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Thursday, november 5, 2026
11:45 AM - 1:30 PM
Suite Escape Lake Forest
the hindenburg: the famous zeppelin crash of 1937 and a world on the brink of wwii
Most of us know the image: a massive airship engulfed in flames over a field in New Jersey. But what was the Hindenburg, and why did its destruction become one of the defining images of the 20th century?
Join us for lunch with acclaimed historian and author Catherine Grace Katz as she takes us inside her fascinating new book, Shadow Before the Flame: The Hindenburg Disaster and the Prelude to War.
On May 6, 1937, the Hindenburg arrived in Lakehurst, New Jersey, after crossing the Atlantic from Germany. Thirty-four seconds later, the largest aircraft ever to take flight was gone. But Catherine’s meticulously researched account reveals a much bigger story: a technological marvel that promised to transform international travel, a rising Nazi regime that recognized its propaganda power, and a world moving ever closer to war.
We’ll also go behind the history. Catherine, a Winnetka native, studied history at Harvard and Cambridge before earning her JD from Harvard Law School. Her acclaimed first book, The Daughters of Yalta, established her talent for finding the human stories inside major historical events. How does a historian find a story worth chasing? Where does the research begin, and how do years of archival discoveries become a book you can’t put down?
Come for a famous moment you thought you knew and discover the extraordinary story surrounding it.