Mary Cronk Farrell's Blog, page 3
August 13, 2021
Code Talkers: The Rest of the Story
Congress set a side a particular day, August 14th, to honor and remember the Navajo Code Talkers, Native American men who developed codes using the Navajo language to help win WWII. Still, even now, much of the code talker story remains shrouded in history.
The Navajo Code Talkers contributions to the victory in WWII was kept secret until the war department declassified the program in 1968. Since then, their story has become known around the world, but code talkers came from as many as 34 Native Nations, and the first to serve were Choctaw, in the First World War!
If not for a chance circumstance, when an US officer overheard two Choctaw soldiers speaking their language, WWI might have turned out differently.
Code Talkers from the Choctaw Nation in the Indian Territory pioneered the use of Native languages as military code (Wyoming State Historical Society) The American Meuse-Argonne Offensive in 1918, stretched along the entire Western Front and became the largest and deadliest battle of WWI. In the end, Germany was forced to surrender and the war ended, but the outcome was not certain at the start of the 47 day battle. 
Below: The New York National Guard's Rainbow Division in Meuse-Argonne battle that ended WWI. Courtesy New York National Guard. As fighting began in the Meuse-Argonne region, the Germans had broken all Allied communication codes and were intercepting radio transmissions and telephone calls. The army sent runners to carry messages and the Germans captured 25-percent of them.
The situation was desperate when an officer happened to overhear Choctaw soldiers speaking in their own language. At that moment he realized the possibilities. Germans would not know Choctaw!
Within 24 hours, the Choctaw telephone squad was formed, locating Choctaws at the major command posts. They translated vital information about troop positions and supply routes into their language and transmitted it to other Choctaws who translated it back to English.
Choctaw WWI soldier Tobias Frazier, one of the first US military code talkers. A company made up entirely of Native Americans in the 142nd Infantry Regiment, 36th Division, included men who spoke 26 different languages and dialects. Two Indian officers were selected to supervise the new 18-member communication system. All were born in the Choctaw Nation, a self-governed republic in the Indian Territory, now southeastern Oklahoma,
The timely change in US military code led to victory in the battles of St. Etienne and Forest Ferme leading up to the Armistice November 11, 1918.
Map below thanks to the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian There are so many interesting aspects to this story, including the context of boarding schools, where Native children were beaten for speaking in their own language. How must have they felt when suddenly the language they had been told to forget was needed to win a war?
I ran out of time this week to include all that I wanted to tell you about Native code talkers who served the US military. I'll leave you with some book recommendations and follow up next week with more on this story.
Meanwhile check out this book, just out from the University of Oklahoma Press. The First Code Talkers: Native American Communicators in World War I, by William C. Meadows is the first in-depth book about the earliest code talkers.
According to the publisher, Meadows draws on "nearly thirty years of research--in U.S. military and Native American archives, surviving accounts from code talkers and their commanding officers, family records, newspaper accounts, and fieldwork in descendant communities [to explore] the origins, use, and legacy of the code talkers. In the process, he scrutinizes numerous misconceptions and popular myths about code talking and the secrecy surrounding the practice."
A book suitable for teens, The Language of Victory: Code Talkers of WWI and WWII is written by Award-winning writer and filmmaker Gary Robinson (Choctaw/Cherokee descent) who has worked most of his life to create Indigenous content in dozens of Indigenous educational, informational, and documentary television projects.
The Lanuage Victory features rare interviews with Comanche, Choctaw and Navajo code talkers, to recount how American Indian soldiers from twenty different tribes used their native languages to send coded military messages in two world wars that were never deciphered by the enemy and helped win American victories.
And for children, Chester Nez and the Unbreakable Code: A Navajo Code Talker's Story by Joseph Bruchac, a highly acclaimed Abenaki children's book author, poet, novelist and storyteller, as well as a scholar of Native American culture.
"Bruchac movingly draws a parallel between the trauma of indigenous boarding schools and war. Amini-Holmes's paintings capture the nightmarish atmosphere of both."―Publishers Weekly
Chester Nez was not his real name. That's the English name he was given in kindergarten when he was forced to go to boarding school at Fort Defiance. He could only whisper his native language, for if the Navajo students were caught speaking their language, they'd be punished. The Indian boarding schools were a tool used to the U.S. government in its effort to destroy Native culture and traditions.
Despite this treatment, when his country needed him after Pearl Harbor, Chester answered the call, for the Navajo have always been warriors, and his upbringing on a New Mexico reservation gave him the strength--both physical and mental--to excel as a marine, and use his once-forbidden language to help win WWII.
STARRED REVIEW "A perfect, well-rounded historical story that will engage readers of all ages. A perfect, well-rounded historical story that will engage readers of all ages."―Kirkus Reviews
"Bruchac distills his extensive knowledge about the Navajo code talkers in this complex biography for young readers."―Booklist
"A can't-miss picture book biography."―School Library Journal
Next week, more about the Navajo Code Talkers and how after the war, they had to fight for their right to vote. Sources
https://www.okhistory.org/publication...
https://www.choctawnation.com/history...
https://nativeamericatoday.com/the-na...
https://americanindian.si.edu/nk360/c...
The Navajo Code Talkers contributions to the victory in WWII was kept secret until the war department declassified the program in 1968. Since then, their story has become known around the world, but code talkers came from as many as 34 Native Nations, and the first to serve were Choctaw, in the First World War!
If not for a chance circumstance, when an US officer overheard two Choctaw soldiers speaking their language, WWI might have turned out differently.
Code Talkers from the Choctaw Nation in the Indian Territory pioneered the use of Native languages as military code (Wyoming State Historical Society) The American Meuse-Argonne Offensive in 1918, stretched along the entire Western Front and became the largest and deadliest battle of WWI. In the end, Germany was forced to surrender and the war ended, but the outcome was not certain at the start of the 47 day battle. Below: The New York National Guard's Rainbow Division in Meuse-Argonne battle that ended WWI. Courtesy New York National Guard. As fighting began in the Meuse-Argonne region, the Germans had broken all Allied communication codes and were intercepting radio transmissions and telephone calls. The army sent runners to carry messages and the Germans captured 25-percent of them.The situation was desperate when an officer happened to overhear Choctaw soldiers speaking in their own language. At that moment he realized the possibilities. Germans would not know Choctaw!
Within 24 hours, the Choctaw telephone squad was formed, locating Choctaws at the major command posts. They translated vital information about troop positions and supply routes into their language and transmitted it to other Choctaws who translated it back to English.
Choctaw WWI soldier Tobias Frazier, one of the first US military code talkers. A company made up entirely of Native Americans in the 142nd Infantry Regiment, 36th Division, included men who spoke 26 different languages and dialects. Two Indian officers were selected to supervise the new 18-member communication system. All were born in the Choctaw Nation, a self-governed republic in the Indian Territory, now southeastern Oklahoma,The timely change in US military code led to victory in the battles of St. Etienne and Forest Ferme leading up to the Armistice November 11, 1918.
Map below thanks to the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian There are so many interesting aspects to this story, including the context of boarding schools, where Native children were beaten for speaking in their own language. How must have they felt when suddenly the language they had been told to forget was needed to win a war?I ran out of time this week to include all that I wanted to tell you about Native code talkers who served the US military. I'll leave you with some book recommendations and follow up next week with more on this story.
Meanwhile check out this book, just out from the University of Oklahoma Press. The First Code Talkers: Native American Communicators in World War I, by William C. Meadows is the first in-depth book about the earliest code talkers.
According to the publisher, Meadows draws on "nearly thirty years of research--in U.S. military and Native American archives, surviving accounts from code talkers and their commanding officers, family records, newspaper accounts, and fieldwork in descendant communities [to explore] the origins, use, and legacy of the code talkers. In the process, he scrutinizes numerous misconceptions and popular myths about code talking and the secrecy surrounding the practice."A book suitable for teens, The Language of Victory: Code Talkers of WWI and WWII is written by Award-winning writer and filmmaker Gary Robinson (Choctaw/Cherokee descent) who has worked most of his life to create Indigenous content in dozens of Indigenous educational, informational, and documentary television projects.
The Lanuage Victory features rare interviews with Comanche, Choctaw and Navajo code talkers, to recount how American Indian soldiers from twenty different tribes used their native languages to send coded military messages in two world wars that were never deciphered by the enemy and helped win American victories.And for children, Chester Nez and the Unbreakable Code: A Navajo Code Talker's Story by Joseph Bruchac, a highly acclaimed Abenaki children's book author, poet, novelist and storyteller, as well as a scholar of Native American culture.
"Bruchac movingly draws a parallel between the trauma of indigenous boarding schools and war. Amini-Holmes's paintings capture the nightmarish atmosphere of both."―Publishers Weekly
Chester Nez was not his real name. That's the English name he was given in kindergarten when he was forced to go to boarding school at Fort Defiance. He could only whisper his native language, for if the Navajo students were caught speaking their language, they'd be punished. The Indian boarding schools were a tool used to the U.S. government in its effort to destroy Native culture and traditions. Despite this treatment, when his country needed him after Pearl Harbor, Chester answered the call, for the Navajo have always been warriors, and his upbringing on a New Mexico reservation gave him the strength--both physical and mental--to excel as a marine, and use his once-forbidden language to help win WWII.
STARRED REVIEW "A perfect, well-rounded historical story that will engage readers of all ages. A perfect, well-rounded historical story that will engage readers of all ages."―Kirkus Reviews
"Bruchac distills his extensive knowledge about the Navajo code talkers in this complex biography for young readers."―Booklist
"A can't-miss picture book biography."―School Library Journal
Next week, more about the Navajo Code Talkers and how after the war, they had to fight for their right to vote. Sources
https://www.okhistory.org/publication...
https://www.choctawnation.com/history...
https://nativeamericatoday.com/the-na...
https://americanindian.si.edu/nk360/c...
August 9, 2021
Can America Stand this Waste?
Jane Bolin paid little attention to the history she was making as the first Black woman judge in America, and more to the needs of kids, a human resource we can't afford to waste. 
In 1931, with segregation prevalent throughout the country, Jane Bolin became the first Black woman to graduate from Yale Law School, where racist students thought it good fun to slam doors in her face.
Though black and female, Jane armed herself with her degrees, ambition and desire to do good and moved to New York City. She became the first black woman to join the New York City Bar Association, and the first to work in the city’s legal department.
“Everyone else makes a fuss about [all these firsts], but I didn’t think about it, and I still don’t,” she told the New York Times in a 1993 interview. “I wasn’t concerned about first, second or last. My work was my primary concern.”
Her 40-year career in New York City's Domestic Relations Court primarily focused on protecting the city's children, particularly under-privileged youngsters, a human resource she insisted American could not afford to waste. Judge Jane Bolin may not have cared about making history, but her legacy challenges and inspires us today. The children she fought for are merely called by different names today.
Judy Bolin, 1939, courtesy Associated Press. Several years after her first judicial appointment, in 1944, Jane Bolin was invited back to give a speech in the town where she'd grown up. The folks in Poughkeepsie, NY, probably didn't expect she'd take them to task when they asked her how she could leave their beautiful small town for NYC.
