Oveta Culp Hobby - military trailblazer

During World War II, like the other branches of the military, the US Army started a program to recruit women into non-combat positions to free up more (white) men for the front lines. Houston newspaper editor and philanthropist Oveta Culp Hobby (January 19, 1905 – August 16, 1995) was tapped to be the first director of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (later the Women's Army Corps, or WACs), a position she used to promote the right of all women to serve their country during its time of need.

Prior to the war, she'd studied law, served as a clerk for the Texas Legislature's judiciary committee, and helped plan the 1928 Democratic National Convention in Houston. She eventually married the former governor of Texas and owner of the Houston Post-Dispatch, where she took a position on the editorial board and used her position to make changes in how the newspaper covered stories important to women and minorities. She also wrote a couple of books about her time working in state government, and was quite active in state and federal activities.

In 1941, while she was visiting Washington, D.C., she was asked to head a section on women's activities for the army. While the US had not officially entered the war yet, the army was actively drafting men into its ranks, and many women were also eager to find a way to serve. She studied the women's branches of the French and British armies and used their successes and failures as a guide for creating something similar for the US Army.

The women who served in the WAC were the first women other than nurses to wear U.S. Army uniforms and, thanks to her tireless work to integrate them within the military, they were the first women to receive military benefits through the GI Bill. She used her extensive knowledge of publicity and organization to promote and protect the importance of the women serving to the overall military goals.

Unlike the WAVES (the Navy's women's branch), the WAAC/WAC was integrated from the outset, although only at 10% representation of African American women (supposedly to match the level of representation in the overall population). Not only did Oveta Culp Hobby insist that black women be included in the corps, but she worked to make sure they were also invited to be part of the first class of officers.

She served as director for the duration of the war, ultimately achieving the rank of colonel, and was the first woman in the Army awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for efforts.

After the war, she returned to Houston and to her work with the newspaper and her philanthropic and political pursuits, continuing her support of civil rights issues as well as improving the lives of women across Texas.

You can listen to an interview with her from January 16, 1944 (starts at 10:00). It's interesting to note how important it is for her to address the fitness, the safety, and the domesticity of the WACs. Clearly she knew these were concerns many Americans had when thinking about women serving in the military, and they generally echo the same types of issues brought up in other areas such as women work in shipyards and munitions plants, and how women were treated during and after the war.

I can't do the work of SRPS without your your support!
If you like what you read here, please share this post with your friends.

Read More

Betty Gillies - flight leader

Betty Gillies (January 7, 1908 – October 14, 1998) was a pioneering American aviatrix who worked to promote the role of women in aviation, and the first pilot to qualify for the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (which became the Women Airforce Service Pilots, WASPs) during World War II.

She began taking flying lessons in 1928, and earned her license in 1929. Later that year, she attended a meeting of other female pilots, where they formed The Ninety-Nines (so named because there were 99 charter members) led by flying pioneer Amelia Earhart. In 1930 she married Bud Gillies, vice president at Grumman Aircraft Corporation. And she continued flying, working to earn a commercial pilot's license.

In 1939, she served as president of the 99s and organized efforts to convince the Civil Aeronautics Authority to repeal its ban on women flying during pregnancy. This was a personal issue for Betty, as she was a young mother and anticipated having more children. If pregnant and postpartum women couldn't fly, they wouldn't be able to meet the required 10 hours of flight every six months to maintain their commercial license, forcing them to retake all their tests again after their child was born, at considerable expense.

When the US finally entered World War II, women pilots were ready to step in as needed. When Betty received a telegram from her friend and fellow pilot Nancy Love to join her new wartime program, the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron, Betty left immediately. By this time she'd been flying for 14 years, with over 1400 flying hours and several aeronautical ratings, and she became the first pilot to qualify. When Nancy Love left to start another branch in Texas shortly thereafter, Betty was promoted to squadron leader assigned to the 2nd Ferrying Group, based out of Wilmington, Delaware, on the New Castle Army Air Base, where she served during the duration of the war.

Her job was to organize ferrying missions from the factories where the planes were assembled to air bases across North America where they would then be flown into service by male soldiers. This enabled more men to be sent overseas, while women would perform as many stateside duties as possible.

Ferrying was an often grueling job, requiring pilots to fly long distances in all kinds of weather, with only short breaks to refuel the planes and let the pilots rest. One mission required four legs between Maryland and Alberta, Canada. Betty's squadron ferried four fighters and were back on base two days later.

But there was adventure too. During this time she got to fly a variety of planes commissioned by the Navy. She was the first woman to fly the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter, and at the other end of the flying spectrum, she and Nancy Love were the first women to fly the Boeing B-17s Flying Fortress.

After the war, she and her family moved to California, where Betty operated a ham radio, connecting phone calls to ships in the Pacific, as well as communicating regularly with staff and Navy personnel in the Antarctic, and participating in the Navy MARS program (Military Auxiliary Radio System, where civilians assisted the military with communication efforts during times of emergency). She continued flying, and remained active in promoting the role of women in aviation. From 1953 to 1961, she served as the Chair of the All Woman Transcontinental Air Race, and in 1964 she served on the first Federal Aviation Administration Women's Advisory Committee.

I can't do the work of SRPS without your your support!
If you like what you found here, please share this post with your friends.

Read More

Ola Mildred Rexroat - brave pilot

Ola Mildred "Millie" Rexroat (August 28, 1917 – June 28, 2017) was born in Argonia, Kansas, in 1917. Her father was a white man who worked as a publisher and editor, and her mother was an Oglala-Lakota Indian who grew up on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. While Millie's family moved from town to town as she was growing up, she spent plenty of time visiting her grandmother on the reservation in South Dakota. In 1932, she graduated from St. Mary's Indian High School for Girls in Springfield, South Dakota, but didn't have much of an idea of what she wanted to do with her life. Over the next few years she bounced around from location to location, and job to job, before finally settling down to complete her bachelor's degree in art from the University of New Mexico in 1939.

