Greg Dawson

Greg Dawson was born in Bloomington, IN, where he began his 58 year career in journalism at the Bloomington Herald-Times.

It is a career that has taken him to Boca Raton, FL, Boston, MA, Grand Forks, ND, Wichita, KS, Indianapolis, IN, and to the Orlando Sentinel where he was a writer for 24 years. He is currently a staff writer for Winter Park (FL) Magazine and previously a columnist for Orlando Magazine.

At age 30 Greg discovered that his mother was a Holocaust survivor. It was another 15 years before his daughter Aimée convinced her grandmother, Zhanna, to tell the story. The Dawson family has been peeling back hidden layers of history ever since. Sharing the story reconnected Zhanna to her roots in Ukraine and to long lost friends and relatives in Israel.

Greg’s first book, Hiding in the Spotlight; A Musical Prodigy’s Story of Survival, is about his mother’s remarkable journey. It has also been published in France, Korea and Italy where it was a best seller.

Greg’s second book, Judgment Before Nuremberg; The Holocaust in the Ukraine and the First Nazi War Crimes Trial, is a sequel to the first. The author’s trips to Ukraine opened his eyes to a little known trial in his mother’s hometown. It also tells the very personal story of how the Dawson family has managed to bring this remarkable story out of hiding.

Alias Anna: A True Story of Outwitting the Nazis, based on Hiding in the Spotlight, co-authored with children’s author Susan Hood came out in March 2022. Learn more at www.gregdawsonbooks.com