James Van Keuren discussed his 2018 book, “World War II POW Camps in Ohio,” on Monday evening (Sept. 23) at his hometown library in Brook Park. More than two dozen history buffs turned out for the program. The book documents a significant chapter in state history that is, nonetheless, fading from memory as the generation that lived through the war ages.

Van Keuren, former dean of the School of Education at Ashland University and a career educator, first heard stories about a POW camp from residents of South Bass Island, where the author has a vacation home, although he initially became interested in World War II history while writing a book about his father-in-law’s tour with a busy medical unit.