Jane said she had no choice but to leave Poughkeepsie if she wanted to "bring to fruition the aspirations and ambitions and dreams I had had from my childhood...I hate fascism whether it is practiced by Germans, Japanese or by Americans, and Poughkeepsie is fascist to the extent of deluding itself that there is superiority among human beings by reason solely of color or race or religion.
"There are Negro and Jewish and Catholic, Japanese and Indian youngsters who dream the same dreams I once did and who shoot [for] the same stars.
What will you make democracy mean to them? America, which has reached its present stature only by the contributions of its various minority groups, can it afford not to utilize the abilities and aptitudes of these citizens.
Can America stand this human waste?"
Exchange those modifiers with Black, Muslim, Latinx, Asian and Indigenous and the question asked a lifetime ago still stands.
Jane lost her mother, Matilda Emery who was white, when she was eight years old and was brought up by her father Gaius C. Bolin. Bolin was one of the 380,000 Black veterans who'd fought in the "World War" to make the world safe for democracy and come home ready to push for their rights at home.
African American draftees march to the Poughkeepsie train Station to serve in WW1
Jane's father set a fine example for his daughter. In 1989, Gaius Bolin became the first Black to graduate from Williams College. He became a successful small town lawyer in mostly white Poughkeepsie and a founding member of his local NAACP chapter. She spent hours in his office, later recalling, “Those leather-bound books just intrigued me.”
Outside the safety of her father's office, Jane stood out as a biracial childing her primarily white hometown, stared at by neighbors and shut out of some local businesses. Reading material in her home, Crisis Magazine, carried news of the lynchings of Black Americans across the Jim Crow south.
"I was horrified and transfixed by pictures and news stories of lynchings and other atrocities against blacks solely because of their race....
"It is easy to imagine how a young, protected child who sees portrayals of brutality is forever scarred and becomes determined to contribute in her own small way to social justice,” Bolin said later.
Arriving in New York City to look for a job, Jane needed all her determination to move ahead against the continuing slaps to the face. “I was rejected on account of being a woman, but I’m sure that race also played a part,” she said. “The reception I got was very, very businesslike, and I was disposed of rather rapidly.”
Ironically, Jane's father had been first to discourage her career aspirations. “He was very opposed to the idea at first,” Bolin later said. “He assumed I’d be a schoolteacher. He didn’t think that women should hear the unpleasant things that lawyers have to hear.” Or be exposed to the “grossest kind of human behavior.” Her school guidance counselor had also advised Jane not to try and become a lawyer.
When Jane couldn't get a job, she started her own law firm with her husband Ralph Mizelle, and within five years was hired in New York City's corporation counsel office. Jane had worked there two years, when she received a cryptic message from City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, telling her to meet him at the World’s Fair.
“I was very apprehensive,” Jane remembered, thinking that she would be reprimanded for something. “I couldn’t think of anything that I had done.”
She met LaGuardia at the appropriate time and place, and with little ado, told her “I’m going to make you a judge. Raise your right hand.”
Jane Bolin with husband Ralph Mizelle and NYC Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, July, 1939, courtesy Getty Images. “I was in a state of shock,” Jane said. “I did what he told me. I raised my right hand.” Reappointed to her seat by three more mayors, for three more ten-year terms, Jane did not retire until forced to by judicial age limits. Throughout her career, she sought to show “a broad sympathy for human suffering.”
“Those gains we have made were never graciously or generously granted. We have had to fight every inch of the way.”
Judge Jane Bolin in her official robes in 1978, photo courtesy John Sotomayor/The New York Times. The highlights of her career included a ruling that probation officers be assigned fairly regardless of race or religion, and another making it illegal for private childcare centers receiving public funding to refuse children due to race or ethnicity. Jane said,
"I'd rather see if I can help a child than settle an argument between adults over money."
Jane Bolin died in 2007 at the age of 98, leaving us not only a life's work advocating for children and families and a model for dedicated public service, but a solid path for black women who want to work in the legal system today.
Sources
https://www.blackpast.org/african-ame...
https://allthatsinteresting.com/jane-...
https://www.essence.com/feature/jane-...
https://dchsny.org/bolins-on-race/
https://magazine.williams.edu/2016/sp...
In 1931, with segregation prevalent throughout the country, Jane Bolin became the first Black woman to graduate from Yale Law School, where racist students thought it good fun to slam doors in her face.Though black and female, Jane armed herself with her degrees, ambition and desire to do good and moved to New York City. She became the first black woman to join the New York City Bar Association, and the first to work in the city’s legal department.
“Everyone else makes a fuss about [all these firsts], but I didn’t think about it, and I still don’t,” she told the New York Times in a 1993 interview. “I wasn’t concerned about first, second or last. My work was my primary concern.”
Her 40-year career in New York City's Domestic Relations Court primarily focused on protecting the city's children, particularly under-privileged youngsters, a human resource she insisted American could not afford to waste. Judge Jane Bolin may not have cared about making history, but her legacy challenges and inspires us today. The children she fought for are merely called by different names today.
Judy Bolin, 1939, courtesy Associated Press. Several years after her first judicial appointment, in 1944, Jane Bolin was invited back to give a speech in the town where she'd grown up. The folks in Poughkeepsie, NY, probably didn't expect she'd take them to task when they asked her how she could leave their beautiful small town for NYC.Jane said she had no choice but to leave Poughkeepsie if she wanted to "bring to fruition the aspirations and ambitions and dreams I had had from my childhood...I hate fascism whether it is practiced by Germans, Japanese or by Americans, and Poughkeepsie is fascist to the extent of deluding itself that there is superiority among human beings by reason solely of color or race or religion.
"There are Negro and Jewish and Catholic, Japanese and Indian youngsters who dream the same dreams I once did and who shoot [for] the same stars.
What will you make democracy mean to them? America, which has reached its present stature only by the contributions of its various minority groups, can it afford not to utilize the abilities and aptitudes of these citizens.
Can America stand this human waste?"
Exchange those modifiers with Black, Muslim, Latinx, Asian and Indigenous and the question asked a lifetime ago still stands.
Jane lost her mother, Matilda Emery who was white, when she was eight years old and was brought up by her father Gaius C. Bolin. Bolin was one of the 380,000 Black veterans who'd fought in the "World War" to make the world safe for democracy and come home ready to push for their rights at home.
African American draftees march to the Poughkeepsie train Station to serve in WW1 Jane's father set a fine example for his daughter. In 1989, Gaius Bolin became the first Black to graduate from Williams College. He became a successful small town lawyer in mostly white Poughkeepsie and a founding member of his local NAACP chapter. She spent hours in his office, later recalling, “Those leather-bound books just intrigued me.”
Outside the safety of her father's office, Jane stood out as a biracial childing her primarily white hometown, stared at by neighbors and shut out of some local businesses. Reading material in her home, Crisis Magazine, carried news of the lynchings of Black Americans across the Jim Crow south.
"I was horrified and transfixed by pictures and news stories of lynchings and other atrocities against blacks solely because of their race....
"It is easy to imagine how a young, protected child who sees portrayals of brutality is forever scarred and becomes determined to contribute in her own small way to social justice,” Bolin said later.
Arriving in New York City to look for a job, Jane needed all her determination to move ahead against the continuing slaps to the face. “I was rejected on account of being a woman, but I’m sure that race also played a part,” she said. “The reception I got was very, very businesslike, and I was disposed of rather rapidly.”
Ironically, Jane's father had been first to discourage her career aspirations. “He was very opposed to the idea at first,” Bolin later said. “He assumed I’d be a schoolteacher. He didn’t think that women should hear the unpleasant things that lawyers have to hear.” Or be exposed to the “grossest kind of human behavior.” Her school guidance counselor had also advised Jane not to try and become a lawyer.
When Jane couldn't get a job, she started her own law firm with her husband Ralph Mizelle, and within five years was hired in New York City's corporation counsel office. Jane had worked there two years, when she received a cryptic message from City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, telling her to meet him at the World’s Fair.
“I was very apprehensive,” Jane remembered, thinking that she would be reprimanded for something. “I couldn’t think of anything that I had done.”
She met LaGuardia at the appropriate time and place, and with little ado, told her “I’m going to make you a judge. Raise your right hand.”
Jane Bolin with husband Ralph Mizelle and NYC Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, July, 1939, courtesy Getty Images. “I was in a state of shock,” Jane said. “I did what he told me. I raised my right hand.” Reappointed to her seat by three more mayors, for three more ten-year terms, Jane did not retire until forced to by judicial age limits. Throughout her career, she sought to show “a broad sympathy for human suffering.”“Those gains we have made were never graciously or generously granted. We have had to fight every inch of the way.”
Judge Jane Bolin in her official robes in 1978, photo courtesy John Sotomayor/The New York Times. The highlights of her career included a ruling that probation officers be assigned fairly regardless of race or religion, and another making it illegal for private childcare centers receiving public funding to refuse children due to race or ethnicity. Jane said,
"I'd rather see if I can help a child than settle an argument between adults over money."
Jane Bolin died in 2007 at the age of 98, leaving us not only a life's work advocating for children and families and a model for dedicated public service, but a solid path for black women who want to work in the legal system today.
Sources
https://www.blackpast.org/african-ame...
https://allthatsinteresting.com/jane-...
https://www.essence.com/feature/jane-...
https://dchsny.org/bolins-on-race/
https://magazine.williams.edu/2016/sp...
July 27, 2021
Women tries to Save POW Husband
Belle was nine-months pregnant when the Japanese Army took her husband prisoner. She was a military wife in the Philippines in 1941 when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.
At the time Americans feared the Japanese would invade the west coast of their homeland. That didn't happen in Washington, Oregon, California or Alaska. But the Japanese did invade the Philippines where American forces were woefully unprepared.
The story of the American surrender to the Japanese and the U.S. military nurses taken POW is told in my book Pure Grit.
But today's story focuses on one young woman, expecting her fourth child, who got horrible news. Her husband was one of 75-thousand starving and disease-stricken soldiers, U.S. and Filipino, forced to surrender to the Japanese Imperial Army.
I cannot imagine what went through Belle Valentine's mind. On the one hand, her husband was alive. But could he stay alive while a prisoner of an army known for its brutality? The Japanese had utter contempt for soldiers who would surrender rather than fight to the death. I know one thing. Belle was determined to do everything in her power to save him. In the hours after the Americans surrendered on the main Philippine Island of Luzon, rumors swept through the villages about what was happening to the captured troops. One proved to be true, and would be forever remembered as the Bataan Death March.
Belle Valentine became an army nurse in WWII, but, as mentioned above, she was a mother with her hands full, when she heard what had happened to her husband. The Japanese forced their captives to begin a 65-mile march in the hot, dry season, and provided no food or water.
Belle's husband, Henry Butler Valentine, fought in the U.S. army in the Philippines under the leadership of General Douglas MacArthur, which had been under siege since Japanese troops invaded just before Christmas. MacArthur flew off the island to safety in early March, promising he would return with reinforcements.
No reinforcements came, and by the first week of April, American forces were running out of food, drinkable water and ammunition. Left in charge, Major General Jonathan Wainwright feared a full-scale massacre was imminent when he decided, against MacArthur's orders, to surrender.
As the captives started their saga, tens of thousands of men prodded on by armed guards, Belle, made her way to the route and began searching for her husband.