When the US finally entered World War II, Millie and her mother and sisters moved to Washington, DC, where they found work at the Army War College. But Millie wasn't content to spend the war working in an office. She wanted to do something more. At first she considered joining the Women's Army Corps (WAC), or maybe the United States Naval Reserve (WAVES), but when she learned of the WASPs, she was sure that was where she belonged.

Millie had no prior flying experience, but that didn't stop her. She found a local flight school that offered a series of lesson for only $8 an hour. After 35 hours of flying, she was qualified to apply. After graduating from training in Sweetwater, Texas, in 1944, she became the only Native American woman to serve in the WASPs. She was stationed at Eagle Pass Army Airfield where she took on the dangerous job of towing aerial gunnery targets to help new recruits learn to operate the big machinery.

"You didn't have time to be frightened or scared or anything like that. I was usually more concerned about my landings."

Sadly for Millie, the WASP program was disbanded later that same year. But she had found her place. Even if she wasn't able to fly, she could still work with other pilots. She joined the Air Force Reserves, where she was called into active duty during the Korean War, and later served for ten years as an air traffic controller.

For more information about her life and career, check out her bio on the Fly Girls series site.

I can't do the work of SRPS without your your support!
If you like what you read here, please share this post with your friends.

Read More

Hazel Ying Lee - fearless flyer

In 1932, Hazel Ying Lee (August 24, 1912 – November 25, 1944) became one of the first Chinese-American women to earn a pilot's license. It was only months after her first airplane ride, when she'd been so thrilled by the experience she immediately joined the Chinese Flying Club of Portland, Oregon, where she'd lived her entire life. At the time, she was working as an elevator operator at a department store, one of the few jobs a Chinese-American woman could get at the time. Her mother tried to talk her out of flying, but Hazel wasn't having it. She was going to become a pilot and find a way to fly as often as possible.

The very next year, when Japanese forces began to make incursions into China, Hazel traveled all the way to China planning on volunteering for the Chinese Air Force. They turned her away because of her gender, despite their dire need for trained pilots. She stayed in China, working for a private airline. In 1937, when Japan finally invaded China, with large scale bombings, it was Hazel's ability to remain calm in a crisis that likely saved the lives of many of her friends and family, as she was able to locate a safe shelter for them during the attacks. In 1938, she escaped to Hong Kong, and then made her way to New York, where she worked for the Chinese government as a buyer to help them secure materials for their war effort.

When the US joined the war, Hazel looked for opportunities to serve, but there were few openings for women. In 1943, though, with the creation of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP), she found a job that suited her perfectly. She enlisted as soon as she could, and was in the 4th class of pilots accepted and sent to Sweetwater, Texas, for training. She was then assigned to the third Ferrying Group, based out of Michigan, where the auto factories were now building aircraft for the war. Her group was tasked with flying the planes from the factory to central locations around the country where they would then be shipped to the either the European or Pacific fronts.

Hazel was well respected by her fellow service pilots as well as her superiors. She was often heard saying she'd "take and delivery anything." No risk was too much for her. During her time as a WASP, she had two forced landings -- where she had to land a plane under less than ideal circumstances -- and in both cases it was her cool demeanor that probably saved her life. In one case, she had to set the plane down in a Kansas wheat field, and then fend off an angry farmer who was convinced she was a Japanese invader.

Photo caption: WASPs being briefed in ready-room, Avenger Field, Sweetwater, Texas, May 1943. Front row, l to r: Group Commander Charles M. Sproul, Irma Cleveland, Faith Buchner, Martha Lundy, Mary Jane Stevens, Anabelle Kekic. Back row, l to r: Ruby Mullins, Hazel Ying Lee, Virginia Harris Mullins. Source: Texas Women's University.

In 1944, she was selected for a prestigious series of intensive training classes at the Pursuit School at Brownsville, Texas, where she and a handful of other women pilots who flew the faster, higher powered fighters.

Unfortunately, her flying career ended entirely too soon. In November 1944 she was sent to upstate New York to pick up a plane to deliver to Montana. As she was approaching the runway for her final landing on this multi-leg journey, there was a mix up in the control tower, and she collided with another plane. Both went up in flames, and while they were able to pull her from the wreck, she died two days later from her burns.

I wonder what would have become of her after the war had she lived? Would she have gone on to become one of the female pilots who continued flying for either private or military projects, like WASP director Jackie Cochran? Would she have traveled the world with her husband, another Chinese-American pilot she'd met in Portland, while he served as a Chinese diplomat? Would she have been the first Asian American selected as a candidate for the Mercury 13 group of possible female astronauts? Who knows?

Even though she died young, she had already established herself as a brave young woman unafraid of taking risks and using her skills for the greater good. It's telling that the one of the first things she decided to do once she'd earned her license was to head off to a war front to serve. And for that, she's definitely a Self-Rescuing Princess Society role model.

I can't do the work of SRPS without your your support!
If you like what you read here, please share this post with your friends.

Read More

Badass Women Who Fought Nazis

The mission of the Self-Rescuing Princess Society is, as I'm sure you have already figured out, to share stories of women and girls who have done or are doing good things in the world. Obviously, what constitutes "good things" is completely subjective, and this seems like an excellent time to make it absolutely clear what that means for this blog. Doing good things includes, but is not limited to: promoting fairness and equality for marginalized groups, using one's talents to improve the world, protecting herself and others against harm, challenging the institutions that support racism, misogyny, colonialism, etc., and pretty much anything else that would get someone labeled as a "social justice warrior."

