Randolph-Macon College will host Holocaust survivor Dr. Roger Loria on November 5, 2019 at 5 p.m. in the Lindgren Pavilion in Birdsong Hall (106 E. Patrick St.). Loria, professor emeritus at Virginia Commonwealth University, will share his story and his perspective as a Holocaust survivor. A reception will follow the talk. This event is free and open to the public. Map & Directions

Lauren Nossett, RMC visiting professor of German, organized the event. This fall she is teaching a course on literary and cinematic representations of the Holocaust, and she invited Loria to share his firsthand experiences with her students and with the larger community.

“In addition to considering the many forms of Holocaust remembrance and representation in class, we have discussed the moral obligation to be aware of human suffering and our responsibility to listen to survivors’ testimonies, so that we may carry their memories and continue their efforts to educate new generations about the past and support human rights in the future,” explains Nossett. “Dr. Loria’s testimony will provide our students and community an opportunity to learn, remember, and honor the victims and survivors of the Holocaust.”

This event is sponsored by the Committee on Assemblies and Special Events (CASE) and by the Department of Modern Languages.

Dr. Roger Loria
Loria is an internationally recognized expert in virology and immunology and an emeritus professor at VCU’s Medical College. He has many patents in immune therapies and travels widely to lecture on his scientific discoveries.

Though he was born in Antwerp to a large and loving family in 1940, the war left him and his mother sole survivors. In 1949, they immigrated to Israel with the Jewish Orphanage and began a new life there. In 1963, Loria came to the U.S. as a Rockefeller Foundation scholar. He came to learn and stayed to help, with an academic career spanning 52 years, thousands of medical and graduate students, and a vast number of contributions to the field of medicine and basic science. Though his life began in the Holocaust, his story is not defined by it.