Bataan Death March, April 1942 (US Army photo) Belle located her husband and followed the throng of prisoners giving him what food and water she could. Many civilians tried to aid the marchers, but the Japanese guards could be extremely harsh, beheading men for the least offense, shooting those who fell behind or stopped for water.
Belle stuck near her husband until she went into labor and had to fall back to give birth, not in a hospital or even at home, but in the Bataan jungle. She had a healthy baby boy and set off to catch up with her husband. She was able to find him again and tell him he had a son named after him, Henry Butler Valentine, Jr. Belle never saw her husband again.
The forced march from the southern tip of the Bataan Peninsula to Camp O'Donnell as the north end, took ten days in relentless heat and suffocating dust. Some 10,000 men died on the march. Belle's husband survived but died weeks later in the horrible conditions of the pow camp. Some 26,000 Filipino soldiers and 1,500 Americans died of starvation and disease at Camp O'Donnell. The photo below shows prisoners working a burial detail at Camp O'Donnell.
National Archives and Records Administration, 535564 Belle joined the Philippine resistance, though little is known of her activities during the three years of the Japanese occupation. When Americans liberated the Philippines and US forces returned to Luzon, Belle worked as a nurse in the U.S. Medical Corps rising to the rank of Captain.
At this point, I've not been able to find details about the rest of her life. Her son Henry "Sonny" Valentine grew up and moved to the U.S. living for some time in Dillingham, Alaska. Belle lived into her 70s in Manila.
When I was pregnant with my first baby, I worked as a TV news reporter and stayed on the job the night before my baby was born, reporting live for the 11pm news while in early labor. That is not in the same universe as Belle Valentine's courageous effort to save her husband. Stories of unsung heroines like Belle can help put our own lives in perspective.
At the time Americans feared the Japanese would invade the west coast of their homeland. That didn't happen in Washington, Oregon, California or Alaska. But the Japanese did invade the Philippines where American forces were woefully unprepared.
The story of the American surrender to the Japanese and the U.S. military nurses taken POW is told in my book Pure Grit.
But today's story focuses on one young woman, expecting her fourth child, who got horrible news. Her husband was one of 75-thousand starving and disease-stricken soldiers, U.S. and Filipino, forced to surrender to the Japanese Imperial Army.I cannot imagine what went through Belle Valentine's mind. On the one hand, her husband was alive. But could he stay alive while a prisoner of an army known for its brutality? The Japanese had utter contempt for soldiers who would surrender rather than fight to the death. I know one thing. Belle was determined to do everything in her power to save him. In the hours after the Americans surrendered on the main Philippine Island of Luzon, rumors swept through the villages about what was happening to the captured troops. One proved to be true, and would be forever remembered as the Bataan Death March.
Belle Valentine became an army nurse in WWII, but, as mentioned above, she was a mother with her hands full, when she heard what had happened to her husband. The Japanese forced their captives to begin a 65-mile march in the hot, dry season, and provided no food or water.Belle's husband, Henry Butler Valentine, fought in the U.S. army in the Philippines under the leadership of General Douglas MacArthur, which had been under siege since Japanese troops invaded just before Christmas. MacArthur flew off the island to safety in early March, promising he would return with reinforcements.
No reinforcements came, and by the first week of April, American forces were running out of food, drinkable water and ammunition. Left in charge, Major General Jonathan Wainwright feared a full-scale massacre was imminent when he decided, against MacArthur's orders, to surrender.
As the captives started their saga, tens of thousands of men prodded on by armed guards, Belle, made her way to the route and began searching for her husband.
Bataan Death March, April 1942 (US Army photo) Belle located her husband and followed the throng of prisoners giving him what food and water she could. Many civilians tried to aid the marchers, but the Japanese guards could be extremely harsh, beheading men for the least offense, shooting those who fell behind or stopped for water.Belle stuck near her husband until she went into labor and had to fall back to give birth, not in a hospital or even at home, but in the Bataan jungle. She had a healthy baby boy and set off to catch up with her husband. She was able to find him again and tell him he had a son named after him, Henry Butler Valentine, Jr. Belle never saw her husband again.
The forced march from the southern tip of the Bataan Peninsula to Camp O'Donnell as the north end, took ten days in relentless heat and suffocating dust. Some 10,000 men died on the march. Belle's husband survived but died weeks later in the horrible conditions of the pow camp. Some 26,000 Filipino soldiers and 1,500 Americans died of starvation and disease at Camp O'Donnell. The photo below shows prisoners working a burial detail at Camp O'Donnell.
National Archives and Records Administration, 535564 Belle joined the Philippine resistance, though little is known of her activities during the three years of the Japanese occupation. When Americans liberated the Philippines and US forces returned to Luzon, Belle worked as a nurse in the U.S. Medical Corps rising to the rank of Captain. At this point, I've not been able to find details about the rest of her life. Her son Henry "Sonny" Valentine grew up and moved to the U.S. living for some time in Dillingham, Alaska. Belle lived into her 70s in Manila.
When I was pregnant with my first baby, I worked as a TV news reporter and stayed on the job the night before my baby was born, reporting live for the 11pm news while in early labor. That is not in the same universe as Belle Valentine's courageous effort to save her husband. Stories of unsung heroines like Belle can help put our own lives in perspective.
May 5, 2021
My Next Adventure
I mentioned a short time ago, how the kaleidoscope of events in 2020 sent me into a bit of an emotional spin, prompting me to think more deeply about personal and public affairs.
One thing on my mind is media literacy. For the month of May, I'll be engaging people on social media about the topic of media literacy. I'll have Instagram Live interviews with experts and resources for adults and teens.
Literate used to mean the ability to read and write, and the majority of the public agreed on some common trustworthy sources of information.
That's been pretty much shot to pieces. Which is not necessarily a bad thing. We are more aware than ever how the information Americans have consumed since 1776 has left out the voices of black and brown people and diminished the experiences of marginalized groups.
So the up-side in the proliferation of information on the internet and social media, is that anyone can have a voice. And the downside is that anyone can have a voice.
It can be over-whelming to consider tracking down the source of every picture or video we see, every article and Facebook post. But that's the responsibility we hold. Hardly anyone is too old or too young to be media literate.
I've come across three books for young people that deal with different aspects of media literacy. My budget is small but I'm donating copies to a number of schools across the country. 
Here are links to learn more about the books.
Guardians of Liberty: Freedom of the Press and the Nature News
True or False: A CIA Analyst's Guide to Spotting Face News
DeepFake
I realize this is a small gesture on my part. I decided doing something small is better than doing nothing. And I want to support those who are holding the ramparts, teachers, librarians and media specialists.
You can follow me here on Instagram and here on Facebook to join the conversation. Got questions? Great, we'll have people to answer them. Got answers? Great, we want to hear them.
One thing on my mind is media literacy. For the month of May, I'll be engaging people on social media about the topic of media literacy. I'll have Instagram Live interviews with experts and resources for adults and teens.
Literate used to mean the ability to read and write, and the majority of the public agreed on some common trustworthy sources of information.That's been pretty much shot to pieces. Which is not necessarily a bad thing. We are more aware than ever how the information Americans have consumed since 1776 has left out the voices of black and brown people and diminished the experiences of marginalized groups.
So the up-side in the proliferation of information on the internet and social media, is that anyone can have a voice. And the downside is that anyone can have a voice.
It can be over-whelming to consider tracking down the source of every picture or video we see, every article and Facebook post. But that's the responsibility we hold. Hardly anyone is too old or too young to be media literate.
I've come across three books for young people that deal with different aspects of media literacy. My budget is small but I'm donating copies to a number of schools across the country.
Here are links to learn more about the books.Guardians of Liberty: Freedom of the Press and the Nature News
True or False: A CIA Analyst's Guide to Spotting Face News
DeepFake
I realize this is a small gesture on my part. I decided doing something small is better than doing nothing. And I want to support those who are holding the ramparts, teachers, librarians and media specialists.
You can follow me here on Instagram and here on Facebook to join the conversation. Got questions? Great, we'll have people to answer them. Got answers? Great, we want to hear them.
April 28, 2021
You will not want to miss this
Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist
Lynsey Addario
live via the internet Friday, April 30th, 1pmET, 10amPT
Register here now for the free event.
Kidnapped twice, in Fallujah, Iraq and again in Libya, Lynsey has a powerful message about being a women in the still-male-chauvinist profession of combat photography.
She has spent the last 20 years documenting humanitarian crises. Her work has shaped the way the public sees conflict, shining light on wars and their aftermath – from Afghanistan and Iraq in the early 2000s to Syria and Yemen more recently. Addario focuses her lens on conflicts and human rights issues, especially the role of women in traditional societies.
If the time is not convenient for you,
go ahead and register here
. The panel will be recorded for registrants to watch on their own time. 
Kidnapped twice, in Fallujah, Iraq and again in Libya, Lynsey has a powerful message about being a women in the still-male-chauvinist profession of combat photography.
She has spent the last 20 years documenting humanitarian crises. Her work has shaped the way the public sees conflict, shining light on wars and their aftermath – from Afghanistan and Iraq in the early 2000s to Syria and Yemen more recently. Addario focuses her lens on conflicts and human rights issues, especially the role of women in traditional societies.
If the time is not convenient for you,
go ahead and register here
. The panel will be recorded for registrants to watch on their own time.
April 27, 2021
The Woman Behind the Man known as the World's Greatest Combat Photographer
This week's feature story could be filed under
tragic love stories
. But I'm not focusing on the couple. This story is about the woman who is often stuck in a forgotten corner of history, hidden by the long shadow cast by her famous lover.
Gerda Taro believed photographs could change the world. In the mid-1930s, she served as a midwife of sorts, helping birth the powerful force of modern photo journalism.
Taro captured some of the most memorable images of the Spanish civil war, and was the first woman in history to take pictures in battle. Unfortunately, she was also the first to lose her life reporting in a war zone.
Tragedy and mystery conspired to shroud Gerda Taro and her work, leaving photojournalism to move on without her. Below: Gerda Taro at work.
The daring activism that carried Gerda to the battlefields of Spain ignited in Germany.
Gerda Pohorylle was born in 1910 to a Jewish family in Stuttgart. She came of age with the rising fascist National Socialists German Workers Party, (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei abbreviated Nazi) and joined the opposition.
In 1933, while passing out pamphlets at an anti-Nazi protest, Gerda was arrested and detained. Hitler became chancellor shortly after, and 23-year-old Gerda fled to Paris for safety.
Amid a a flood of refugees fleeing fascism, Gerda struggled to find work in Paris, but eventually got a job at Alliance Photo Agency. Hanging out with other young newcomers to Paris, she met Endré Friedmann, a Hungarian refugee trying to make a living as a photographer.
The two fell in love and developed a remarkable working relationship. Gerda advised
Endré on aspects of business and wrote captions for his pictures. He taught her the fundamentals of photography.
But it seemed impossible to rise from poverty and obscurity. As Paris overtook Berlin as the capital of modern photojournalism, competition for work and recognition intensified.
Gerda and Endré's last names did not help them. Pohorylle and Friedmann immediately labeled them as immigrants and Jews.
Gerda suggested they change their names and reinvent themselves.
She attributed her photos to Gerda Taro, and helped Friedmann cast himself as Robert Capa, a wealthy American, recent arrival in Europe, and a successful photographer. True enough, Gerda sold Robert Capa’s work for three times the money of Endré Friedmann’s.
