War & Peace

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Research and Resource Book Women’s Stories of WWII from Ireland, Spain, Germany and Poland

WOMEN War & Peace

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Research and Resource Book Women’s Stories of WWII from Ireland, Spain, Germany and Poland Articles and Research on WWII, the Spanish Civil War, Human Rights, Gender Equality and Peace Remembrance through Theatre Workshop Model

WOMEN WAR AND PEACE l 3

4 l WOMEN WAR AND PEACE

Contents Foreword by Marian Harkin MEP Introduction Europe for Citizens Programme of the European Union Partner Organisations Contributor Biographies

6 8 13 14 16

Chapter One: Women’s Stories of World War II Tell Them Our Names

19

IRELAND HERSTORIES Collected by Smashing Times Theatre Company Ltd, Dublin, Ireland

25

Mary Elmes Ettie Steinberg Margaret Skinnider Josephine Alexandra Mitchell Dorothy Macardle Mary Fleming and Aileen Turner Louise Graham, née Boyle

Introduction Alina Szapocznikow Maria Eugenia Jasinska Homeless women in Łódz, WWII Regina (Inka) Milichtajch Johanna Majewska

48

The roots of hate: Fascism, Nazism, totalitarianism and war by Kilian Cuerda Ros

52

Valencia during the Second Republic and the Civil War: A hope aborted by Kilian Cuerda Ros

56

Ireland: Women in 1916 and World War II by Mary Moynihan

59

Chapter Three: Human Rights, Gender Equality and Peace Keynote Article: Human Rights and Gender Equality by Edyta Pietrzak and Inga Kuzma

64

United Nations and the Declaration of Human Rights

68

The European Union (EU)

39

Anna Seghers Esther Bauer Sophie Scholl Marta Hillers Gertrud Pötzinger ŁÓDZ, POLAND HERSTORIES Collected by University of Humanities and Economics in Łódz, Poland

The Second World War: A Global Conflict by Mary Moynihan

Council of Europe and European Convention on Human Rights

SPAIN HERSTORIES 34 Collected by Instituto de Formación y Estudios Sociales (IFES), Valencia, Spain, www.ifes.es Federica Montseny Mañé Pilar Tendillo Haro Rosa Estruch Espinos Neus Català Pallejà Dolores Ibárruri, La Pasionaria GERMANY HERSTORIES Collected by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universitaet Hannover (LUH), Germany

Chapter Two: War

42

How to influence the EU

70 71 72

EU common laws, policies and procedures for promoting human rights, gender equality, peace and democracy - Charter of Fundamental Human Rights - Gender Equality - Peace and Democracy - EU policy on Human Rights Defenders - Youth Participation

73 74 75 77 77

Summary of Women War and Peace Online Questionnaire by Arne Schrader

78

Summary of what can be done to promote human rights, gender equality and peace by Mary Moynihan

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Chapter Four: Women War and Peace Theatre Workshop Model Women War and Peace Remembrance Through Theatre Workshop Model Guidelines for Theatre Facilitators Key Terms Bibiliography Special Thanks

83 112 112 114 116


Foreword By Marian Harkin MEP

O

ver the last year or so, I have faltered a little in my interest for the European project, certainly not my firm belief in the value of the project, nor my commitment to its implementation, but at some level, my enthusiasm was waning. You might wonder why or how this has happened. In recent times, things have begun to splinter and one of our core values, solidarity, has been in short supply, with austerity policies becoming largely unquestioned. Two million migrants have arrived across the Mediterranean and we in the EU couldn’t even agree on relocating just 200,000 of them. Right wing parties whose naked nationalism, based on xenophobia, are growing in popularity across Europe and then of course on June 24th 2016, in the early hours of the morning, the hammer blow, BREXIT. When I was asked to write a foreword for this thought provoking, hugely interesting book, which draws together a number of themes around women in conflict, the appalling nature of war and the evolution of gender equality based on a human rights model. As I turned the pages a small voice that grew louder kept saying “Marian this is why you believe in the EU in the first place, this is why you must hold on for dear life to the liberal democratic model of the EU. You owe it to the women in the book and elsewhere to 6 l WOMEN WAR AND PEACE

be part of that long line that brings us from conflict to a peace that is based on human rights and gender equality.” This book spans the last century and draws us into this one, but there is intimacy and personal connection in the first section which tells ‘herstories’ rather than ‘histories’. Strong, brave, decent women right across Europe, very many of whom were activists, some of whom were victims, but all of them were actors in the unfolding historical events. They were not mere spectators, they effected change often in incredibly difficulty circumstances and we as women in Europe today owe them – big time. The individual stories of these women are fascinating, sometimes heart-breaking but more often than not they are truly uplifting. I feel at times I can see a thread linking their lives to mine and to yours as a reader. We have built our societies and constructed the EU on the back of their struggle. I am so so tempted to name their names to recognise these extraordinary women – but I leave that discovery to you the reader. As you scan these pages these women will reach out to you as they did to me and if you are a woman you will be proud to share their gender. This book however goes beyond the personal experience. It seeks to peel back the layers and get to the core of the matter and by

