Title: Why The Altoona FBI Raid of 1942?
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Description: The Blair County Genealogical Society at 431 Scotch Valley Road, Hollidaysburg, Pa. will meet for their monthly meeting at 7:00 P.M. on January 15, 2009. The meeting is open to the public and is handicapped accessable.
The meeting and the program is free admission.
Our guest speaker will be Dennis P. McIlnay of Hollidaysburg a Professor at Saint Francis University where he received the Distinguished Professor Award, Outstanding Educator Award and the Distinguished Faculty Award. He is an author of four books about Central Pennsylvania. One of his four books is The Horseshoe Curve: winner of the 2008 Medal-Best Regional Non-Fiction Book in the Mid- Atlantic. This book has received other awards as well and great reviews from all readers.
Dennis will be speaking on the Horseshoe Curve Sabotage and Subversion in the Railroad City of Altoona. This would include the Nazi plot, conceived by Hitler himself, during WWII to destroy the Horseshoe Curve, the Mecca of American railroading near Altoona. The plot to destroy the Horseshoe Curve was one of the deadliest terrorist acts had the Nazis been able to destroy the Curve. The Federal Government’s Alien Enemy Control Unit would investigate people that were a descendant’s of the enemy during WWII. This unit was a part of the FBI that searched the homes of 225 residents of Altoona on July 1, 1942 because of the Italian and German heritage.
Dennis will tell us about the saboteurs who entered the United States and the plot to destroy the Curve. How did they enter, the location and the activities they done once they reached land. He will also tell you why they did not succeed in destroying the Curve. Those that were caught and was electrocuted for the crimes that they had done.
Buy one of Dennis’s books that he wrote, and he will sign it this evening.
This program will be great for all railroaders and the historians of Blair County. Teachers and students would be interested in this program for the unknown events of WWII in Blair County.
The library is open for the year of 2009 at their normal operating hours after being closed for the month of December. Check out our display table, which has books of the Altoona Area and our publications on the Railroad and the Artwork book, which has many pictures of the area.
Start Time: 19:00
Date: 2009-01-15
End Time: 21:00