Within a year Gerda started selling her own pictures as well as Robert's, and they lived quite well. Gerda refused Robert's proposal for marriage, but that did not break up the relationship.
Taro and Capa: A professional success and fashionable couple. While building their professional skill and reputation, Gerda Tara and Robert Capa remained acutely aware of the tide of fascism in Germany and Italy. When a group of right-wing generals staged a military coup in Spain, in July, 1936, the couple immediately flew to Barcelona on assignment for a French news magazine.
One of their first stories documented a group of militiawomen, who were members of the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia (the Catalan branch of the Communist Party of Spain), training on a nearby beach. The photo below was taken by Gerda Taro.
Reporting from previous war zones, photographers took their pictures before or after a battle, but Capa and Taro got right in the action. They embedded with the fighters and ran through gunfire to get their photos. Siding with the Republican's, Capa and Taro focused on the Loyalist troops trying to put down Franco's rebel army.
When working together, often their photos were published under Capa's byline, perhaps to sidestep those prejudiced against women in the profession. Then in Spain Taro emerged as a photojournalist in her own right, her pictures published around the world.
Republican soldiers with canon, Monte Aragón, east of Huesca, Spain. © Cornell Capa International Center for Photography Gerda was fearless, compelled to experience the conflict first-hand. She took thousands of photographs, seeking to capture the fervor of battle experienced by the fighters and also that of refugees and citizens caught in the violence.
Early on, the rebel Nationalists repeatedly bombed the crucial shipping port of Valencia, but on May 15, 1937, they adopted a new strategy. Aided by the Italian air force, they attacked the city, indiscriminately bombing civilians to spread panic and terror.
Gerda reported on the bombing in Valencia by herself on contract with the French communist newspaper Ce Soir. One of her most famous photos showed families pressed against the gates of the morgue waiting for news of loved ones.
Crowd outside morgue after air raid, Valencia, 1937. (International Center of Photography) Taro then went into the morgue to photograph the bodies lying on tables and the floor. This type of carnage would become all to familiar in WWII, but in 1937, this purposeful bombing of civilians was a new level of warfare.
Taro desperately wanted to show the world what was happening in Spain, but some faulted her and Capa for not being objective journalists.
“We all loved Gerda very much,” wrote Alexander Szurek, an adjutant to a Spanish Republican general, in his memoirs. “Gerda was petite with the charm and beauty of a child. This little girl was brave and the Division admired her for that...[She] was so passionate about the suffering of the Spanish people.
Child refugee from Málaga in Almería, Spain. Courtesy International Center of Photography “She got too involved, became a star reporter and over identified with the republican cause. But she got into this conviction that she had to bear witness," says her biographer Jane Rogoyska. "The troops loved her and she kept pushing. Capa warned her not to take so many risks.”
In the spring and early summer of 1937, Taro covered the Brunete area near Madrid for Ce Soir. Franco's troops announced they had seized control of the region, but pockets of
Loyalists were still fighting, and they gained command, forcing the Nationalists to retreat. Taro’s photographs were the only proof this was happening.
Republican soldier sleeping, Battle of Brunete, Spain. Courtesy International Center of Photography Then in late July, General Franco's troops retook the town of Brunete, inflicting heavy losses on the Republicans' best troops who were now retreating under fire. Taro stayed with them, snapping photographs as bombs fell and planes strafed the ground with machine-gun fire.
Eventually, Gerda ran out of film and headed for a safe position. "She was elated, saying 'I've got these fantastic photographs, I've got champagne, we're going to have a party,'" says Jane Rogoyska.
Gerda hitched a ride on the running board of a general's car evacuating wounded soldiers. Near Villanueva de la Cañada, German aircraft supporting Franco's army flew over and strafed the retreating company. A loyalist army tank lost control and crashed into the general's vehicle. Gerda suffered serious injuries.
She was alive and conscious when she arrived at the British Hospital in El Escorial fifteen miles away, where New Zealand surgeon Dr. Douglas Jolly operated on her, but she died that night.
Her photographs from that day, were never found.
Two boys on a barricade, Barcelona, 1936. Gerda Taro Capa was devastated and blamed himself for Taro's death. He stayed in Spain until the war ended and went on to shoot pictures in four more wars, cover volatile elections and the official founding of the state of Israel. He died in Indochina in 1954, when he stepped on a land mine. By many, Robert Capa is considered the greatest combat photographer in history.
In the aftermath of Gerda Taro's death in Spain, and no one was thinking of saving negatives for posterity. In 1939, Capa once more had to flee anti-Semitism, escaping Paris for New York. He asked his darkroom manager to save his negatives. After the war, they could not be found.
Most of the photos the Taro and Capa published during their partnership were attributed to Capa, and to this day it remains unclear who took many of the pictures.
“There was a covering over of her presence, not maliciously, but because there was no one there to say ‘this is by him’ or ‘that is by her’,” says Taro's biographer Jane Rogoyska.
Gerda's body was returned to Paris, where Ce Soir, the communist newspaper, organized her funeral and thousands turned out to mourn her passing and celebrate her passion for the cause.
Though Gerda Taro was gone and her work mostly forgotten, there would be two more twists to her story in the next half century.
Capa had always believed the negatives of photos they'd taken in Spain had been lost during the Nazi invasion. [Including photos of Ernst Hemmingway] Over the years, an inquiry about the negatives was published in a French magazine, and a excavation
organized in France looking for the negatives.
Then, in 1995, three tattered boxes of negatives turned up in Mexico.
The story pieced together seems to indicate that as the Nazi's closed in on Paris, Capa's
darkroom assistant Imre Weisz, took off on a bicycle, carrying the negatives to Marseille. But Weisz was arrested and sent to an internment camp in Algiers, and nobody knew what happened to Capa and Taro's work. Over the years, an inquiry published in a French magazine turned up no response, and a dig organized on French soil also came up empty.
When the boxes of negatives turned up in Mexico City, the most likely chain of events seemed to be that somehow they had ended up in the hands of a Mexican diplomat.
General Francisco Aguilar Gonzalez served in Marseille as ambassador to Vichy France in the late 1930s. Half a century later, it was the general's nephew who discovered the 4,500 negatives, and a Mexican filmmaker in the family realized their importance.
These negatives span the course of the Spanish Civil War (1936–39), including the work of Taro, Capa and another photographer David Seymour known as Chim, and several rolls of film by Fred Stein showing mainly portraits of Taro, which after her death became inextricably linked to images of the war itself.
Gerda Tara, photo by Fred Stein The recovered negative provide a unique view of the Spanish civil war, a conflict that changed the course of European history, but also documents how the work of three key photojournalists laid the foundation for modern war photography.
In January 2018, one final photograph of Gerda Tara turned up on Twitter. It was posted by John Kiszely, a retired British lieutenant general, whose Hungarian father, Dr. Janos Kiszely, was a volunteer doctor with the International Brigades who fought against General Francisco Franco during the Spanish civil war.
After an investigation into the provenance of the photograph, it is believed to be Gerda Taro on her deathbed.
Gerda died at 27, her life a quick spark of creativity and passion. She defied the fascism that would sweep Europe. She defied gender roles in her personal life and as a combat
photographer.
Gerda Taro was a true pioneer for women and it's past time we help her step out of the shadow of her famous male partner.
A number of years ago, I wrote about another young woman whose passion carried her to Spain in the war against General Franco, which you can read here. ...Just know that I posted it, coincidentally, with the first photo of my granddaughter. Obviously, that got top billing that week! Sources
https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/co...?
https://medium.com/vantage/the-woman-...
https://www.elconfidencial.com/cultur...
https://www.theguardian.com/world/201...
https://www.osaarchivum.org/events/Me...
https://www.npr.org/sections/pictures...
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/ar... Book Recommendation Now here's the perfect follow-up to my story on Gerda Taro!
The Fountains of Silence , by Ruta Sepetys is what's called a cross-over book, which means it's great for both teens and adults. I knew I'd love this book because I have loved every book I've read by Ruta Sepetys. 
The book is described as a portrait of love, silence, and secrets under a Spanish dictatorship. It's well-researched and includes little snippets from US diplomatic files that shed light on a little-known aspect of America's foreign policy. But it's a fascinating novel!
The story begins when a young American arrives in Madrid in 1957, during the rule of Franco, the fascist dictator. Daniel takes pictures around the city hoping his portfolio will win him a scholarship to Journalism school.
I love that this is a romance, a suspenseful mystery, a literary novel and an important lesson in global history. The sum elevates the parts into a single powerful story.
Gerda Taro believed photographs could change the world. In the mid-1930s, she served as a midwife of sorts, helping birth the powerful force of modern photo journalism.
Taro captured some of the most memorable images of the Spanish civil war, and was the first woman in history to take pictures in battle. Unfortunately, she was also the first to lose her life reporting in a war zone.
Tragedy and mystery conspired to shroud Gerda Taro and her work, leaving photojournalism to move on without her. Below: Gerda Taro at work.
The daring activism that carried Gerda to the battlefields of Spain ignited in Germany.Gerda Pohorylle was born in 1910 to a Jewish family in Stuttgart. She came of age with the rising fascist National Socialists German Workers Party, (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei abbreviated Nazi) and joined the opposition.
In 1933, while passing out pamphlets at an anti-Nazi protest, Gerda was arrested and detained. Hitler became chancellor shortly after, and 23-year-old Gerda fled to Paris for safety.
Amid a a flood of refugees fleeing fascism, Gerda struggled to find work in Paris, but eventually got a job at Alliance Photo Agency. Hanging out with other young newcomers to Paris, she met Endré Friedmann, a Hungarian refugee trying to make a living as a photographer.
The two fell in love and developed a remarkable working relationship. Gerda advised
Endré on aspects of business and wrote captions for his pictures. He taught her the fundamentals of photography.
But it seemed impossible to rise from poverty and obscurity. As Paris overtook Berlin as the capital of modern photojournalism, competition for work and recognition intensified. Gerda and Endré's last names did not help them. Pohorylle and Friedmann immediately labeled them as immigrants and Jews.
Gerda suggested they change their names and reinvent themselves.
She attributed her photos to Gerda Taro, and helped Friedmann cast himself as Robert Capa, a wealthy American, recent arrival in Europe, and a successful photographer. True enough, Gerda sold Robert Capa’s work for three times the money of Endré Friedmann’s.
Within a year Gerda started selling her own pictures as well as Robert's, and they lived quite well. Gerda refused Robert's proposal for marriage, but that did not break up the relationship.
Taro and Capa: A professional success and fashionable couple. While building their professional skill and reputation, Gerda Tara and Robert Capa remained acutely aware of the tide of fascism in Germany and Italy. When a group of right-wing generals staged a military coup in Spain, in July, 1936, the couple immediately flew to Barcelona on assignment for a French news magazine. One of their first stories documented a group of militiawomen, who were members of the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia (the Catalan branch of the Communist Party of Spain), training on a nearby beach. The photo below was taken by Gerda Taro.
Reporting from previous war zones, photographers took their pictures before or after a battle, but Capa and Taro got right in the action. They embedded with the fighters and ran through gunfire to get their photos. Siding with the Republican's, Capa and Taro focused on the Loyalist troops trying to put down Franco's rebel army.When working together, often their photos were published under Capa's byline, perhaps to sidestep those prejudiced against women in the profession. Then in Spain Taro emerged as a photojournalist in her own right, her pictures published around the world.