exposing the roots of militarism, chauvinism, dehumanisation and racism that propelled us from World War One and World War Two, it also provides us with warning signs for the future. More than once the hair stood on the back of my neck as I drew parallels between then and now and how the collapsing of the 19th century European world order gave way to the horrors of Nazism, Fascism, and Totalitarianism. And crucially within those repressive regimes women were especially subjugated. As with all good books, there is light as well as dark. Chapter three deals with human rights, gender equality and peace. This is the “yes we can” chapter which traces the origins of human rights from Cicero to the Magna Carta from Olimpia de Gouges who published the Declaration of the Rights of Women in 1791 to the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and from the “European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms” to gender mainstreaming as enshrined in the Treaty of Amsterdam, 1999. Regarding the chapter on “EU common laws, policies and procedures for promoting human rights, gender equality, peace and democracy” my faith in the role of the EU to articulate and deliver on these policies was strengthened. As an MEP, I am acutely aware of the shortcomings of the EU, how difficult it is to bridge the gap between the lived lives of ordinary Europeans to the

various Conventions on gender equality or human rights. I know and accept that we fall short but I also know that we are travelling in the right direction and if the EU were to splinter or fall apart so much of value would be lost. I absolutely believe that as before, women would pay the highest price. I didn’t participate in the theatre workshops outlined in Chapter Four but oh I wish I had. Something tells me they were challenging, provocative, fun and incredibly “mind opening.” To all who promoted, designed, organised and participated in this project, I say thank you. You have given me a renewed commitment to the work of the EU. You have also given me back my enthusiasm to play my role in furthering the work of human rights and gender equality. At a personal level, I was truly renewed after reading this book. My hope is that you as a reader will find a similar sense of renewal. MARIAN HARKIN is an Independent MEP representing the 15 counties of the Midlands-North-West constituency of Ireland in the European Parliament. Marian is now in her third European term following the 2014 European Election and previously represented Sligo/Leitrim as a TD in Dáil Éireann. WOMEN WAR AND PEACE l 7

Fiona Bawn Thompson, Ella Brady, Romana Testasecca in Tell Them our Names

Introduction This Women War and Peace Research and Resource Book is published as part of a yearlong transnational project called Women War and Peace, implemented by four European partners from Ireland, Spain, Germany and Poland. The project uses creative processes of theatre and film to promote a remembrance of European history with a focus on women’s stories from World War II and the power of the EU in promoting peace and gender equality today.

W

omen War and Peace is co-funded by the Europe for Citizens programme of the European Union and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Reconciliation Fund and the four European partners are:

• Smashing Times Theatre Company, Ireland, www.smashingtimes.ie


• Instituto de Formación y Estudios Sociales (IFES), Valencia, Spain, www.ifes.es • Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universitaet, Hannover, Germany, www.uni-hannover.de • University of Humanities and Economics in Lodz, Poland, www.ahe.lodz.pl

This book can be read by everybody to promote a remembrance of women’s stories and experiences during WWII and ways to promote human rights, gender equality and peace today. The editor of the book is Mary Moynihan and key contributors are Edyta Pietrzak, Inga Kuzma, Fernando Benavente Tendillo, Kilian Cuerda Ros, Arne Schrader, Freda Manweiler and Mary Moynihan. Jessie Maguire (writing about the life of Ettie Steinberg), Bernard Wilson (writing about the life of Mary Elmes) and Nadia Clare Smith (writing about the life of Dorothy Macardle) also contributed. The book can be read through consecutively or the reader may choose to read individual stories and articles. The book contains: • Stories of women’s experiences during WWII from Ireland, Spain, Germany and Poland including those women who promoted liberty and actively campaigned against Fascism and Nazism and advocated for peace. The stories also reflect on the Spanish Civil War and the Irish Uprising of 1916. • Articles and research on the rise of totalitarianism in Europe, the causes and impact of the Second World War and the development of human rights, gender equality and peace.

SMASHING TIMES Theatre Company, Institute de Formacion Y Estudios Sociales (IFES), Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universitaet, University of Humanities and Economics, the funders and all referenced authors cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein and accept no liability arising from the use of these materials or any such third party materials and are not responsible for the content of external internet sites or other material listed in this booklet. You may use and copy the workshop contained in this booklet for training or awareness raising provided that you do not alter or adapt the content; do not indicate by any means that the training is provided by or endorsed by the authors, EU or any of the institutions associated with the production of this booklet; provide the training on a not-for-profit basis; and acknowledge the copyright owner and source and include a copyright notice in any extract from the booklet. To the fullest extent permitted by law, the authors, funders, Smashing Times Theatre Company, Institute de Formacion Y Estudios Sociales (IFES), Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universitaet and the University of Humanities and Economics exclude all liability for your use of the booklet and workshop. The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.


• Articles on how to promote human rights, gender equality and peace today. • A three-hour Women War and Peace Remembrance Through Drama Workshop model that uses drama and theatre to explore the role of women in Europe from World War II to the present and the power of the EU in promoting peace and gender equality today. This booklet contains detailed instructions for artists, facilitators and educators on how to conduct the practical, fun-based drama workshop with young people (ages 14 plus) and adults. Prior to the workshops participants can meet to explore the article Human Rights and Gender Equality by Edyta Pietrzak and Inga Kuzma (see page 65) or alternatively participants can take part in follow-up work based on an exploration of the women’s stories, articles and research contained in this book with educators and facilitators using the articles and research to raise awareness of key themes. Using theatre, film and political activism, Women War and Peace raises awareness of the formation of the EU, its history and diversity and its role today in promoting peace, gender equality, cultural diversity and the well being of all its citizens equally. The project brings different citizens and communities together to explore a remembrance of WWII and all those who died including the women who actively campaigned against Fascism and Nazism and promoted liberty. The project explores what can lead to a rise of intolerance and totalitarianism and raises awareness of how citizens can actively support peace and equality today. Equality is a fundamental principle of the EU. However there is still more to be done and women’s rights are under attack from extremists around the world. There is a need to re-affirm a commitment to gender equality as a key component for democracy and peace. Women’s rights are rights that promote a position of legal and social equality for men and women equally. Women’s rights are an essential component of universal human rights. Women are powerful drivers of change and this 10 l WOMEN WAR AND PEACE