This includes fighting Nazis. In fact, over the last few years, I've written several posts about women who bravely fought against the original Nazis during World War II. For them, it wasn't simply a matter of going to a protest on a sunny Saturday afternoon. Fighting Nazis was a day-in-day-out, life or death struggle, and some of them gave their lives for the cause.

Below is a list of these brave Nazi-fighting women, with a link to the posts where you can read more about them, their lives, and their bravery. You can be sure I will continue to write about other women who fought alongside them, as well as women from other parts of the world, and other eras, who have shown the same kind of strength and resolve in the face of tyranny and oppression. By reading their stories, we can find inspiration to continue our own mission for social justice for all.

Regina Jonas - the first woman rabbi

In 1935, Regina Jonas became the first woman to be ordained as a rabbi. She had been orphaned as a young girl in Berlin, and originally pursued a career as a teacher. But wanted more for her life, so she enrolled in seminary classes, with the intention of becoming a rabbi, even though no other woman before her had been ordained. On December 27, 1935, liberal Rabbi Max Dienemann, granted her ordination, just as the Nazis were beginning their rise to power.

She was never able to serve as a the rabbi in a synagogue, sadly. Before she could find a congregation, she was sent to a concentration camp with other Jews. Even there, she continued her work as a rabbi, ministering to the other prisoners, helping them cope with shock and disorientation. She worked there until mid-October of 1944, when she was deported to Auschwitz, where she was murdered two months later. She was 42 years old.

Sigrid Schultz - the dragon from Chicago

Sigrid Schultz was an American war correspondent for the Chicago Tribune whose European upbringing enabled her to mingle with high-ranking German officials without attracting attention, giving her plenty of opportunity share the truth of what was happening in Germany during the 1930s with the rest of the world. This put her at considerable risk and she often had to resort to writing under a pseudonym and filing her reports under false datelines out of other European offices.

She stayed in Germany for as long as she could, filing reports about concentration camps, government assaults on churches and other institutions, telling the truth about increasing persecution of Germany's Jews, warning about dangerous alliances with other countries, and otherwise trying to convince the world of the atrocities she was witnessing.

Malka Zdrojewicz - Jewish resistance fighter

By 1943, Jews throughout Europe were well aware of the incredible danger they faced. Everyone in the Warsaw Ghetto had been forcibly moved there -- often after they'd already escaped the Nazis as they passed through rural villages in eastern Poland on their way to the Russian front -- and they knew that it was only a temporary arrangement as the Nazis figured out what to do with them. They'd already seen large groups of their friends and family members taken away to Treblinka and Majdanek, two of the Nazi German Extermination camps in Poland.

Malka Zdrojewicz, along fellow resistance fighters Rachela and Bluma Wyszogrodzki, was arrested by the SS for having carried arms (guns and grenades, etc.) into the Warsaw ghetto. These brave young women risked their life as part of their active resistance of Nazi oppression.

Astrid Løken - fearless scientist and spy

Most of the people who worked with Astrid Løken never suspected she was a high ranking member of the Norwegian resistance movement during World War II. They only knew of her passion about bumblebees and her dedication to her research.

Shortly after the Nazi forces invaded Norway in 1940, the resistance force known as XU began recruiting researchers in natural science, realizing their field work would give excellent cover for their spy work. Astrid applied to the Nazi authority for permission to study bumblebees near otherwise restricted military areas. Because they assumed she was a harmless scientist watching insects, she was given free range, and routinely took photos of roads, bridges and other important structures, which she then developed back at the university where she was studying.

Lyudmila Pavlichenko - badass with a gun

It's all well and good to punch Nazis, but Lyudmila Pavlichenko did more than that. She shot them. And not just a few. As a USSR Army soldier in World War II she sniped 309 of them.

When she showed up at the recruitment office after the Germans invaded the USSR, she was initially offered a job as a nurse, but they agreed to let her prove herself. They handed her a rifle and showed her a couple of enemy fighters across the field of battle. She convinced them by handily dispatching both, earning her place as a sniper. In fact, there were over 2,000 female snipers in the Soviet Army. But Pavlichenko was the best. Her successes in the field earned her the respect of her superiors and the admiration of civilians near and far.

Leona Woods - visionary scientist

Not all of the Nazi-fighting occurred in Europe. Thousands of Americans worked tirelessly on stateside projects that helped support the soldiers and spies overseas. The scientists involved with the Manhattan Project worked day and night trying to beat the Germans to construct the first nuclear bomb. Leona Woods was the only female physicists on the team that built the world's first nuclear reactor, which helped the scientists in Los Alamos solve the puzzle of how to turn atomic energy into a weapon.

She knew that her work was most than just a science experiment. It was a desperate race to beat the Germans who would surely use such a weapon to expand their fascist goal of creating a new world order.

Irena Iłłakowicz - Polish resistance martyr

In September 1939, within 3 weeks, both the Germans and Soviets invaded Poland. In October, Irena joined the resistance movement with her husband. Irena was assigned to a branch responsible for conducting military, economic and information reconnaissance, and sent to Berlin to spy on the Germans.

When her network was discovered by the Germans, dozens of activists were arrested. Irena herself was arrested and taken to Pawiak, a prison that was being used to interrogate resistance members, and to process Jews and others for removal to concentration camps, where was tortured. She bravely refused to give up any info despite increased torture. Her resistance colleagues, hoping to spare her, sent her a vial of cyanide, but she refused to use it. She was eventually able to escape, after her husband bribe a guard and other resistance members forged documents to have her released.