Republican soldiers with canon, Monte Aragón, east of Huesca, Spain. © Cornell Capa International Center for Photography Gerda was fearless, compelled to experience the conflict first-hand. She took thousands of photographs, seeking to capture the fervor of battle experienced by the fighters and also that of refugees and citizens caught in the violence. Early on, the rebel Nationalists repeatedly bombed the crucial shipping port of Valencia, but on May 15, 1937, they adopted a new strategy. Aided by the Italian air force, they attacked the city, indiscriminately bombing civilians to spread panic and terror.
Gerda reported on the bombing in Valencia by herself on contract with the French communist newspaper Ce Soir. One of her most famous photos showed families pressed against the gates of the morgue waiting for news of loved ones.
Crowd outside morgue after air raid, Valencia, 1937. (International Center of Photography) Taro then went into the morgue to photograph the bodies lying on tables and the floor. This type of carnage would become all to familiar in WWII, but in 1937, this purposeful bombing of civilians was a new level of warfare.
Taro desperately wanted to show the world what was happening in Spain, but some faulted her and Capa for not being objective journalists.
“We all loved Gerda very much,” wrote Alexander Szurek, an adjutant to a Spanish Republican general, in his memoirs. “Gerda was petite with the charm and beauty of a child. This little girl was brave and the Division admired her for that...[She] was so passionate about the suffering of the Spanish people.
Child refugee from Málaga in Almería, Spain. Courtesy International Center of Photography “She got too involved, became a star reporter and over identified with the republican cause. But she got into this conviction that she had to bear witness," says her biographer Jane Rogoyska. "The troops loved her and she kept pushing. Capa warned her not to take so many risks.” In the spring and early summer of 1937, Taro covered the Brunete area near Madrid for Ce Soir. Franco's troops announced they had seized control of the region, but pockets of
Loyalists were still fighting, and they gained command, forcing the Nationalists to retreat. Taro’s photographs were the only proof this was happening.
Republican soldier sleeping, Battle of Brunete, Spain. Courtesy International Center of Photography Then in late July, General Franco's troops retook the town of Brunete, inflicting heavy losses on the Republicans' best troops who were now retreating under fire. Taro stayed with them, snapping photographs as bombs fell and planes strafed the ground with machine-gun fire.Eventually, Gerda ran out of film and headed for a safe position. "She was elated, saying 'I've got these fantastic photographs, I've got champagne, we're going to have a party,'" says Jane Rogoyska.
Gerda hitched a ride on the running board of a general's car evacuating wounded soldiers. Near Villanueva de la Cañada, German aircraft supporting Franco's army flew over and strafed the retreating company. A loyalist army tank lost control and crashed into the general's vehicle. Gerda suffered serious injuries.
She was alive and conscious when she arrived at the British Hospital in El Escorial fifteen miles away, where New Zealand surgeon Dr. Douglas Jolly operated on her, but she died that night.
Her photographs from that day, were never found.
Two boys on a barricade, Barcelona, 1936. Gerda Taro Capa was devastated and blamed himself for Taro's death. He stayed in Spain until the war ended and went on to shoot pictures in four more wars, cover volatile elections and the official founding of the state of Israel. He died in Indochina in 1954, when he stepped on a land mine. By many, Robert Capa is considered the greatest combat photographer in history. In the aftermath of Gerda Taro's death in Spain, and no one was thinking of saving negatives for posterity. In 1939, Capa once more had to flee anti-Semitism, escaping Paris for New York. He asked his darkroom manager to save his negatives. After the war, they could not be found.
Most of the photos the Taro and Capa published during their partnership were attributed to Capa, and to this day it remains unclear who took many of the pictures.
“There was a covering over of her presence, not maliciously, but because there was no one there to say ‘this is by him’ or ‘that is by her’,” says Taro's biographer Jane Rogoyska.
Gerda's body was returned to Paris, where Ce Soir, the communist newspaper, organized her funeral and thousands turned out to mourn her passing and celebrate her passion for the cause.Though Gerda Taro was gone and her work mostly forgotten, there would be two more twists to her story in the next half century.
Capa had always believed the negatives of photos they'd taken in Spain had been lost during the Nazi invasion. [Including photos of Ernst Hemmingway] Over the years, an inquiry about the negatives was published in a French magazine, and a excavation
organized in France looking for the negatives.
Then, in 1995, three tattered boxes of negatives turned up in Mexico.
The story pieced together seems to indicate that as the Nazi's closed in on Paris, Capa'sdarkroom assistant Imre Weisz, took off on a bicycle, carrying the negatives to Marseille. But Weisz was arrested and sent to an internment camp in Algiers, and nobody knew what happened to Capa and Taro's work. Over the years, an inquiry published in a French magazine turned up no response, and a dig organized on French soil also came up empty.
When the boxes of negatives turned up in Mexico City, the most likely chain of events seemed to be that somehow they had ended up in the hands of a Mexican diplomat.
General Francisco Aguilar Gonzalez served in Marseille as ambassador to Vichy France in the late 1930s. Half a century later, it was the general's nephew who discovered the 4,500 negatives, and a Mexican filmmaker in the family realized their importance.
These negatives span the course of the Spanish Civil War (1936–39), including the work of Taro, Capa and another photographer David Seymour known as Chim, and several rolls of film by Fred Stein showing mainly portraits of Taro, which after her death became inextricably linked to images of the war itself.
Gerda Tara, photo by Fred Stein The recovered negative provide a unique view of the Spanish civil war, a conflict that changed the course of European history, but also documents how the work of three key photojournalists laid the foundation for modern war photography.In January 2018, one final photograph of Gerda Tara turned up on Twitter. It was posted by John Kiszely, a retired British lieutenant general, whose Hungarian father, Dr. Janos Kiszely, was a volunteer doctor with the International Brigades who fought against General Francisco Franco during the Spanish civil war.
After an investigation into the provenance of the photograph, it is believed to be Gerda Taro on her deathbed.
Gerda died at 27, her life a quick spark of creativity and passion. She defied the fascism that would sweep Europe. She defied gender roles in her personal life and as a combatphotographer.
Gerda Taro was a true pioneer for women and it's past time we help her step out of the shadow of her famous male partner.
A number of years ago, I wrote about another young woman whose passion carried her to Spain in the war against General Franco, which you can read here. ...Just know that I posted it, coincidentally, with the first photo of my granddaughter. Obviously, that got top billing that week! Sources
https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/co...?
https://medium.com/vantage/the-woman-...
https://www.elconfidencial.com/cultur...
https://www.theguardian.com/world/201...
https://www.osaarchivum.org/events/Me...
https://www.npr.org/sections/pictures...
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/ar... Book Recommendation Now here's the perfect follow-up to my story on Gerda Taro!
The Fountains of Silence , by Ruta Sepetys is what's called a cross-over book, which means it's great for both teens and adults. I knew I'd love this book because I have loved every book I've read by Ruta Sepetys.
The book is described as a portrait of love, silence, and secrets under a Spanish dictatorship. It's well-researched and includes little snippets from US diplomatic files that shed light on a little-known aspect of America's foreign policy. But it's a fascinating novel!
The story begins when a young American arrives in Madrid in 1957, during the rule of Franco, the fascist dictator. Daniel takes pictures around the city hoping his portfolio will win him a scholarship to Journalism school.
I love that this is a romance, a suspenseful mystery, a literary novel and an important lesson in global history. The sum elevates the parts into a single powerful story.
April 13, 2021
They asked her to make coffee, but this girl Wanted to Fight Nazis
Wanda Traczyk-Stawska was 12-years-old when the German army invaded Poland in 1939, and a bomb hit a house across the street from where she lived in Warsaw. 
Image from the private archive of Wanda Traczyk - Stawska "I ran out with this dog in my arms to see where this bomb hit, to possibly cry out for people's help," Wanda said. "I saw a woman running out of the rubble of a building with an infant...I saw the Germans shooting this woman, aiming at this infant. I saw this child fall apart."
"And I was also at that time, first witnessing them throwing out of the house where we lived, my friend a Jew, I saw how they yanked her grandfather, how they pushed him, because he did not know what was going on, did not understand anything, cried, a terrible scene. Then my attitude towards the Germans was unequivocal."
Not much later the Germans came and booted Wanda's family out of their apartment. She has spunk even at 12. "He pushed me, this officer, because I wasn't very polite," Wanda said.
The Nazi officer also killed her beloved dog. Her mother, Wanda, an older brother and two younger sister had to move into her grandfather's one room. They had no running water or toilet. After her mother died in in January 1942, Wanda was left to care for her younger sisters.
German invasion of Poland, September 1939. I first learned of the devastation Poland suffered at the guns of the Nazis when I adapted Irena's Children, for young readers. Nearly six million Poles were killed, close to a quarter of the country's population.
"Poland suffered some of the worst horrors of World War II," according to CommonDreams.org . "From the start, the Nazis undertook a campaign of terror against what they deemed the racially inferior Poles.
"At least two million non-Jewish Poles were publicly hung, shot, or killed en masse by gas; another roughly three million Jewish Poles, most of the country's Jews, were also killed, many at Auschwitz and other camps on Polish soil.
The stated German goal, achieved to a chilling degree: "When we finish, nobody is left alive."
This was the context for the Warsaw Uprising in August 1944, World War II's largest armed rebellion against German occupation. On the first day, Wanda, now 17, feared she would not get a chance to take part.
"I was waiting for this uprising. I knew how to do what the boys could do, I could replace them. I imagined how their mothers would suffer after their deaths. I didn't have a mother - I thought I could be a good soldier because nothing would limit me.
Wanda Traczyk-Stawska, Polish Teen who fought the Nazis. "I was ordered to brew coffee. I couldn't do it, but I was able to shoot well. I saw others fighting in the uprising, and I thought I wouldn't do anything - it was supposed to last only three days."
A superior recognized Wanda's potential and she became a messenger delivering death notices to Poles collaborating with the Nazis. Dangerous as this was, she was not armed. Finally, a boy gave him her his pistol, and she was also allowed to throw grenades. As the battle progressed in different areas of Warsaw, Wanda was finally given a submachine gun.
Action to repel the Germans from the ruins of the Main Post Office from p. Warecka. Wanda is in the center, 1944. Photo: Afp/Getty Images from the private archive of Wanda Traczyk - Stawska "We were very young," Wanda said. "These friendships that formed in the Uprising are mutual understanding, resulting from the fact that we were very young, we were teenagers. This is a time when ideals are more important than life.
"Maybe it was the naivety...but we thought that we could cope, that insurgent troops would throw the Germans out of Warsaw. We knew that some of us would die, but we decided that we would fight."
The Polish Home Army fought for two months before the Germans crushed their resistance. Wanda was wounded, captured and sent to several prison camps where conditions nearly killed her.
"And they didn't give us food, we didn't have any dressings, and yet they were women. Besides, the worst part was that earlier in the winter it was so cold in the barracks, that there was frost on the hair, there was no mattress, not even straw there was, we slept on the boards. We didn't have blankets yet.
There were very difficult conditions. Sometimes they gave us such food, after which the whole camp was sick. This food was such bugs floating in the soup."