transnational project remembers the role of women in Europe and power of the EU in promoting peace and gender equality for all. Key project outputs included dissemination activities; two transnational meetings in Ireland and Poland; an online questionnaire; a drama workshop to promote peace, gender equality and women’s stories of WWII; a transnational digital book with articles and research on women’s stories from WWII and the Holocaust, highlighting experiences of those who campaigned against Nazism and fascism, spoke out against totalitarianism and advocated for peace and a series of activities in each partner country to remember women’s stories of WWII and the role of the EU today for promoting peace, democracy and gender equality. The project culminated in the creation of a theatre performance called The Woman is Present: Women’s Stories of WWII; a short film called Tell Them Our Names and a Women War and Peace International Symposium, all created to promote a dialogue on a remembrance of women’s stories from World War II and ways to promote peace.

Tell Them Our Names

Women War and Peace Theatre Performance and Film The Woman is Present: Women’s Stories of World War II premiered at the Samuel Beckett Theatre, Trinity College, Dublin, on the 14, 15, 16 September 2016. The performances are re-imagined moments from the lives of women in WWII, featuring the world premiere of Ode to Ettie Steinberg by internationally-acclaimed playwright Deirdre Kinahan and new Irish writing by Mary Moynihan, Fiona Bawn Thompson and Paul Kennedy recalling stories of bravery, sacrifice and love as powerful women stood up against Fascism and refused to accept oppression. The directors were Mary Moynihan and Bairbre Ni Chaoimh and the actors were Róisín Mc Atamney and Fiona Bawn Thompson. Women’s stories that have inspired the performance include Ettie Steinberg (1914-42) the only female Jewish Irish citizen known to have been murdered in Auschwitz; Margaret Skinnider (1893-1971) a revolutionary feminist and maths teacher who came to Dublin from Scotland at the age of 23 to fight in the 1916 Easter Rising and who remained in Ireland and

campaigned for women’s rights in the trade union movement from the 1930s onwards; Mary Elmes (1908-2002), a Cork woman who was the first Irish person honoured as ‘Righteous Among Nations’ for her work saving Jewish children from the Nazi gas chambers during World War II; Marta Hillers (19112001) from Germany who wrote her autobiography Eine Frau in Berlin (A Woman in Berlin) under the name ‘Anonyma’ (Anonymous), detailing her experiences of the last days of WWII as she and over one million other women were raped and abused by Allied soldiers of the Red Army; Neus Català Pallejà (b. 1915) from Spain, a member of the United Socialist Party of Catalonia during the Spanish Civil War, an active collaborator with the French Resistance during WWII and the only living Spanish survivor of Ravensbrück, one of the largest concentration camps set up by the Nazis especially for women; Maria Eugenia Jasińska (1906-43) from Łódź in Poland who worked for the resistance and gave up her own life rather than ‘name names’; and Dolores Ibarurri or La Pasionaria (18951989), from Spain, a revolutionary leader, political activist, Communist and crusader against Fascism during the Spanish Civil War who created the famous cry ‘They Shall Not Pass’.


Fiona Bawn Thompson as Mary Elmes in Tell Them Our Names

As part of the project Smashing Times launched a short film Tell Them Our Names directed by Mary Moynihan, edited by Mark Quinn, High Wire Ltd and scripted by Paul Kennedy, Fiona Bawn Thompson and Mary Moynihan from a devising process with the cast consisting of Fiona Bawn Thompson, Romana Testacecca, Raymond Keane, Margaret Toomey, Mary Moynihan and Ella Brady. The film features re-imagined moments from the lives of powerful women during WWII. Women’s stories that have inspired the film are Marta Hillers from Germany, Mary Elmes from Ireland, Maria Eugenia Jasińska from Łódź in Poland, Neus Català Pallejà from Spain and Dolores Ibarurri, La Pasionaria from Spain.

Women, War and Peace International Symposium The Women War and Peace International Symposium featured guest speakers, workshops, a film launch, reflection, discussion and debate and was held at the Samuel Beckett Theatre, Trinity College, Dublin on Friday 16 September, 2016 from 9.30am-5pm. The symposium brought artists and the general public together to create a remembrance of women’s stories from World War II and explored the power of the arts and the EU to promote peace and gender equality today. The International key note speaker was Dijana Milošević, director of the DAH Theatre Research Centre in Belgrade, Serbia. DAH Theatre was founded out of the need for experimental theatre work, reflecting historical and political aspects of Serbian society. Dijana facilitated a master class theatre workshop to explore ‘what role can the arts play in promoting women’s rights, gender equality and peace’ at local, national and European levels. We were delighted to have Senator Ivana Bacik, LLB, LLM (Lond), BL, FTCD, the Reid Professor of Criminal Law, Criminology and Penology at Trinity College Dublin, speaking. She is a qualified Barrister and a Senior Lecturer and Fellow of Trinity College Dublin (elected in 2005). Her grandfather Karel Bacik was in the Czech resistance and was imprisoned by the Nazis. After the war, he moved to Ireland with his young family, where they lived in Waterford.