Margaret Bourke-White - inspirational photojournalist

In 1936, talented photographer Margaret Bourke-White was hired by the publishers behind a brand new magazine, Life, where her work was a regular feature, creating a new job as a photojournalist. She continued traveling to cover important events around the world. When World War II broke out, she was already on the ground in Europe, making her the first woman allowed in combat zones there. When German forces invaded Moscow, she was the only foreign photographer there, making her images a valuable resource documenting the firefight.

When the US entered the war, she found a spot with troops in North Africa, Italy, and Germany. She was there to captured the gruesome scenes when the Buchenwald concentration camp was liberated, the first time these types of horrors were so clearly illustrated for the American public.

Josephine Baker - World War II spy

Internationally acclaimed singer and dancer Josephine Baker moved France in the mid-1920s to escape the soul-crushing racism she experienced in the United States. When the Germans invaded Poland, she refused to leave France for safer areas, and instead joined French Resistance when she was recruited by the French military intelligence to serve as a "honorable correspondent." Her role was to use her celebrity to mix with high-ranking officials at embassy parties, and gather information about troop locations. She moved freely all around Europe, Northern Africa, and even South America as an entertainer, carrying info about airfields, harbors, and troop concentrations back to officials in France or Britain written in invisible ink on her sheet music.

For her efforts, she was awarded the honorary rank of lieutenant in the Free French Air Force, and after the war she received both the Croix de Guerre and the Medal of the Resistance, and was made a Chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur, an honor usually reserved for French citizens.

Katya Budanova - brave young role model

Katya Budanova was born into a peasant family in rural western Russia. After the death of her father she was sent her to live with her sister in Moscow. It was there, working as a carpenter in an aircraft factory, where she began to show an interest in flying. The factory had an aeroclub, and Katya, always the brave one, joined the parachute team. In 1934, at the age 18, she earned her flying license, and in 1937, she graduated to flight instructor.

When Hitler's forces attacked the USSR, like many of her compatriots, she rushed to enlist in the military. She was assigned to the all-female 586th Fighter Regiment, led by the infamous Marina Raskova. With the war raging all along the western border, her regiment was called in to take the place of male fighters. Katya flew her first combat missions in May 1942, defending the rail-lines near Saratov. Over the course of the next year, Katya showed extreme bravery and skill, defending her country by shooting down enemy planes of all types, earning the Order of the Red Star, the Order of the Patriotic War, and the title of Hero of the Russian Federation (posthumously).

I can't do the work of SRPS without your your support!
If you like what you read here, please share this post with your friends.

Read More

Leona Woods - visionary scientist

Leona Woods (August 9, 1919 – November 10, 1986) is best known as the only female physicists on the team that built the world's first nuclear reactor, which is a worthy memorial. But it was what led her to be on that team, and what she did afterward, that is truly worth celebrating.

Her intelligence was evident early in her life when she graduated from high school early and then earned her BS in chemistry at the age of 18. Her doctoral thesis on silicon oxide bands earned her the respect of fellow post-doc researchers, who hired her to be a part of Enrico Fermi's team studying nuclear physics as part of the Manhattan Project in the early years of World War II. In fact, they were working on building a nuclear reactor underneath the abandoned football stadium at the University of Chicago (the same one she had played on as a student), hoping to beat the Germans to unlocking the power of the atom.

They did, with her help. It was her idea to build and use geiger counters during experiments to analyze the results. And she was there when their reactor, known as Chicago Pile-1, went critical, setting the foundation for the work of other scientists at Los Alamos building the first atomic bomb which, in turn, helped end the war.

After the war, she continued her research in high-energy physics, astrophysics and cosmology, moving from laboratory to laboratory, teaching physics and publishing papers. Over the course of her career, she continually showed her visionary brilliance tackling a wide range of subjects using science to try and solve problems facing humanity. She wrote over 200 papers, including one on how to create an atmosphere on the moon.

Later in her career, she applied her experience teaching classes on environmental studies, engineering, engineering archaeology, mechanical aerospace and nuclear engineering. Her interests included using nuclear science to understand and protect the environment. She created a method to study tree rings using isotope ratios in order to learn more about prehistoric climate fluctuations. In fact, her research has contributed to our own understanding of human-caused changes to the climate.

Leona Woods was a forward-thinking scientist whose contributions to science are still influencing our understanding of the world around us. She is truly a Self-Rescuing Princess Society role model worth celebrating.

Check out this great interview she gave in 1986 about her time working on the Manhattan Project.

I can't do the work of SRPS without your your support!
If you like what you read here, please share this post with your friends.

Read More

Irena Iłłakowicz - Polish resistance martyr

Irena Iłłakowicz (July 26, 1906 – October 4, 1943) was a Polish intelligence agent during World War II.

Her parents were living in Berlin when she was born. Poland was still occupied by the Russians, and many Poles (like Marie Curie and her sister) had emigrated to other countries in Europe, looking for better opportunities. During World War I, they left Germany for Finland. After the war was over, Poland had succeeded in gaining its independence, and the family returned to their homeland.

After graduating from high school in Poland, Irena moved to Paris to study humanities. It was there that she met her first husband, Azis Zangehan, the son of an Iranian prince. The couple moved to Persia, where Irena stayed for two years. Sadly, Irena wasn't able to travel to Poland to visit her family and became very homesick. Eventually, her husband helped her secretly travel to Tehran, where she was able to meet with Polish diplomats who, in turn, helped her leave the country and return to Poland.

After spending time in Warsaw, she eventually returned to Paris, where she met her second husband Jerzy Olgierd Iłłakowicz. They married in 1934, and their daughter Ligia was born in 1936. The young family enjoyed a bit of peace while paying attention to the reports coming out of Germany and preparing for the worst.

