Press release submitted by St. Ambrose University

CATHOLIC PRIEST SEARCHING FOR GRAVES OF HOLOCAUST VICTIMS WILL LECTURE AT ST. AMBROSE UNIVERSITY

DAVENPORT, Iowa—In the early 1940s, mobile Nazi killing squads traveled across Ukraine in Eastern Europe executing an estimated 1.5 million Ukrainian Jews. This fact—and the locations of some of the estimated 2,000 mass graves—may well have remained undiscovered if not for the research of Roman Catholic priest and author Rev. Patrick Desbois. On Thursday, Aug. 27, at 7 p.m., Desbois will be at St. Ambrose University to discuss his work. The lecture, which is free and open to the public, will take place at the Rogalski Center, located at the corner of Ripley and Lombard Streets, one block west of Harrison Street. A book signing will follow and donations in support of Desbois" work will be accepted.

Desbois" book, "The Holocaust by Bullets: A Priest"s Journey to Uncover the Truth behind the Murder of 1.5 Million Jews," tells the story of his investigative team"s efforts to chronicle this chapter of the Holocaust using forensic evidence, eyewitness accounts and new archival material. "Father Patrick Desbois has performed a special act of loving kindness not for one person but for hundreds of thousands who were murdered in cold blood," says Dr. Deborah Lipstadt, director of the Rabbi Donald A. Tam Institute for Jewish Studies at Emory University, Atlanta, Ga. "He has done so despite the fact that many people would have preferred this story never to be uncovered and others doubted that it ever could be done."

The lecture is sponsored by St. Ambrose University, the Jewish Federation of the Quad Cities, the Riverboat Development Authority, Rauch Family Foundation II, and the Stanley and Bernice Harris Memorial Endowment Fund.

Desbois, a Roman Catholic Priest and advisor to the Vatican on Jewish relations, has devoted his life to confronting antisemitism and furthering Catholic-Jewish understanding. Desbois has been recognized by The Hebrew University, Jerusalem; the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC; and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, among others. His work has been covered by the Wall Street Journal, TIME Magazine, NBC Nightly News and the PBS show "Religion and Ethics NewsWeekly." Desbois has received a Medal of Valor from the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Los Angeles; the National Jewish Book Award; and honorary doctorates from The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, and Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, both in Israel.

For more information, go to www.sau.edu.