The international partner speakers were Edyta Pietrza, Ph.D, University of Humanities and Economics in Lodz, Poland; Inga B. Kuzma, Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of Culture, University of Łódź, Poland; Arne Schrader, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universitaet, Hannover, Germany; Fernando Benavente, Instituto de Formación y Estudios Sociales (IFES), Valencia, Spain and Àfrica Díez Álvarez, Gavina Cooperative School, Valencia Spain. The full range of artists and guest speakers included Mary Moynihan, theatre and film maker, Maureen Hetherington, from Towards Understanding and Healing, The Junction, Derry/ Londonderry, Deirdre Toomey, Practitioner in Human Rights and Community Development, Áine Stapleton, Dance Artist and Performer, Paul Kennedy, writer, Chrissie Poulter, Trinity College Dublin, Salome Mbugua, Head of Missions, Wezesha and Audrey Keane, Information and Advice Officer, Creative Europe Desk, The Arts Council. A Youth Symposium took place on Thursday 15 September for second-level schools and youth groups and was attended by three secondary schools, St Louis High School, Rathmines, Synge Street CBS and St Paul’s CBS, Brunswick Street. Smashing Times were delighted to welcome the Drama Department, School of Drama, Film and Music, at the Samuel Beckett Centre on board as a partner for the symposium and performance. We hope you enjoy reading the women’s stories to remember and highlight the role played by ordinary, yet extraordinary women in World War II. There is a need now, more than ever, to work in a pro-active way for a genuine form of human rights, gender equality and peace, to celebrate difference and diversity and the empowerment of all people equally. Book design by EMCreative.ie Email: [email protected] Co-funded by the Europe for Citizens Programme of the European Union © Smashing Times Theatre Company Ltd 2016

Europe for Citizens Programme of the European Union On 14 April 2014, the Council of the European Union unanimously adopted the Regulation setting up the ‘Europe for Citizens’ programme for the period 2014-20. This EU programme offers funding support in two thematic areas: European Remembrance: This strand of the programme focuses on Europe as a peace project. We must keep the memories of the past alive while we build the future. The programme will support initiatives which reflect on the causes of the totalitarian regimes that blighted Europe’s modern history, look at its other defining moments and reference points, and consider different historical perspectives. Remembering the lessons of the past is a prerequisite for building a brighter future.

Democratic engagement and civic participation: This part of the programme aims at strengthening the general public’s understanding of how EU policies are shaped today. It also fosters the close involvement of civil society in European policy-making. Citizens’ organisations can draw on funding to encourage and develop the responsible, democratic civic engagement of the general public in the processes of European integration.


Partner Organisations This transnational project involves four European partners from Ireland, Spain, Germany and Poland. Smashing Times is the lead organization working in partnership with Instituto de Formacion Y Estudios Sociales (IFES), Valencia, Spain, www. ifes.es; Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universitaet, Hannover, Germany, www.uni-hannover.de; and the University of Humanities and Economics in Lodz, Poland, www.ahe.lodz.pl.

Smashing Times Theatre Company Ltd COLERAINE HOUSE, COLERAINE STREET, DUBLIN 7, IRELAND

Project Contact: Freda Manweiler, Company Manager Tel: + 353 (0) 1 865 6613 / + 353 (0) 87 221 4245 Email: [email protected] Website: www.smashingtimes.ie Facebook: www.facebook.com/smashingtimestheatrecompany Twitter: https://twitter.com/Smashing_Times Smashing Times is a professional theatre and film company involved in performance, training and participation. The work of the company is underpinned by a rights-based approach and a commitment to artistic excellence and social engagement. As a leading professional arts organization the company develops 14 l WOMEN WAR AND PEACE

innovative, cutting edge, state of the art projects that promote social justice, gender equality, human rights, peace building and positive mental health through high quality artistic processes. The company uses a multi-disciplinary approach to performance involving a synthesis of the spoken word, physical theatre, movement, dance, music, video and film. The company promotes artistic creation, diversity and social change and merges art, culture and politics to interact and engage with contemporary society and the world we live in. The company works with schools, youth and adult groups and the general public providing interactive workshops, multi-disciplinary performances, film and documentary work, post-show panel discussions, interviews, creative seminars and symposiums, and training and professional outreach projects. For more information visit www.smashingtimes.ie.

Instituto de Formación y Estudios Sociales (IFES) CANARIAS 51, 28045, MADRID, SPAIN. REGION: VALENCIA

Project Contact: Mr Fernando Benavente, Regional Director Tel: + 34963825362 Email: [email protected] Website: www.ifes.es IFES is a foundation of the General Trade Union of Workers, which, since 1986, has been offering solutions for the various training needs of companies and workers in the form of vocational training and lifelong learning. IFES accomplishes a social purpose by giving priority to human factors and offering skills and professional qualifications to workers. Our work follows the same doctrines and values as the General Trade Union of Workers and we believe that all of us are responsible for creating a more human world, by improving employment and support for all. Since its foundation in 1986, IFES has carried out more than 90,000 courses, promoted more than 10 million training hours and gained the confidence of more than 1,300 students. IFES has worked with Smashing Times on previous successful projects.

