Dr. Taffet will be our guest speaker following the Shabbat
Service on Friday evening, February 9, 2006.
Seymour Taffet was born in New Jersey to parents who were Jewish immigrants
from the
Austro-Hungarian Empire in the 1880s. Dr. Taffet graduated from University of Michigan Medical School in December 1942 and went into active
military service in 1943.
For his heroic service in World War II as a frontline battalion surgeon he was awarded
the Silver Star for bravery in action, a "field honor" not usually given to non-combat officers.
Highlights of Dr. Taffet's war service include the invasion of Europe through Omaha Beach, the liberation of Paris, the defeat of the Germans at the infamous
"Bulge," General Montgomery's folly at Arnheim Neimagen, the surrender to Dr. Taffet by a famous German general, and finally,
the liberation of a satellite of the notorious Dachau concentration camp.
Since his retirement to Naples,
FL. Dr. Taffet has been an active docent for the Southwest
Florida Holocaust Museum. He has made presentations to numerous veterans' groups, civic organizations and to
over 2,000 middle and high school students in the Collier County public schools regarding his experiences. Additionally
his story has been recorded by the Collier County Historical Society and videotaped by the Holocaust Museum of Southwest Florida.