Below:
More than 1,700 of the 5,000 women who fought in the uprising were sent to the Oberlangen camp, liberated April 12, 1945
Below: Wanda Traczyk-Stawska and her plush childhood toy, the only one that survived the war. Interfores, April 2014 (Photo: Ap) Albert Zawada / Agencja Gazeta) 
After liberation, Wanda was sent to Palestine, to the School of Junior Volunteers in Nazareth, where she finished high school. She missed Poland and returned in 1947, where she earned a degree in Psychology and Pedagogy at the University of Warsaw. Wanda married, had two children and worked for 30 years at a school for disabled children.
She also carried out another important mission. General Antoni Chruściel ps. "Monter", one of the main commanders of the Warsaw Uprising asked Wanda to help locate the remains of the soldiers who died in the uprising, and to make sure they were buried where they could be remembered and honored for their sacrifice .
Some10,000 Polish resistance fighters and 200,000 civilians were killed during the 63 days of the Warsaw Uprising. Thousands were buried in makeshift graves all over Warsaw and thousands more were never identified or given any sort of burial. The huge task of exhuming and re-burying the dead began in 1945.
After World War II when Poland fell under Soviet rule, Polish resistance fighters were considered to be dissidents, not heroes. Not until decades later have they been recognized as patriots struggling for the independence of Poland.
The Warsaw Insurgent Cemetery. Approximately 104,000 people are buried in the cemetery, many unknown in collective graves. Wanda worked faithfully for many years until all as many names as possible were put on record in the Warsaw Insurgent Cemetery. Her brother, two years older than she, died in the uprising and she was not able to discover where he'd been buried for 28 years.
On the 76th anniversary of the uprising's outbreak, Wanda Traczyk-Stawska was recognized as an uprising insurgent and for her work as the leader of the Social Committee for the Warsaw Uprising Cemetery.
Wanda Traczyk-Stawska age 90. (Photo thanks to: Bartosz Bobkowski / Agencja Gazeta) In her 90s, Wanda is once against standing up for human rights in Poland, in particular, the rights of gay people.
She has spoken out against comments made by Olympic medal winner, Sofia Klepacka. The bronze medalist for wind surfing announced her desire for a "traditional Poland" and equated homosexuals to pedephiles.
“Anyone aware of what that dignity means, must remember that its foundation is freedom,” responded Wanda Traczyk-Stawska. “That nobody can be mistreated because of their different skin colour, different views or sexual orientation."
Wanda celebrated her 94th birthday, April 7, 2021. Sources
https://warszawa.wyborcza.pl/warszawa...?
https://histmag.org/dziewczyna-z-blys...
https://www.1944.pl/powstancze-biogra...
https://www.commondreams.org/further/...
Coincidentally, this week I listened to an audio book set in Poland during World War II. It's historical fiction based very closely on the events of a true story. I highly recommend it.
The Light in Hidden Places
by Sharon Cameron is about Polish teenager Stefania Podgorska who hid thirteen Jews in her attic during World War II. Her bravery, smarts and sacrifice will utterly amaze you. It's another story demonstrating a young woman with the will to do the right thing no matter the consequences.
Image from the private archive of Wanda Traczyk - Stawska "I ran out with this dog in my arms to see where this bomb hit, to possibly cry out for people's help," Wanda said. "I saw a woman running out of the rubble of a building with an infant...I saw the Germans shooting this woman, aiming at this infant. I saw this child fall apart.""And I was also at that time, first witnessing them throwing out of the house where we lived, my friend a Jew, I saw how they yanked her grandfather, how they pushed him, because he did not know what was going on, did not understand anything, cried, a terrible scene. Then my attitude towards the Germans was unequivocal."
Not much later the Germans came and booted Wanda's family out of their apartment. She has spunk even at 12. "He pushed me, this officer, because I wasn't very polite," Wanda said.
The Nazi officer also killed her beloved dog. Her mother, Wanda, an older brother and two younger sister had to move into her grandfather's one room. They had no running water or toilet. After her mother died in in January 1942, Wanda was left to care for her younger sisters.
German invasion of Poland, September 1939. I first learned of the devastation Poland suffered at the guns of the Nazis when I adapted Irena's Children, for young readers. Nearly six million Poles were killed, close to a quarter of the country's population. "Poland suffered some of the worst horrors of World War II," according to CommonDreams.org . "From the start, the Nazis undertook a campaign of terror against what they deemed the racially inferior Poles.
"At least two million non-Jewish Poles were publicly hung, shot, or killed en masse by gas; another roughly three million Jewish Poles, most of the country's Jews, were also killed, many at Auschwitz and other camps on Polish soil.
The stated German goal, achieved to a chilling degree: "When we finish, nobody is left alive."
This was the context for the Warsaw Uprising in August 1944, World War II's largest armed rebellion against German occupation. On the first day, Wanda, now 17, feared she would not get a chance to take part.
"I was waiting for this uprising. I knew how to do what the boys could do, I could replace them. I imagined how their mothers would suffer after their deaths. I didn't have a mother - I thought I could be a good soldier because nothing would limit me.
Wanda Traczyk-Stawska, Polish Teen who fought the Nazis. "I was ordered to brew coffee. I couldn't do it, but I was able to shoot well. I saw others fighting in the uprising, and I thought I wouldn't do anything - it was supposed to last only three days." A superior recognized Wanda's potential and she became a messenger delivering death notices to Poles collaborating with the Nazis. Dangerous as this was, she was not armed. Finally, a boy gave him her his pistol, and she was also allowed to throw grenades. As the battle progressed in different areas of Warsaw, Wanda was finally given a submachine gun.
Action to repel the Germans from the ruins of the Main Post Office from p. Warecka. Wanda is in the center, 1944. Photo: Afp/Getty Images from the private archive of Wanda Traczyk - Stawska "We were very young," Wanda said. "These friendships that formed in the Uprising are mutual understanding, resulting from the fact that we were very young, we were teenagers. This is a time when ideals are more important than life."Maybe it was the naivety...but we thought that we could cope, that insurgent troops would throw the Germans out of Warsaw. We knew that some of us would die, but we decided that we would fight."
The Polish Home Army fought for two months before the Germans crushed their resistance. Wanda was wounded, captured and sent to several prison camps where conditions nearly killed her.
"And they didn't give us food, we didn't have any dressings, and yet they were women. Besides, the worst part was that earlier in the winter it was so cold in the barracks, that there was frost on the hair, there was no mattress, not even straw there was, we slept on the boards. We didn't have blankets yet.
There were very difficult conditions. Sometimes they gave us such food, after which the whole camp was sick. This food was such bugs floating in the soup."
Below:
More than 1,700 of the 5,000 women who fought in the uprising were sent to the Oberlangen camp, liberated April 12, 1945
Below: Wanda Traczyk-Stawska and her plush childhood toy, the only one that survived the war. Interfores, April 2014 (Photo: Ap) Albert Zawada / Agencja Gazeta) After liberation, Wanda was sent to Palestine, to the School of Junior Volunteers in Nazareth, where she finished high school. She missed Poland and returned in 1947, where she earned a degree in Psychology and Pedagogy at the University of Warsaw. Wanda married, had two children and worked for 30 years at a school for disabled children.She also carried out another important mission. General Antoni Chruściel ps. "Monter", one of the main commanders of the Warsaw Uprising asked Wanda to help locate the remains of the soldiers who died in the uprising, and to make sure they were buried where they could be remembered and honored for their sacrifice .
Some10,000 Polish resistance fighters and 200,000 civilians were killed during the 63 days of the Warsaw Uprising. Thousands were buried in makeshift graves all over Warsaw and thousands more were never identified or given any sort of burial. The huge task of exhuming and re-burying the dead began in 1945.
After World War II when Poland fell under Soviet rule, Polish resistance fighters were considered to be dissidents, not heroes. Not until decades later have they been recognized as patriots struggling for the independence of Poland.
The Warsaw Insurgent Cemetery. Approximately 104,000 people are buried in the cemetery, many unknown in collective graves. Wanda worked faithfully for many years until all as many names as possible were put on record in the Warsaw Insurgent Cemetery. Her brother, two years older than she, died in the uprising and she was not able to discover where he'd been buried for 28 years.On the 76th anniversary of the uprising's outbreak, Wanda Traczyk-Stawska was recognized as an uprising insurgent and for her work as the leader of the Social Committee for the Warsaw Uprising Cemetery.
Wanda Traczyk-Stawska age 90. (Photo thanks to: Bartosz Bobkowski / Agencja Gazeta) In her 90s, Wanda is once against standing up for human rights in Poland, in particular, the rights of gay people.She has spoken out against comments made by Olympic medal winner, Sofia Klepacka. The bronze medalist for wind surfing announced her desire for a "traditional Poland" and equated homosexuals to pedephiles.
“Anyone aware of what that dignity means, must remember that its foundation is freedom,” responded Wanda Traczyk-Stawska. “That nobody can be mistreated because of their different skin colour, different views or sexual orientation."
Wanda celebrated her 94th birthday, April 7, 2021. Sources
https://warszawa.wyborcza.pl/warszawa...?
https://histmag.org/dziewczyna-z-blys...
https://www.1944.pl/powstancze-biogra...
https://www.commondreams.org/further/...
Coincidentally, this week I listened to an audio book set in Poland during World War II. It's historical fiction based very closely on the events of a true story. I highly recommend it.
The Light in Hidden Places
by Sharon Cameron is about Polish teenager Stefania Podgorska who hid thirteen Jews in her attic during World War II. Her bravery, smarts and sacrifice will utterly amaze you. It's another story demonstrating a young woman with the will to do the right thing no matter the consequences.
April 5, 2021
Covid Silences the Voice of a Hellraiser
Over the weekend, friends, family and fans of Anne Feeney gathered virtually to remember the fierce and unflagging protest singer who promised to "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable."
Utah Phillips called her “the best labor singer in North America." She was that, and so much more.
Two-time cancer survivor Anne Feeney fell to the coronavirus in February at age 69. Saturday, her life and legacy will be celebrated virtually on Zoom and Facebook Live.
I got to meet Anne several times in her hometown of Pittsburgh, PA, when I traveled there to promote Fannie Never Flinched. She wrote a ballad about Fannie Sellins' life long before I wrote my book. She Called Herself a Hellraiser
Anne Feeney was much, much, more. At Anne's memorial Saturday, her daughter's words are those that most deeply touched me .
"My mama, Anne Feeney may not have taught me how to paint my nails or curl my hair, but she certainly taught me how to be a strong woman. She taught me to be sure I am treated equally and to treat others the same.
"She taught me to protect and encourage other women. She taught me to stand together with those who are struggling. She taught me that if one person is being treated unfairly, we are all being treated unfairly." ~Amy Sue Berlin
Anne's music carried a message of solidarity to working people, and put corporations and politicians on notice. She sang for steelworkers, carwash employees, miners, strawberry pickers, railroad crews, anti-sweatshop activists and homeowners fighting foreclosure.
She sang at demonstrations for women's rights, the environment, human rights and lent her voice and a hand to people working to end poverty and racism.
In her nearly 35-year career, Anne played and sang upwards of 4,000 shows across 40 states, Canada and Europe and recorded twelve records. She hit political protests, union halls and state fairs.
Her favorite? “I love going to picket lines.”