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universitaet Hannover WELFENGARTEN 1, 30167, HANNOVER, GERMANY

Legal Rep: Mr Howind Henning, Head of Financial Department Tel: + 4951176219180 Email: [email protected] Project Contact: Arne Schrader Tel: + 495117623559 Website: www.uni-hannover.de

As part of University of Hannover with around 21,000 students enrolled and 1,300 staff, the overall aim of the Research Group Civic Education is to enable both young people and adults to acquire key skills and competencies necessary for active citizenship and participation at all levels of social and political life. The research group offers a wide range of teacher in-service and induction training covering all aspects of citizenship education in teaching and learning. The training is offered at university level as well as at national and European level. The Research Group consist of 14 researchers and practitioners who focus on identifying and developing the integration of the European dimension in teaching and learning.

University of Humanities and Economics in Lódz, Poland STERLINGA 26, 90-212, LÓDZ, POLAND.

Project Contact: Edyta Pietrzak Tel: + 48426315806 Email: [email protected] Website: www.ahe.lodz.pl Among AHE’s key fields of study and research are: political science, educational science, social exclusion, gender studies, civil society and quality assurance. AHE works with a lot of different target groups, for example youth, students, people with disabilities, women, seniors, teachers, trainers, people of various professions, children, disadvantaged youth, unemployed. The university is an expert in research and analysis; designing of curricula; implementation of courses; dissemination; e-learning; workshops, seminars, conferences; and EU project management. AHE cooperates with a network of partners at local and European level.


Contributor Biographies Arne Schrader has a Bachelor of Arts. He is currently studying German studies, History and Politics at the Leibniz Universität Hannover (Master of Education, 2010-16). Arne is an assistant researcher at the Institute for Didactics of Democracy at the Leibniz Universität Hannover. In this context Arne coordinates and participates in several European projects including Women War and Peace, v-Upgrates (Validating and Upgrading VET Trainers’ and Teachers’ Digital Skills, Erasmus+ Programme) and Out-Side-In (Inclusive Adult Education for Refugees). Edyta Pietrzak PhD is an anthropologist and political scientist, associate professor at the University of Humanities and Economics in Lodz, and head of the Department of Theory of Politics and Political Thought. Edyta is the author of the following books: Towards a Global Civil Society. Transgressions of the Idea (2014), Axiology of Public Life (2011), Freedom, Equality and Sisterhood (2008), Subject, Person, Identity (2007), Women Talk about Their Life (2006). She is editor of the following journals: Civitas Hominibus and Homo Politicus, and is an expert in EU social programmes and is interested in the issues of citizenship, public sphere, gender and global studies. Inga B. Kuzma PhD is a lecturer at the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of Culture, at the University of Lodz, Poland. Her field of research concerns the methodological problems of anthropological study, women’s studies, gender theory and history. She works likewise on themes of social exclusion as an

Women War and Peace Partners L to R Freda Manweiler, Ireland; Magdalena Tomczak, Poland; Mary Moynihan, Ireland; Fernando Benavente, spain; Arne Schrader, German; and Edyta Pietrzak and Inga B. Kuzma, Poland.

urban homelessness and an empowerment of excluded and ‘’muted’ groups. She is an engaged anthropologist, i.e. she is an urban activist; she acts with non-formal groups and in NGO’s to introduce much more history into the city and to transform urban space to more just, equal, open and included spaces for all ‘underdogs’. Fernando Benavente Tendillo is the Director of IFES Comunidad Valenciana. Fernando is trained as a Public Works Technical Engineer from the Universidad Politécnica Madrid in addition to having a Computer Science Degree from Universidad Politécnica Valencia. Fernando has been a member of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) since 1987 and an active member of the trade union UGT - Unión General de Trabajadores - since 1988. Fernando has been both involved in and managed European co-operation projects related to education, training and employment since 1988.

Smashing Times Artists and Staff 16 l WOMEN WAR AND PEACE

Mary Moynihan MA is a theatre and filmmaker and Artistic Director of Smashing Times Theatre Company and a Theatre Lecturer for the Honours BA in Drama (Performance) at the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama, Dublin. Mary works regularly as a theatre and arts consultant and as a writer and

Senator Ivana Bacik, Edyta Pietzra, Inga B. Kuzma, Mary Moynihan, Women War and Peace Symposium

director on professional arts and socially-engaged projects including the highly successful Acting for the Future which uses theatre to promote positive mental health and Acting for Peace which uses theatre and film to promote peace, nonviolence, gender equality and human rights. As a playwright Mary’s work includes In One Breath from the highly-acclaimed Testimonies (co-written with Paul Kennedy). As a theatre director, professional directing credits include scenes from A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare for the Abbey Theatre, Dublin; Uprising scripted by Tara McKevitt, Project Arts Centre Dublin, Lyric Theatre, Belfast and on national tour; and Thou Shalt Not Kill by Paul Kennedy, Project Arts Centre Dublin and Lyric Theatre Belfast. Mary has an honours MA in Film Production from DIT and an honours BA in Drama and Theatre Studies from the University of Dublin Trinity College. Mary originally trained as an actor and director at Focus Theatre under the direction of Deirdre O’Connell, her friend and mentor. Mary’s theatre work takes place in both professional and non-traditional theatre spaces. Her work is physical-based and focuses on primal, visceral and intuitive responses to vulnerability and conflict and an exploration of self and the other.

