Rosemarie Marienthal Molser: Pittsford resident talks to school and community groups about her experiences as a Jewish girl in Germany during the Nazi regime.
Darice Bailer: Pittsford native now lives in Old Greenwich, Conn., and writes children's books.
Publication: The memoir Comes a Little Light (DreamHouse Books, $14).
Synopsis: World War II love story about a young woman from an affluent Jewish family who must weather discrimination, violence and fear under the Nazis. Sent to safety in England after Kristallnacht, she must decide whether to make her way to her fiancé in the Belgian Congo or rejoin her parents and wait for a chance to emigrate.
Talk and book signing: 2 p.m. today at the Jewish Community Center, 1200 Edgewood Ave., Brighton. Admission is free. The event is part of Lane Dworkin Jewish Book Festival.
Background: "I ended up writing this memoir as a favor to my mother's friend, Rosemarie Molser," explains Bailer. "Her daughter had been helping her and tragically passed away. I loved the story about Rosemarie and found that others were moved as well, so I kept on writing." Bailer's mother, Jeanette Goldstein, lives in Pittsford. A brother, Julian Goldstein, lives in Brighton.
Research: Bailer interviewed Molser and her late husband, Herbert. Molser translated her letters into English for Bailer to read; many appear in the narrative and help tell the story.
Motivation: For Molser, it's the need to bear witness. "My immediate family was very fortunate," says Molser, whose sisters and parents also escaped Germany, "but I lost aunts and uncles. My husband's parents committed suicide rather than be deported. ... The survivors are dying out very fast. It will be secondhand after we are gone."
Bailer, too, bears witness in a way. "I love hearing people's stories," she says. "I guess that's the former journalist in me. I hear the most amazing stories, about people who have struggled and gone on to achieve great things, and I am in awe and want to share their stories with others."
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