The worst came in September 1939 when, within 3 weeks, both the Germans and Soviets invaded Poland. In October, both Irena and Jerzy joined the resistance movement. To protect them from arrests by the Gestapo, she assumed a new name -- Barbara Zawisza -- and she and her husband lived in different locations.

Irena was assigned to a branch responsible for conducting military, economic and information reconnaissance. She was the perfect candidate for this type of work as she spoke seven languages: Polish, French, English, Persian, Finnish, German and Russian. She went to Berlin, where she was a part of a small organization spying on the Germans.

Sadly, over several months in 1941 and '42, her network was destroyed by the Germans, with on-going arrests of activist. Irena herself was arrested by the Gestapo on October 7, 1942. They took her to Pawiak, a prison that was being used to interrogate resistance members, and to process Jews and others for removal to concentration camps. Irena was tortured, but refused to give up any info. Her resistance colleagues, hoping to spare her more torture, sent her a vial of cyanide, but she refused to use it.

Her husband managed to bribe a guard to put her in a group of prisoners being transporter the Majdanek concentration camp. While there, a group of Polish resistance fighters were able to rescue her dressed as Gestapo officers with a forged warrant for her to be brought to Warsaw for further interrogation.

Instead of retiring from spywork, she returned to the resistance, this time working to gather intelligence on Soviet plans to send parachuters into Poland. On the night of October 4, 1943, she received a summon for a meeting that seemed too important to miss. She decided she had to go despite her suspicions. Tragically, it was a set up and she was brutally murdered.

Because she was undercover when she was killed, she was buried with her false name, and her husband and mother had to disguise themselves as cemetery workers in order to attend her funeral. It wasn't until after the war that her mother was able to have a plaque with her real name placed on her grave.

In 1944 Irena was posthumously promoted to second Lieutenant for her bravery during the war.

I can't do the work of SRPS without your your support!
If you like what you read here, please share this post with your friends.

Read More

Lyudmila Pavlichenko - Badass with a gun

It's all well and good to punch Nazis, but Lyudmila Pavlichenko (July 12, 1916 – October 10, 1974) did more than that. She shot Nazis. And not just a few. As a soldier for the Soviet Army in World War II she sniped 309 of them.

As gruesome as it might be to consider for many of us, at the time killing Nazis seemed to be the only way to stop their march across Europe, killing anyone they didn't deem worthy of living in their 'Großdeutsches Reich.' When the Nazis invaded the USSR in 1941, in addition to reneging on their pact to not to invade (a pact they clearly hadn't actually planned to keep), they went in with the full intention of taking over the western part of the Soviet Union so they could fill it with Germans and use anyone left as forced labor to support their war effort.

Naturally, the Soviets didn't like this idea and immediately began to enlist in large numbers, men and women, to fight against this invasion. Lyudmila Pavlichenko was no exception. She wanted to use her skills as a sharpshooter to defend her country. She was a college student at the time studying history, but she was also handy with a rifle. As a teen she'd joined a shooting club when a boy friend of hers boasted about his achievements. She set out to prove to him that girls could shoot as well, and by the time she was in college, she'd earned a reputation as a proficient markswoman.

When she showed up at the recruitment office, she was initially offered a job as a nurse, but they agreed to let her prove herself with a gun. They handed her a rifle and showed her a couple of enemy fighters across the field of battle. She convinced them by handily dispatching both, earning her place as a sniper. In fact, there were over 2,000 female snipers in the Soviet Army. But Pavlichenko was the best. Her successes in the field earned her the respect of her superiors and the admiration of civilians near and far. In fact, after just over a year of battle (in which she'd killed 309 Nazis or their collaborators) she was removed from the front when she was injured because her notoriety had made her a target for the enemy.

She took a position as instructor for other snipers, teaching them what she'd learned in the field, and eventually rose to the rank of General. She used her newfound status to bring international attention to the situation along the Soviet front line -- the "second" front -- where resources were scarce and funds were desperately needed for basic equipment like x-ray machines. She was invited to the US by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to travel throughout the US telling Americans about her experience.

I'm more than a little annoyed by, but totally unsurprised at, the ridiculously misogynistic questions and comments she received during her tour. "One reporter even criticized the length of the skirt of my uniform, saying that in America women wear shorter skirts and besides my uniform made me look fat." But I am absolutely energized by her amazing response to the treatment she received from American men. "Gentlemen, I am 25 years old and I have killed 309 fascist invaders by now. Don’t you think, gentlemen, that you have been hiding behind my back for too long?" Boom!

After the war, she returned to her study of history, and spent the rest of her life working as a historian with the Soviet Navy.

You can read more about her relationship with Eleanor Roosevelt in the Smithsonian Magazine story "Eleanor Roosevelt and the Soviet Sniper"

There was a Russian film made about her life, released in 2015, Battle for Sevastopol [trailer]

I can't do the work of SRPS without your your support!
If you like what you read here, please share this post with your friends.

Read More

Margaret Bourke-White - inspirational photojournalist

When I think of photojournalism the person who comes to mind is Margaret Bourke-White (June 14, 1904 – August 27, 1971), the first female photographer at Life magazine, the first woman photojournalist on the ground in World War II, and an all-round remarkable artist. Her career was a perfect melding of three factors: remarkable talent, dedication to her craft, and an uncanny ability to be in the right place at the right time.

She grew up at a time when photography was transitioning from a novelty to an art form, and as a child she was fascinated with cameras. Her father was a naturalist, and himself a photography hobbyist, and encouraged her curiosity about the world around her.

Still, when she enrolled in college at Columbia University she was there to study herpetology, not photography. But that changed within the first few weeks when she attended a photograph class. Sadly, she had to leave college after only one semester to deal with the death of her father and to help support her mother and younger brother.