Freda Manweiler is project coordinator for Women War and Peace. Freda has worked with Smashing Times Theatre Company since 1999. She is highly skilled in management and project coordination and implementation. She has worked as producer on a range of Smashing Times and other productions throughout the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. She is Course Coordinator of the Smashing Times cross border and cross community Creative Training programmes which are accredited by the National University of Ireland/University College Dublin. She is coordinator of the highly successful Acting For The Future programme that uses drama and theatre to promote positive mental health and suicide prevention and is run in association with the Samaritans and the Irish Association of Suicidology in the Republic of Ireland and more recently in Northern Ireland. As part of her work for Smashing Times she is responsible for all aspects of management and project development and is also involved in teaching practice. She has extensive experience in team management through her work with Smashing Times as a manager and as a manager and Employment Assessment Coordinator for a Working Skills Centre in Toronto, Canada. Her education includes a Bachelor in Social Work (2007) from the Open University and in 2012 she completed an MEd from the National University of Ireland/UCD. WOMEN WAR AND PEACE l 17

Chapter

One:

WOMEN’S STORIES OF WWII 18 l WOMEN WAR AND PEACE

Tell Them Our Names BY MARY MOYNIHAN

Whatever is unnamed, undepicted in images, whatever is omitted from biography, censored in collections of letters, whatever is misnamed as something else, made difﬁcult-to-come-by, whatever is buried in the memory by the collapse of meaning under an inadequate or lying language – this will become, not merely unspoken, but unspeakable. – Adrienne Rich (1929-2012), American poet, essayist and radical feminist.

M

asculinized memories of history are often the norm as the role of powerful women in history is hidden. Women War and Peace is an innovative project using creative processes of theatre and film to promote a remembrance of European history with a focus on women’s experiences of World War II and ways to promote human rights, gender equality and peace today. A key aim is to collect stories of women’s experiences during World War II including those women who promoted liberty and actively campaigned against Fascism and Nazism and advocated for peace. A minimum of twenty stories - five each from Ireland, Spain, Germany and Poland - were collected for inclusion in this Women War and Peace Research and Resource booklet which will be made available online. Seven of the stories are the inspiration for a new theatre performance The Woman is Present: Women’s Stories of WWII and short film Tell Them Our Names created by Smashing Times Theatre Company for the Women War and Peace project. The Irish women’s stories were gathered by Smashing Times Theatre Company. Irish women remembered from WWII are Mary Elmes (1908-2002), a Cork woman who was the first Irish person honoured as ‘Righteous Among Nations’ for her work saving Jewish children from the Nazi gas chambers during World War II; Ettie Steinberg (1914-42) the only female Jewish Irish citizen to be murdered in Auschwitz; Margaret Skinnider (1893-1971) a revolutionary feminist and maths teacher who came to Dublin from Scotland at the age of 23 to fight in the 1916 Easter Rising, remained in Ireland and campaigned for women’s rights in the trade union movement from the 1930s onwards; WOMEN WAR AND PEACE l 19

Josephine Alexandra Mitchell (1903-95) an Irish born jazz singer, bandleader and saxophonist who went on to settle in Berlin in her early twenties where she performed with jazz legends including Coleman Hawkins, Jack Hilton and Jean ‘Django’ Reinhardt and Dorothy Macardle (1889-1958) who worked as a teacher, writer, historian, novelist, playwright and journalist and is the politicallyengaged author of numerous books. Louise Graham nee Boyle, was interviewed by Smashing Times and kindly shared her memories of World War II. Louise, now living in Ireland, was born in Manchester, England to Irish parents and was one of over three million children evacuated during World War II because of the risks from aerial bombings. Smashing Times also remember Mary Fleming and Aileen Turner who were awarded the George Medal for their heroism in saving patients’ lives in the London Blitz during the Second World War when Grove Park Hospital in London was hit by German bombs.

Spanish Civil War and overthrew the Spanish democratic Republic, subjecting the Spanish people to a cruel and oppressive dictatorship that was to last until Franco’s death in 1976. Many women in Spain were active against fascism and the stories of Spanish women during World War II were collected by Instituto de Formación y Estudios Sociales (IFES), Valencia, Spain, www.ifes.es.

Smashing Times Theatre Company first heard about the stories of Mary Elmes and Ettie Steinberg when they visited the Irish Jewish Museum in Dublin with their international partners as part of the Women War and Peace project. It is very important to remember and educate people about the Holocaust and to continue to raise awareness of antisemitism and all forms of racism and prejudice. Smashing Times are indebted to the families of Ettie Steinberg and Mary Elmes for their kind support and to Bernard Wilson for his extraordinary work researching the life of Mary Elmes. Mary was an extraordinary women and by all accounts very brave, courageous and selfless in her efforts to help others. All the women’s stories give the impression of very powerful women who each in their own way resisted oppression and did what they could to help others. Because of her activities assisting those incarcerated in the camps and rescuing Jewish children, Mary Elmes was arrested and imprisoned by the Gestapo in Toulouse. She was released after six months without charge. In an article on her life Bernard Wilson wrote that

Rosa Estruch (1915-78) was a Valencian teacher and politician, a Republican Councillor and Mayor of the town of Vilallonga during the Spanish Civil War, during which she was arrested and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Federica Montseny (1905-94) was a Spanish politician, feminist and anarchist trade unionist and Minister for Health during the Second Spanish Republic, one of the first women in Spain to occupy a ministerial position. She published almost fifty short stories with a romantic-social background specifically targeting working class women, as well as producing political, ethical, biographical and autobiographical writings. Federica believed that ‘women are obligated to take freedom if it is not given to them’. 2