Her first public performance as a folksinger at a 1969 demonstration against the Vietnam War. Over the years, she rallied workers in big national strikes and lockouts, several which lasted more than five years. Anne joined some of the largest protests in recent history, including the 1999 shut down of the WTO in Seattle, and the March for Women’s Lives in 2004.
“She was joyous and fiery in her determination to use her music to elevate those who are most marginalized and to move toward greater justice in the land,” said Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary.
Anne Feeney's best-known song, “Have You Ever Been to Jail for Justice?” was covered by Peter, Paul and Mary and made popular on 2004 album, In These Times."
Many people counted Anne as a loyal friend and were inspired by her. One said, "She stayed in touch. She asked questions about our lives and families. She shared so many stories and jokes. She was a great house guest. She was razor sharp, ornery, and she did a lot of trash talking. She called shit on the left, middle, and right. and was always probing for how we could do more."
Before her music and rabble-rousing career took off, Anne worked for a decade practicing trial law focused on domestic violence cases. Feeney also founded a rape crisis program in Pittsburgh in 1974, only the second such center in the nation.
Always supportive of other artists and musicians, Anne served as president of the Pittsburgh Musicians’ Union for four years. She became the first female president of any musicians local in the US, and the only woman elected to the position in Pittsburgh.
"I think music is a fantastic way of empowering people and giving them strength and energy," Anne told a Pittsburgh newspaper. "I've spent a good part of my life trying to find and write music that will empower people to resist and stand up for what's right."
Using the same guitar she had purchased in high school, Anne played and sang Black spirituals, rock, boogie, hip-hop, reggae and ska, the precursor to rocksteady and reggae.
Irish ballads, drinking songs and rebel anthems further filled out Anne's repertoire and probably ran in her blood. Her grandfather immigrated from Ireland and helped unionize
mine workers in West Virginia. Every year Anne traveled through Ireland for a month or two singing in pubs.
Her New York Times obituary recalled Anne Feeney was as at home on stage in a punk club as singing in a union hall, "[She] served as a link between the protest singers of the 1960s and the younger generations that emerged around the anti-globalization and antiwar movements of the early 2000s. Her admirers included both Pete Seeger and Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine."
Anne Feeney's business card read: Performer, Producer, Hellraiser.
The last time I saw Anne Feeney was 18-months ago during the weekend events of the 100th Anniversary commemoration of Fannie's death .
At the memorial celebration at the site where Fannie was gunned down, Anne and the Fannie Sellins Chorus sang the song Anne wrote about Fannie's life. See a quick snippet here , or listen to the full song on Spotify. Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/08/obituaries/anne-feeney-dead-coronavirus.html?
Anne Feeney Online Memorial Celebration - April 3, 2021
http://progressivevoices.org/performers/anne-feeney/
https://labornotes.org/blogs/2021/02/rest-power-anne-feeney-1951-2021
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Feeney#Music_career
Utah Phillips called her “the best labor singer in North America." She was that, and so much more.
Two-time cancer survivor Anne Feeney fell to the coronavirus in February at age 69. Saturday, her life and legacy will be celebrated virtually on Zoom and Facebook Live.
I got to meet Anne several times in her hometown of Pittsburgh, PA, when I traveled there to promote Fannie Never Flinched. She wrote a ballad about Fannie Sellins' life long before I wrote my book. She Called Herself a Hellraiser
Anne Feeney was much, much, more. At Anne's memorial Saturday, her daughter's words are those that most deeply touched me .
"My mama, Anne Feeney may not have taught me how to paint my nails or curl my hair, but she certainly taught me how to be a strong woman. She taught me to be sure I am treated equally and to treat others the same.
"She taught me to protect and encourage other women. She taught me to stand together with those who are struggling. She taught me that if one person is being treated unfairly, we are all being treated unfairly." ~Amy Sue Berlin
Anne's music carried a message of solidarity to working people, and put corporations and politicians on notice. She sang for steelworkers, carwash employees, miners, strawberry pickers, railroad crews, anti-sweatshop activists and homeowners fighting foreclosure.
She sang at demonstrations for women's rights, the environment, human rights and lent her voice and a hand to people working to end poverty and racism.
In her nearly 35-year career, Anne played and sang upwards of 4,000 shows across 40 states, Canada and Europe and recorded twelve records. She hit political protests, union halls and state fairs. Her favorite? “I love going to picket lines.”
Her first public performance as a folksinger at a 1969 demonstration against the Vietnam War. Over the years, she rallied workers in big national strikes and lockouts, several which lasted more than five years. Anne joined some of the largest protests in recent history, including the 1999 shut down of the WTO in Seattle, and the March for Women’s Lives in 2004.
“She was joyous and fiery in her determination to use her music to elevate those who are most marginalized and to move toward greater justice in the land,” said Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary.
Anne Feeney's best-known song, “Have You Ever Been to Jail for Justice?” was covered by Peter, Paul and Mary and made popular on 2004 album, In These Times."
Many people counted Anne as a loyal friend and were inspired by her. One said, "She stayed in touch. She asked questions about our lives and families. She shared so many stories and jokes. She was a great house guest. She was razor sharp, ornery, and she did a lot of trash talking. She called shit on the left, middle, and right. and was always probing for how we could do more."Before her music and rabble-rousing career took off, Anne worked for a decade practicing trial law focused on domestic violence cases. Feeney also founded a rape crisis program in Pittsburgh in 1974, only the second such center in the nation.
Always supportive of other artists and musicians, Anne served as president of the Pittsburgh Musicians’ Union for four years. She became the first female president of any musicians local in the US, and the only woman elected to the position in Pittsburgh.
"I think music is a fantastic way of empowering people and giving them strength and energy," Anne told a Pittsburgh newspaper. "I've spent a good part of my life trying to find and write music that will empower people to resist and stand up for what's right."
Using the same guitar she had purchased in high school, Anne played and sang Black spirituals, rock, boogie, hip-hop, reggae and ska, the precursor to rocksteady and reggae.
Irish ballads, drinking songs and rebel anthems further filled out Anne's repertoire and probably ran in her blood. Her grandfather immigrated from Ireland and helped unionize
mine workers in West Virginia. Every year Anne traveled through Ireland for a month or two singing in pubs.
Her New York Times obituary recalled Anne Feeney was as at home on stage in a punk club as singing in a union hall, "[She] served as a link between the protest singers of the 1960s and the younger generations that emerged around the anti-globalization and antiwar movements of the early 2000s. Her admirers included both Pete Seeger and Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine."
Anne Feeney's business card read: Performer, Producer, Hellraiser.
The last time I saw Anne Feeney was 18-months ago during the weekend events of the 100th Anniversary commemoration of Fannie's death .
At the memorial celebration at the site where Fannie was gunned down, Anne and the Fannie Sellins Chorus sang the song Anne wrote about Fannie's life. See a quick snippet here , or listen to the full song on Spotify. Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/08/obituaries/anne-feeney-dead-coronavirus.html?
Anne Feeney Online Memorial Celebration - April 3, 2021
http://progressivevoices.org/performers/anne-feeney/
https://labornotes.org/blogs/2021/02/rest-power-anne-feeney-1951-2021
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Feeney#Music_career
March 30, 2021
Beyond Joan of Arc: Here's the Evidence Woman are Truly Warriors
Have women always been warriors? And why does it matter anyway? That's the question we take up today with the help of a "brilliant storyteller."
That's what reviews say about Pamela D. Toler, PhD and her recent book Women Warriors: An Unexpected History.
From the time she was young, Pamela sought out stories of "smart/courageous/quirky/energetic girl protagonists and the few biographies of women that reached [her]
elementary school library."
Today the author has a PhD in history, and is praised for her rigorous research and accessible writing. Her books are for nerdy or inquisitive teens and thinking adults. (That's you, right?) Much thanks to Pamela D. Toler for taking time from her writing, teaching and speaking to answer my questions about her book Women Warriors. It's gotten great reviews and is on my stack to read.
"Like a lot of young girls," Pamela Toler says, "I was hungry for role models that told me it was okay to be smart, mouthy, opinionated, or different. Looking at women warriors as role models, whether they are historical or fictional, takes that one step further.
They're not just smart, they're strong. They're not just opinionated, they're brave.
I think one reason so many young girls are fascinated by Joan of Arc is that she was a teenage girl who made powerful people listen to her. That's heady stuff if you feel like you can't make yourself heard."
Women Warriors
is a global history, looking at women from many different times, places and cultures, from the second millennium BCE to the day before yesterday.
“Toler blows past all expectations with this thoroughly delightful, personable, and crucially important history of women warriors.” —Library Journal, Starred Review
Pamela organized the book according to the reasons women have historically taken up arms and how those reasons related to women's roles in society. For example, Pamela says, "In my first chapter I looked at cultural assumptions that set up mother and warrior as biologically ordained opposites, and then looked at a number of women who went to war not in spite of being mothers but because they were mothers."
A few of the women covered in the book: Lakshmi Bai, Rani of Jhansi, called the “bravest and best” military leader in the 1857 Indian Mutiny against British rule.Maria Bochkareva, who commanded Russia’s first all-female battalion—the First Women’s Battalion of Death—during WWIIJuana Azurduy de Padilla, a mestiza warrior who fought in at least 16 major battles against colonizers of Latin America and who is a national hero in Bolivia and Argentina today.Buffalo Calf Road Woman, the Cheyenne warrior who knocked General Custer off his horse at the Battle of Little Bighorn
Cheyenne woman warrior Buffalo Calf Road rescuing her brother, Chief Comes in Sight at the Battle of the Rosebud, 1876. (Spotted Wolf/Yellow Nose Ledger Book) Exploring these women fighters was fascinating for Pamela, and part of her interest sprang from the fact she found it hard to identify with most of them. But certain dynamics in their lives felt all too familiar.
Such as the experience of Lemdha Pachen, a Tibetan nun who inherited the position of Clan Chieftain from her father. In 1959, Pachen led six hundred resistance fighters from her clan into the mountains on horseback, armed with guns and swords to battle Chinese invaders.
Before his death, her father had prepared her for the responsibility of leading the clan. He trained her to shoot a rifle and invited her to defense meetings with other local leaders. She noticed the others looked at her "with a mixture of curiosity, disbelief, and dismay on their faces, as if they thought their meetings were no place for a woman."
Pamela says, "Thirty years later I sat in meetings where I was the only woman at the table and saw very similar looks on the faces of the men in the room. The stakes were much lower, but the reception was he same."
Lemdha Ani Pachen, Tibetan nun, resistance fighter and activist. Pamela hopes her book has an impact helping broaden people's perspective of history. She says the evidence that women have always been warriors challenges very basic ideas about women and men.
For much of history, the dominant images of war, and consequently of peace, have been gender-based. War has been considered men's business. As a result, if men are seen as warriors then women are by definition "not-warriors." Accepting the reality of historical women warriors as more than an occasional exception challenges the patriarchal norm at a fundamental level.
Women have always fought, Pamela concludes, not in spite of being women, but because they are women.
You might remember when I spoke with Pamela about her book The Heroines of Mercy Street. Not the TV series, but real nurses of the Civil War.
I told her I tend to be queasy, but she assured me the book touches lightly on the blood and gore of battle wounds, and focuses on the doggedness of the women nurses.