Still, she was determined to earn her degree, and over the next several years, she took classes wherever she was -- Michigan, Indiana, or Ohio -- and eventually graduated with a  bachelor's in fine art in 1927. At first, she worked as general photographer, opening her own studio in Cleveland. She focused on architectural and industrial photography, where she refined her technique.

One of her greatest breakthroughs came while working for one of her biggest clients, the Otis Steel Company. She'd been commissioned to take photos of the factory during production, but the film at the time couldn't capture the color of red-hot molten steel, and all her images came out black. But she solved the problem by bringing some magnesium flares that gave off a bright white light, and had workers hold them to properly illuminate the hot steel.

Her work as a commercial photographer caught the attention of magazine publishers who were on the hunt for images to share. In 1929 she took a position as associate editor and staff photographer at Fortune magazine. In that role she was allowed to travel for international news stories, and was the first Western photographer allowed into the USSR to take photos of their factories.

In 1936, she was hired by the publishers behind a brand new magazine, Life, where her work was a regular feature. In fact, she earned the cover photo spot in their first issue. During her time with Life, she continued traveling to cover important events around the world. When World War II broke out a few years later, she was already on the ground in Europe, making her the first woman allowed in combat zones there. When German forces invaded Moscow, she was the only foreign photographer there, making her images a valuable resource documenting the firefight.

When the US entered the war, she found a spot with troops in North Africa, Italy, and even Germany. She was there with General Patton when Buchenwald concentration camp was liberated and captured the gruesome scenes, the first time these types of horrors were so clearly illustrated for an American public.

After the war, she traveled to India to report on the violence as a result of the contentious partition of India and Pakistan. While there, she was able to interview Gandhi, and take an iconic photo of him at his spinning wheel, just a few hours before he was assassinated.

After an extraordinary career, in the early 1950s she developed increasingly debilitating symptoms of Parkinson's disease and eventually had to step back from her photography. Considering her seemingly natural ability to capture complex human truths in her photos, I have to wonder how she would have used her talents to document the civil rights and feminist movements of the 60s and 70s. Thankfully she was an influence on future generations of photojournalists as well as an inspiration women worldwide to pursue their dreams regardless of difficulty.

You can read more about her life and work in her Library of Congress biography.

I can't do the work of SRPS without your your support!
If you like what you read here, please share this post with your friends.

Read More

Josephine Baker - World War II Spy

Most people are familiar with the photos of Josephine Baker (June 3, 1906 – April 12, 1975) in one of her iconic dance costumes, but how many have seen this photo of her in her Free France Air Force uniform? How did a child living in poverty in St. Louis become a spy for the French Resistance?

She left home in her early teens after years of dancing on street corners and digging in trash cans for food, working in Vaudeville for a few years before she found a home in the Harlem as a chorus line dancer -- one of the best dancers, actually. That earned her a spot in a European tour in 1925, which changed the course of her life. When the tour ended, she dropped out and returned to France to star in her own show at the Folies Bergère. Thus began her life-long love of Paris. She spent a decade dancing and performing, celebrated as the first person of African descent to become a world-famous entertainer, known as the "Black Pearl", the "Bronze Venus", and the "Creole Goddess."

But she was so much more than simply a dancer. Later in her life she would become a prominent figure in the Civil Rights Movement, refusing to perform in front of segregated audiences in the US, and writing articles about discrimination. But before this period of public acts of resistance, though, she had an even more exciting but covert period -- she was a spy.

When the Germans invaded Poland, she refused to leave France for safer areas, and instead joined French Resistance when she was recruited by the French military intelligence to serve as a "honorable correspondent." Her role was to use her celebrity to mix with high-ranking officials at embassy parties, and gather information about troop locations. She moved freely all around Europe, Northern Africa, and even South America as an entertainer, carrying info about airfields, harbors, and troop concentrations back to officials in France or Britain written in invisible ink on her sheet music.

After a long period of recovery from a dangerous infection resulting from a miscarriage, she focused her energies on performing for troops stationed in North Africa. There was no organized entertainment for the troops there, so she and her friends created their own. As part of her efforts to promote the Free France movement, when she was invited to perform for King Farouk in Egypt, she refused because of his refusal to recognize the resistance, but instead preferred to stay neutral. Instead, she offered to perform at a separate Free France celebration in Cairo, and invited him to preside over the event. That was her way of encouraging him to at least subtly reveal which side he supported.

For her efforts, she was awarded the honorary rank of lieutenant in the Free French Air Force, and after the war she received both the Croix de Guerre and the Medal of the Resistance, and was made a Chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur, an honor usually reserved for French citizens.

If you found this post helpful, as well as the rest of what you read here,
please share it with your friends, and consider supporting me!

Read More

Astrid Løken - fearless scientist who spied on the Nazi army

SRPS Women in STEM: Astrid Løken
(April 14, 1911 – January, 19 2008)

Most of the people who worked with Astrid Løken never suspected she was a high ranking member of the Norwegian resistance movement during World War II. They only knew of her passion about bumblebees and her dedication to her research.

Shortly after the Nazi forces invaded Norway in 1940, the resistance force known as XU began recruiting researchers in natural science, realizing their field work would give excellent cover for their spy work. Known as "Eva," Astrid applied to the Nazi authority for permission to study bumblebees near otherwise restricted military areas. Because they assumed she was simply a scientist watching insects, she was given free range, and routinely took photos of roads, bridges and other important structures, which she then developed back at the university where she was studying.

She developed her photos, as well as those of other scientist-spies, in the middle of the night because the university janitor was a Nazi loyalist. Then she ventured out via bicycle to her drop location or to the secret XU headquarters, under black-out conditions, risking capture at every turn.