Pilar Tendillo (b. 1926) witnessed at first hand the slaughter of the Málaga–Almería road massacre, an attack on civilians that occurred during the Spanish Civil War after Franco’s troops entered the city of Málaga. A multitude of refugees fleeing from Málaga to Almería (a city under the control of the Republican Popular Army) were attacked by sea and air by Franco’s forces and about 5,000 civilians were killed. Dolores Ibárruri, La Pasionaria (1895-1989) was a well-known Spanish revolutionary leader who fought against Franco. She was an excellent orator, a political activist and supporter of communism. She was a parliamentary deputy in Spain and fought for women’s rights. She took the name ‘Pasionaria’ initially in 1918 as a pseudonym for

Smashing Times Theatre Company first heard about the stories of Mary Elmes and Ettie Steinberg when they visited the Irish Jewish Museum in Dublin with their international partners as part of the Women War and Peace project ‘’After almost six months incarceration she was released without having been charged with any offence . . . and it is recorded that when asked much later about her experiences she just replied ‘Oh we all had to suffer some inconveniences in those days!’ 1 She looked for no credit for the extraordinary work she had done. According to Bernard Wilson, Mary refused to accept the salary which had accrued while she was in prison, and likewise the Legion d’Honneur which the French government wanted to bestow on her. It is not known how many adult’s and children’s lives Mary Elmes saved however there is a ripple effect in terms of three generations of people who would not be alive today if it wasn’t for the work of this extraordinary woman. There are many accounts detailing her work in rescuing children and this has been acknowledged by the fact that she received the award of ‘Righteous Amongst Nations’ for her work in saving Jewish lives. The Spanish Civil War foreshadowed World War II. Fascism was on the rise and would eventually devastate many countries and overthrow democracy. By 1939 the fascists led by Francisco Franco, leader of the nationalist forces, with the support of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany in addition to the rich and the Catholic Church, won the 20 l WOMEN WAR AND PEACE

political articles that she wrote. Dolores became ‘’politically active in her twenties, first in workers’ movements in the industrial Basque country, later in Madrid, where she began as a correspondent for the Communist newspaper El Mundo Obrero and spent a lot of time in and out of prison for her activities with the Spanish Communist Party (PCE). She was involved in the Organization of Women Against War and Fascism, serving as the head of the Spanish delegation to its world congress in 1934. She was later elected deputy of Asturias and during the Civil War was vice-president of Las Cortes, unofficial minister of war propaganda and morale, and ambassador of the Republic abroad. After going into exile in spring 1939, she continued her involvement with the PCE, becoming General Secretary in 1942 and President in 1960. She travelled around the world, meeting with leaders and citizens everywhere, a living symbol of anti-Franco resistance. After Francisco Franco’s death in 1975, the Communist Party was again legalized in Spain, and Ibárruri was finally able to return in 1977 to her homeland, where she was again elected to Parliament, and where she participated in the creation of the new Spanish Constitution. She continued to be active in national affairs until her death in 1989, less than a month before her ninety-fourth birthday.’’ 3

Sabina Coyne Higgins, Áras an Uachtaráin First Lady with actors Fiona Bawn Thompson and Roisin Mc Atamney

In her writings Dolores promoted the active and equal involvement of women in resistance and spoke out against the traditional role of a woman as solely a wife and mother. Dolores wrote her life story in her autobiography They Shall Not Pass. Neus Català Pallejà (b. 1915) from Catalonia in Spain was a member of the United Socialist Party of Catalonia during the Spanish Civil War. After Spain fell to the fascists, she went into exile and became an active collaborator with the French Resistance until she was arrested by the Nazis. She is the only living Spanish survivor of Ravensbrück, one of the largest concentration camps set up by the Nazis especially for women. The camp was built in 1938 near the village of Ravensbrück in Northern Germany, just over 50 miles north of Berlin. Women were interned under categories such as Jewish prisoners, asocials, Jehovah’s Witnesses, political prisoners, lesbians and communists. The camp was overseen by male SS administrators and the camp staff was made up of female guards who were equally as cruel as the male guards. Conditions in the camp were atrocious, food was in short supply and diseases such as typhus were endemic. Prisoners were used for

slave labour in agriculture and in armaments factories and those too weak to work were routinely executed. Women and children were murdered daily by hanging, gassing, shooting, drowning, suffocation or were beaten or burnt to death. Prisoners suffered rape, forced sterilization experiments, torture and death from illegal medical experiments and lethal injections conducted by the Nazi SS doctors. Over 132,000 women and children from over 20 different countries were incarcerated in Ravensbrück and ‘’about 92,000 died of starvation, illness, or were executed.’’ 4 Women in Ravensbruck found many ways to help each other to survive including holding classes in history and languages, sharing and preparing ‘imaginary’ meals, using humour, laughter and theatre, and, where feasible, carrying out acts of sabotage in the armaments factories where the women were used as slave labour. After the war Neus, whose own memories were recorded in the form of a novel by Carme Martí under the Catalan title of Un Cel de Plom (Ashes in the Sky) devoted her time to human rights and ensuring that the memory of all women who died in Ravensbrück and other Nazi concentration camps would not be forgotten. WOMEN WAR AND PEACE l 21

