By Perry Schaible
Enquirer contributor

WEST CHESTER TWP. - After the first Allied troops landed at Normandy, it was Voice of America broadcaster Robert Bauer who announced to German listeners that the invasion had begun.

Bauer's widow, Maria Bauer, 84, will be in West Chester today to share the story as part of weekend-long commemoration of the 60th anniversary of D-Day. The area hosted VOA short-wave broadcasts that began in World War II and through the Cold War. The station closed in 1994.

Bauer did some broadcasting from here, but was in London on D-Day.

"I never knew that I would ever come back to Cincinnati ... apparently I'm the only survivor of the first days," the Austrian-born Bauer, who hadn't been here for 58 years, said Thursday after arriving from Washington, D.C.

A screening of the classic film Casablanca will be today 9 a.m. to noon at the Lakota West High School Theater.

"We chose the movie Casablanca because the story so closely resembles the story of Robert and Maria Bauer as they made their way out of Europe," said Jim Fearing, president of the West Chester Historical Society.

She will answer questions after the movie. At 2 p.m., she will be at the Barnes and Noble Bookstore in the Streets of West Chester to sign her novel, Beyond the Chestnut Trees, based on her experience of fleeing war-torn Europe.

On Sunday, Bauer will participate in a worldwide radio chat hosted by the West Chester Amateur Radio Association.

The Voice of America Museum, at Cox and Tylersville roads, will also be open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. today and Sunday for guided tours and displays.

Robert Bauer played a key role in the liberation of Europe as the head of the German broadcast section of the Office of War Information, parent of the Voice of America.

"He was the voice on the radio of hope in the Nazi years," Fearing said. Bauer died last year at age 93.

For more information, see www.westchesteroh.org