She knew what she was doing was deadly serious, and she was prepared for the worst. She carried a cyanide capsule with her, and kept a gun and other weapons in her bedroom, in case she was discovered. Even so, on December 16, 1943, she was nearly captured by the Gestapo, although she managed to escape unharmed.

After war, she was exhausted from the stress and strain of spy work and was hospitalized. But eventually she recovered and spent the next few years studying in the United States before returning to Norway to work as a curator for the Bergen Museum while also earning her Ph.D.

[Photos, from top left: Astrid with fellow scientist-spies Edvard K. Barth and Otto Øgrim, resting after a difficult meeting; Astrid at her microscope; Astrid showing off her specimens]

I can't do the work of SRPS without your your support!
If you like what you read here, please share this post with your friends.

Read More

Malka Zdrojewicz and Individual Acts of Resistance

I've been thinking a lot lately about individual stories that make up historic events. When we learn about these large uprisings or demonstrations, we often only learn about the collective story, without really understanding that its power comes from the synthesis of these thousands of smaller stories. While reading about Claudette Colvin and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, I learned about the different ways individuals participated, each to the extent that they could. Most people walked miles each way to work or school in all kinds of weather. Some banded together to form a community carpool. And still others donated money, food, or childcare to help their neighbors who were busy walking or driving rather than riding the bus.

This morning, I learned that today is the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the first uprising of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto (1943). I know a little about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising as a historic even, but I wanted to know about the individuals and how they participated. In my research, I found this photo. At first glance, I was emotionally struck by how defiant these women appear, even as they are also obviously terrified. I wanted to know: Who were they and what was happening?

From left to right, they are: sisters Rachela and Bluma Wyszogrodzki, and Malka Zdrojewicz. This photo was taken by the SS, as these three were arrested for having carried arms (guns and grenades, etc.) into the ghetto. After the war, Malka talked of her experience in the Warsaw Ghetto, and the circumstances behind this photo.

"We went to a neutral place in the ghetto area and climbed down into the underground sewers. Through them, we girls used to carry arms into the ghetto; we hid them in our boots. During the ghetto uprising, we hurled Molotov cocktails at the Germans.

"After the suppression of the uprising, we went into hiding, taking refuge in an underground shelter where a large quantity of arms was piled up. But the Germans detected us and forced us out. I happened to be there with Rachela and Bluma Wyszogrodzka (and that is how they took our picture) ...

"Rachela and I, together with the others, were driven to the Umschlagplatz. They later took us to Majdanek from there."
(source: Institute for Historical Review)

They had good reason to be terrified. By 1943, Jews throughout Europe were well aware of the incredible danger they faced. Everyone in the Warsaw Ghetto had been forcibly moved there -- often after they'd already escaped the Nazis as they passed through rural villages in eastern Poland on their way to the Russian front -- and they knew that it was only a temporary arrangement as the Nazis figured out what to do with them. They'd already seen large groups of their friends and family members taken away to Treblinka and Majdanek, two of the Nazi German Extermination camps in Poland.

When faced with such abject oppression and terror, these three young women (and countless others like them) refused to give up. They found ways to resist even amid the most horrific circumstances.

FYI: Malka was the only one of the three to survive Majdanek.

---

Image source: Wikipedia. Image info: Stroop Report original caption: "HeHalutz women captured with weapons." Jewish resistance women, among them Malka Zdrojewicz (right), who survived the Majdanek extermination camp.

You can read more about the women in the Warsaw Ghetto in this excellent World History Connected post.

I can't do the work of SRPS without your your support!
If you appreciate what you learn here, please share this post.

Read More

Sigrid Schultz - the dragon from Chicago

Earlier this week I read this short blurb about a woman I'd never heard of before:

January 5, 1893 (1980) – Sigrid Schultz, war correspondent for the Chicago Tribune, interviewed Hitler, reported on German-Russian non-aggression pact, wrote articles on German concentration camps.
(source: NWHP January calendar)

I was surprised I hadn't heard of this amazing woman's story until now, so I went looking for more information about her life and her work.

Fortunately I was able to get a copy of Kerrie Logan Hollihan's Reporting Under Fire: 16 Daring Women War Correspondents and Photojournalists, which has an entire section devoted to her. (I am a huge fan of Kerrie Logan Hollihan, and highly recommend you check out her bibliography.)

Sigrid Schultz was born in the US, but spent much of her childhood in Europe. Her father was a portrait painter and traveled Europe painting for the wealthy elite. Having grown up in Europe, Sigrid spoke perfect German and French as well as English. She studied history and international law at Berlin University. Her family was forced to remain in Germany during World War I because of health issues. As alien residents, they were required to report their movements to the authorities twice a day throughout the war. She was intelligent and curious, and while she was able to socialize with the German elite, she was not taken in by their political agenda. All of these experiences went into making her the remarkable journalist was was to become over the next two decades.

Her fluency in multiple languages and her intimate knowledge of German politics made her a perfect candidate for an opening at the Chicago Tribune, whose owner and publisher Colonel Robert R. McCormick was impressed by Sigrid's persistence to pursue any story she was assigned. In 1919, she was hired in the Berlin office of the Tribune, and by 1925, she was promoted to the position of chief correspondent for Central Europe, making her America's first woman bureau chief at a foreign desk.

Her strength was as a superb investigator and reporter, and in the years leading up to WWII she was committed to finding and telling the truth about the rising National Socialist Party. This put her at considerable risk and she often had to resort to writing under a pseudonym and filing her reports under false datelines out of other European offices. Even so, she remained a target for expulsion. She'd watched as other reporters were targeted by the political elite. One technique the Germans used to silence reporters was to plant information they could then "discover" and use to put the reporter on trial for espionage.

