CZECH HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS AND FORMER AUSTRALIAN PM HOWARD TO COMMEMORATE 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF INFAMOUS MUNICH AGREEMENT AT THE WIESENTHAL CENTER

Czech survivors of the Nazi era and former Australian Prime Minister John Howard (pictured) will join Consuls General of the Czech Republic, Germany and France to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the 1938 Munich Agreement, the infamous appeasement pact that paved the way to World War II, on Friday, September 26, 2008 at 11:00 AM. at the Museum of Tolerance, 9786 W. Pico Blvd. (corner Pico and Roxbury). The event is being held in conjunction with the American Freedom Alliance (AFA).

Background-- "Peace for our time"-- The Munich Agreement, signed on September 30, 1938, was the pact between British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and Adolf Hitler to prevent war in Europe by forcing democratic Czechoslovakia to cede its Sudetenland region to Nazi Germany. Upon return to London, Chamberlain famously told the world, "My good friends, for the second time in our history, a British Prime Minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time..." A year later, Germany broke the Agreement and invaded Poland, thus starting World War II.

At the Friday event, PM Howard will speak on contemporary lessons to be learned from the Munich Agreement. Also attending the event will be: Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Wiesenthal Center; and Avi Davis, Senior Fellow at the AFA.

PM Howard is in Los Angeles to receive the AFA’s Winston S. Churchill Medal of Freedom on Sunday, September 28, 2008 at 12:30 pm at the Intercontinental Hotel in Century City.

For more information, please contact the Center's Public Relations Department, 310-553-9036 or Avi Davis at the AFA, 310-444-3085.