtgen Forest in October 2019. Incorporating rich visuals, Frederick's presentation will blend past and present to convey the horror and heroics of the Hurtgen.

11:00AM to 11:50AM (ET)

Click to Enter

Where our Fathers Are: Memorial Day 2015

Gerry Morenski

Geraldine Conway Morenski, a WWII war orphan, has advocated for WWII war orphans for over twenty years. She is a retired adult educator and currently works part-time for the town of Merrimac, MA.

In 2015, Gerry gathered and led a group of WWII war orphans to the American WWII Cemetery and Memorial in Margraten, Holland to visit their fathers’ graves, and to celebrate 70 years of grave adoption with the wonderful people who care for their graves. All 8,301 graves and 1100 names on the Walls of the Missing are adopted by Dutch, Belgian and German families.

12:00PM to 1:15PM (ET)

Click to Enter

Telling the Stories of All 400,000+ US World War II Fallen

Don Milne

Don Milne is the founder and director of the non-profit initiative Stories Behind the Stars. A life long history buff, he wrote more than 1,200 stories of the US WWII fallen as a hobby before leaving his banking career to lead an international effort to recruit and train volunteers to write the stories of everyone of the 400,000+ US World War II fallen.
‍
Founded in 2020, the non-profit initiative Stories Behind the Stars now involves more than 1,000 people from all fifty states and more than a dozen other countries. The project's mission is to write the stories of all 400,000+ US World War II fallen and make these stories accessible using a smartphone app to scan their names from any gravestone or memorial anywhere in the world.

Companies like you trust us:

The Friends of the National World War II Memorial’s education programs are generously supported by the
‍Jack C. Taylor / Enterprise Rent-A-Car WWII Memorial Education Endowment and the U.S. Department of Defense.