Sigrid took great care not to be tripped up by such tactics, so one day, when her mother telephoned to say that a stranger had dropped a packet of papers at her flat, Sigrid jumped up from her desk and raced home. The packet held designs for airplane engines. Sigrid threw it in the fire and watched it burn.
(source: Reporting Under Fire: 16 Daring Women War Correspondents and Photojournalists)

Later, undaunted and refusing to stand down, she confronted Hermann Göring, former WWI flying ace and now leading member of the Nazi Party, about the use of these unethical methods of silencing the press. Angered by her insolence, he nicknamed her "that dragon from Chicago."

She stressed that correspondents were not foolish enough to buy or send information meant for spies. She said agents who, judging by their seedy looks were obviously underpaid, posed the danger of concocting lies about the press. "Schultz, I`ve always suspected it," Goering said, shaking his fist at her. "You`ll never learn to show proper respect for state authorities. I suppose that is one of the characteristics of people from that crime-ridden city of Chicago." (Goering was so angry, Schultz recalled in her memoirs, that he dubbed her "that dragon from Chicago.")
(source: Chicago Tribune)"

She stayed in Germany for as long as she could, filing reports about concentration camps, government assaults on churches and other institutions, telling the truth about increasing persecution of Germany's Jews, warning about dangerous alliances with other countries, and otherwise trying to convince the world of the atrocities she was witnessing. By 1940, though, with the war raging around her, she found it necessary to leave. First she fled to Spain, but in 1941 illness forced her to return to the United States. She spent the next years writing and lecturing about her time in Germany, all the while keeping a close eye on the news reports. As soon as the war was over, she was back on the front lines, this time reporting about the fall of Germany, and covering the Nuremberg Trials, and helping the American public understand exactly what had happened.

"We were the first pressmen who landed near Weimar and entered the corpse-strewn concentration camp of Buchenwald. When our plane flew into Leipzig where the battle was raging, we nearly got trapped by SS guards in a big building we examined," she recalled. Fortunately, they did not go into the basement where, they later learned, SS guards stood ready to shoot them.
(source: Chicago Tribune)"

In the years since World War II there have been no shortage of stories about brave men and women who fought against fascism and tyranny in the midst of incredible danger and in the face of overwhelming indifference around the world. I sometimes wonder what I would be able to achieve under similar circumstances. Would I have the dedication to continue fighting when my life was threatened? Would I willingly remain in a dangerous situation for the sake of a greater goal? I don't know, and I honestly hope I never never have to face such terrible challenges. But if I do, I sincerely hope I would find the strength to be as fearless as Sigrid Schultz. What a truly remarkable, inspirational woman!

I can't do the work of SRPS without your your support!
Please share this post with your friends.

Read More

Katya Budanova - brave young role model

Today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Yekaterina "Katya" Budanova, one of the remarkable Soviet female fighter aces from World War II. For all of the terrible faults of the Soviet Union, one cannot find much to complain about when it came to offering opportunities for women outside of traditional gender roles. Katya's life, even before she took to the skies as a fighter pilot, is a testament to that.

Katya was born into a peasant family in rural western Russia. She was a bright girl who did quite well in school, graduating elementary school with the highest grades. Unfortunately, after the death of her father, she was forced to leave school to earn money to help support her family. She worked as a nanny for several years until, at the age of 13, her mother sent her to live with her sister in Moscow. It was there, working as a carpenter in an aircraft factory, where she began to show an interest in flying.

The factory had an aeroclub, and Katya, always the brave one, joined the parachute team. In 1934, at the age 18, she earned her flying license, and in 1937, she graduated to flight instructor. She was hooked! She would regularly volunteer to join air shows and "flying parades," taking to the skies in the single-seater Yakovlev UT-1.

When Hitler's forces attacked the USSR, like many of her compatriots, she rushed to enlist in the military. She was assigned to the all-female 586th Fighter Regiment, led by the infamous Marina Raskova. With the war raging all along the western border, her regiment was called in to take the place of male fighters. In May 1942, they were sent to defend the rail-lines near Saratov. Katya flew her first combat missions, each one spectacularly successful. In fact, the Soviet Commanders were so impressed with the women pilots they began to mix them in with male squads.

In September 1942, Katya was assigned to the same mission as fellow flying aces Lydia Litvyak, Maria M. Kuznetsova and Raisa Beliaeva. While flying together, they showed exceptional skill at combining forces to bring down enemy fighters. They were equally impressive during their solo missions. Over the course of the next year, Katya showed extreme bravery and skill, defending her country by shooting down enemy planes of all types, earning the Order of the Red Star, the Order of the Patriotic War, and the title of Hero of the Russian Federation (posthumously).

On July 19, 1943, she took off from Novokrasnovka as part of an escort mission. Doing her job, when she spotted three enemy fighters attacking a group of Soviet bombers, she attempted to draw them off. She managed to destroy one, and send another limping away, but in the process her own plane had been badly damaged and was on fire. She managed to extinguish the fire and land her plane safely in a field, but by the time the local farmers reached her she was dead.

What I find the most interesting about her story is not that she was a pilot, but that she was a fighter pilot, who willingly put herself in danger to protect and defend her country. Typically this type of wartime hero story is limited to the patriotism and bravery of men. The stories of women's efforts in fighting are too often forgotten after the battles are done and everyone goes back to "normal."

It's as if societies need to believe that women only fight when they're threatened individually, never as an expression of their love of country. And that's a shame. We need female heroes like Katya Budanova -- role models of bravery in the fight for the greater good, despite immediate personal danger. Women have always fought. Isn't it about time we started to tell their stories as well?

I can't do the work of SRPS without your your support!
If you like what you read, please share this post with your friends.

Read More