Doggedness they sorely needed because the doctors didn't want their help. Who Won the Civil War Battle Between the Doctors and Nurses?
That's what reviews say about Pamela D. Toler, PhD and her recent book Women Warriors: An Unexpected History.
From the time she was young, Pamela sought out stories of "smart/courageous/quirky/energetic girl protagonists and the few biographies of women that reached [her]
elementary school library."
Today the author has a PhD in history, and is praised for her rigorous research and accessible writing. Her books are for nerdy or inquisitive teens and thinking adults. (That's you, right?) Much thanks to Pamela D. Toler for taking time from her writing, teaching and speaking to answer my questions about her book Women Warriors. It's gotten great reviews and is on my stack to read."Like a lot of young girls," Pamela Toler says, "I was hungry for role models that told me it was okay to be smart, mouthy, opinionated, or different. Looking at women warriors as role models, whether they are historical or fictional, takes that one step further.
They're not just smart, they're strong. They're not just opinionated, they're brave.
I think one reason so many young girls are fascinated by Joan of Arc is that she was a teenage girl who made powerful people listen to her. That's heady stuff if you feel like you can't make yourself heard."
Women Warriors
is a global history, looking at women from many different times, places and cultures, from the second millennium BCE to the day before yesterday.“Toler blows past all expectations with this thoroughly delightful, personable, and crucially important history of women warriors.” —Library Journal, Starred Review
Pamela organized the book according to the reasons women have historically taken up arms and how those reasons related to women's roles in society. For example, Pamela says, "In my first chapter I looked at cultural assumptions that set up mother and warrior as biologically ordained opposites, and then looked at a number of women who went to war not in spite of being mothers but because they were mothers."
A few of the women covered in the book: Lakshmi Bai, Rani of Jhansi, called the “bravest and best” military leader in the 1857 Indian Mutiny against British rule.Maria Bochkareva, who commanded Russia’s first all-female battalion—the First Women’s Battalion of Death—during WWIIJuana Azurduy de Padilla, a mestiza warrior who fought in at least 16 major battles against colonizers of Latin America and who is a national hero in Bolivia and Argentina today.Buffalo Calf Road Woman, the Cheyenne warrior who knocked General Custer off his horse at the Battle of Little Bighorn
Cheyenne woman warrior Buffalo Calf Road rescuing her brother, Chief Comes in Sight at the Battle of the Rosebud, 1876. (Spotted Wolf/Yellow Nose Ledger Book) Exploring these women fighters was fascinating for Pamela, and part of her interest sprang from the fact she found it hard to identify with most of them. But certain dynamics in their lives felt all too familiar.Such as the experience of Lemdha Pachen, a Tibetan nun who inherited the position of Clan Chieftain from her father. In 1959, Pachen led six hundred resistance fighters from her clan into the mountains on horseback, armed with guns and swords to battle Chinese invaders.
Before his death, her father had prepared her for the responsibility of leading the clan. He trained her to shoot a rifle and invited her to defense meetings with other local leaders. She noticed the others looked at her "with a mixture of curiosity, disbelief, and dismay on their faces, as if they thought their meetings were no place for a woman."
Pamela says, "Thirty years later I sat in meetings where I was the only woman at the table and saw very similar looks on the faces of the men in the room. The stakes were much lower, but the reception was he same."
Lemdha Ani Pachen, Tibetan nun, resistance fighter and activist. Pamela hopes her book has an impact helping broaden people's perspective of history. She says the evidence that women have always been warriors challenges very basic ideas about women and men. For much of history, the dominant images of war, and consequently of peace, have been gender-based. War has been considered men's business. As a result, if men are seen as warriors then women are by definition "not-warriors." Accepting the reality of historical women warriors as more than an occasional exception challenges the patriarchal norm at a fundamental level.
Women have always fought, Pamela concludes, not in spite of being women, but because they are women.
You might remember when I spoke with Pamela about her book The Heroines of Mercy Street. Not the TV series, but real nurses of the Civil War.
I told her I tend to be queasy, but she assured me the book touches lightly on the blood and gore of battle wounds, and focuses on the doggedness of the women nurses.
Doggedness they sorely needed because the doctors didn't want their help. Who Won the Civil War Battle Between the Doctors and Nurses?
March 23, 2021
Time to Put Away Childish Things (and one-sided history)
When I was a little girl, I loved to read about pioneers on the Oregon Trail. I came to identify with qualities I perceived in people who made that difficult journey.
They were bold, grasping freedom and opportunity. They were tough, pitting themselves against nature, gambling on their physical strength and mental acuity, and testing their will to survive.
When I worried about what had happened to the Native peoples whom the pioneers displaced, I was given a vague answer, "It's too bad what happened, but it's progress and you can't stop progress."
Me in second grade at Deming Elementary. From my perspective now, I would not call westward expansion human progress. And my focus now is on Indigenous people's amazing will to survive. I'm identifying myself with the qualities of compassion, good listening skills and the ability to see history more clearly.
As a writer and lover of books, I'm also working to amplify voices that have long been ignored. Great Books, Important Voices Several years ago here on my blog, I told you about Mary Golda Ross , a Cherokee aerospace engineer.
In the 1920's, most girls had no expectation of a college education or a career outside the home, but Mary Golda Ross had learned differently, and from a very young age. The Cherokee people had a long tradition of equal opportunity for women.
"Even in the days before women's liberation, the role of Cherokee women has never been a subservient one," Mary said. "Women held high positions in early Cherokee tribal councils, where their advice was heeded not only on matters of policy, but also concerning war strategy."
I'm delighted to show you a new picture book telling Mary Golda Ross's story.
The new book
Classified: The Secret Career of Mary Golda Ross, Cherokee Aerospace Engineer
. It's written by
Traci Sorell
, who lives in the Cherokee Nation.
The story tells how Mary grew up to design classified airplanes and spacecraft as Lockheed Aircraft Corporation's first female engineer. It also highlights the Cherokee values she was brought up with. Besides equal opportunity for girls to go to school and take up careers, she learned to work cooperatively and remain humble.
Illustrator Natasha Donovan is Métis; her Métis family are the Delarondes and the Morins from Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan. She now lives in on a tiny farm in Deming, Washington. (Which happens to be where I grew up, though I have not had the pleasure of meeting her.)
I order Classified from Birchbark, located in Minneapolis, MN. Birchbark Books is operated by a spirited collection of people who believe in the power of good writing, the beauty of handmade art, the strength of Native culture, and the importance of small and intimate bookstores. 
The Sea in Winter is written by
Christine Day
(Upper Skagit) who grew up in Seattle, as she says, "nestled between the sea, the mountains, and the pages of her favorite books." 
Middle Grade Author Christine Day The Sea in Winter is Christine's second novel, and billed as a story of a Native American girl struggling to find her joy again. From the publisher:
It’s been a hard year for Maisie Cannon, ever since she hurt her leg and could not keep up with her ballet training and auditions.
Her blended family is loving and supportive, but Maisie knows that they just can’t understand how hopeless she feels. With everything she’s dealing with, Maisie is not excited for their family midwinter road trip along the coast, near the Makah community where her mother grew up.
But soon, Maisie’s anxieties and dark moods start to hurt as much as the pain in her knee. How can she keep pretending to be strong when on the inside she feels as roiling and cold as the ocean?
There's one more incredible book I want to recommend. Under a Painted Sky by Stacey Lee is a western featuring girls! An Asian-American girl and a black girl! Here's a one minute book trailer. I read a lot of westerns growing up, along with Oregon Trail stories, but I never read one like this. I would have loved this book when I was a teenager (adult themes), and I super enjoyed it as an adult. Stacey Lee is an incredible writer and I highly recommend this book! She more of her historical fiction here...
Being an avid reader helps me see the world from points-of-view quite different than mine, both historical and modern. What about you? Is there a book you've read recently that took you far away from your own experience of life? Do tell!
They were bold, grasping freedom and opportunity. They were tough, pitting themselves against nature, gambling on their physical strength and mental acuity, and testing their will to survive.
When I worried about what had happened to the Native peoples whom the pioneers displaced, I was given a vague answer, "It's too bad what happened, but it's progress and you can't stop progress."
Me in second grade at Deming Elementary. From my perspective now, I would not call westward expansion human progress. And my focus now is on Indigenous people's amazing will to survive. I'm identifying myself with the qualities of compassion, good listening skills and the ability to see history more clearly.As a writer and lover of books, I'm also working to amplify voices that have long been ignored. Great Books, Important Voices Several years ago here on my blog, I told you about Mary Golda Ross , a Cherokee aerospace engineer.
In the 1920's, most girls had no expectation of a college education or a career outside the home, but Mary Golda Ross had learned differently, and from a very young age. The Cherokee people had a long tradition of equal opportunity for women.
"Even in the days before women's liberation, the role of Cherokee women has never been a subservient one," Mary said. "Women held high positions in early Cherokee tribal councils, where their advice was heeded not only on matters of policy, but also concerning war strategy."
I'm delighted to show you a new picture book telling Mary Golda Ross's story.
The new book
Classified: The Secret Career of Mary Golda Ross, Cherokee Aerospace Engineer
. It's written by
Traci Sorell
, who lives in the Cherokee Nation.The story tells how Mary grew up to design classified airplanes and spacecraft as Lockheed Aircraft Corporation's first female engineer. It also highlights the Cherokee values she was brought up with. Besides equal opportunity for girls to go to school and take up careers, she learned to work cooperatively and remain humble.
Illustrator Natasha Donovan is Métis; her Métis family are the Delarondes and the Morins from Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan. She now lives in on a tiny farm in Deming, Washington. (Which happens to be where I grew up, though I have not had the pleasure of meeting her.)
I order Classified from Birchbark, located in Minneapolis, MN. Birchbark Books is operated by a spirited collection of people who believe in the power of good writing, the beauty of handmade art, the strength of Native culture, and the importance of small and intimate bookstores.
The Sea in Winter is written by
Christine Day
(Upper Skagit) who grew up in Seattle, as she says, "nestled between the sea, the mountains, and the pages of her favorite books." Middle Grade Author Christine Day The Sea in Winter is Christine's second novel, and billed as a story of a Native American girl struggling to find her joy again. From the publisher:It’s been a hard year for Maisie Cannon, ever since she hurt her leg and could not keep up with her ballet training and auditions.
Her blended family is loving and supportive, but Maisie knows that they just can’t understand how hopeless she feels. With everything she’s dealing with, Maisie is not excited for their family midwinter road trip along the coast, near the Makah community where her mother grew up.
But soon, Maisie’s anxieties and dark moods start to hurt as much as the pain in her knee. How can she keep pretending to be strong when on the inside she feels as roiling and cold as the ocean?
There's one more incredible book I want to recommend. Under a Painted Sky by Stacey Lee is a western featuring girls! An Asian-American girl and a black girl! Here's a one minute book trailer. I read a lot of westerns growing up, along with Oregon Trail stories, but I never read one like this. I would have loved this book when I was a teenager (adult themes), and I super enjoyed it as an adult. Stacey Lee is an incredible writer and I highly recommend this book! She more of her historical fiction here...
Being an avid reader helps me see the world from points-of-view quite different than mine, both historical and modern. What about you? Is there a book you've read recently that took you far away from your own experience of life? Do tell!