Speakers at the Women War and Peace Symposium

It is now known that rape and sexual violence were committed by all sides during WWII. Brothels were set up in Nazi and Soviet concentration camps where women from the camps were forced to work. The sexual assault of Jewish women during the Holocaust is now researched by women historians and authors such as Sonja M. Hedgepeth and Rochelle G. Saidel, in their book Sexual Violence Against Jewish Women during the Holocaust, first published by Brandeis University Press, December 2010. According to an endorsement by Deborah E. Lipstadt, Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies, Emory University, “The Nazis used a wide variety of means to humiliate, degrade, and torture Jews. Rape and sexual abuse were among them’’. Sadly, it was not only the Nazis and their allies who abused Jewish women. Jews, non-Jewish prisoners, and even liberators did as well. The women’s stories from Germany were collected by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universitaet Hannover (LUH), Germany. Marta Hillers (1911-2001) was a journalist living in Berlin during the final days of World War II. She was one of over two million German women who suffered from mass rape by the Allied forces. She wrote bravely about her experiences in a diary covering an eight-week period from 20 April to 22 June 1945 when Berlin fell to the Soviet army. Marta writes about the daily struggles to survive and the horrific and brutal assaults of rape suffered by German women and children at the hands of the Soviet soldiers. The diary tells of the author’s own experiences of gang rape and her choice to ‘take a Soviet officer as a protector during the Red Army occupation’. 5 Marta Hillers’ strength comes through in her writings ‘all my feelings seem dead except for the drive to live. They shall not destroy me’. To avoid the nightly gang rapes she writes about having to ‘find a single wolf to keep away the pack’. She described the arrangement as ‘sleeping for food’. The diary was published anonymously under the title Eine Frau in Berlin (A Woman in Berlin), firstly in the United States in 1954 in English and then in Germany in 1959. On its publication in Germany the author was accused of ‘besmirching the honour of German women’. Hiller refused to have another edition published in her lifetime. Having married and moved to Switzerland, Hillers left 22 l WOMEN WAR AND PEACE

journalism and did not publish another major work. She died in 2001.’’ 6 The book was republished posthumously in Germany in 2003 and became a critically acclaimed bestseller and Hillers was identified as the author. The book has also been adapted and produced as a film. Marta Hillers represents the ‘other side’ of women’s stories during World War II, women who did not suffer under the fascist regime, because of being enemies of the Nazis, but women, who suffered because of being more or less part of that regime. Remembering Marta Hillers story is important because women are often blamed or held responsible for what has happened even today. Marta Hillers suffered violently from sexual assault as well as stigmatization. This ‘blame’ has caused decades of silence in relation to sexual violence. Rape is an aggressive act of violence and power and a woman is never, ever to blame no matter what the circumstances. Misogyny is encoded in many cultures and is evident in state policy in countries such as Saudi Arabia, in the activities of fundamentalist terrorist or religious organisations worldwide and in the high levels of sexual violence and in the commonplace objectification of women as sexual objects in Western society. Because of stigmatization, many women are afraid to speak out and there is an urgent need for radical action to be taken to eradicate sexual violence and stigmatisation in all its forms. Other stories from Germany are Anna Seghers (1900-83), one of the most important German women writers of the 20th century; Gertrud Pötzinger, a member of the Zeugen Jehovas (Jehovah’s Witnesses), a religious group that was persecuted by the Nazi regime during World War II; Esther Bauer who was deported along with her family in 1942 to the concentration camp Theresienstadt, located in Germancontrolled Czechoslovakia, and then to Auschwitz; and Sophie Scholl (1921-43) a young German student and anti-Nazi political activist and member of the White Rose non-violent resistance group in Nazi Germany. Sophie rejected the ideology of the Nazi regime by joining an organised resistance group set up with her brother Hans Scholl and a few other young students from Munich, Bavaria. The group wrote and distributed anti-war leaflets and became known as the White Roses. As part of this group they fought against the

dictatorship until they were arrested by the Gestapo in 1943 for distributing anti-war leaflets at the University of Munich. Sophie and her two co-conspirators including her brother Hans were sentenced to death by guillotine and executed for their resistance to Nazi Germany. Hans Scholl’s last words were ‘Es lebe die Freiheit!’ (Long live freedom!) and Sophie’s resistance held until the very end. She is quoted as saying ‘Such a fine, sunny day and I have to go’. She continued ‘but what does my death matter, if through us thousands of people are awakened and stirred to action?’. The women’s stories from Łódź in Poland were collected by the University of Humanities and Economics in Łódź, Poland. Maria Eugenia Jasińska was an assistant pharmacist and during the war became a member of the underground resistance movement in Łódź under the cover of her work in the pharmacy. She saved the lives of numerous people. On April 19, 1942 she was arrested and subjected to long periods of torture. She refused to name names and was sentenced to death by hanging. Such a harsh sentence resulted from her determination to defend herself and others and not give any name away. On April 20, 1943 Maria Eugenia Jasińska was executed, probably in the Łódź Jewish cemetery. Maria was posthumously awarded the Silver Cross of the War Order of Virtuti Militari and on the thirtieth anniversary of the liberation of Poland, she was decorated with the Cross of Valour ‘for her bravery and courage’. Her body has not been found. Alina Szapocznikow was a Jewish woman who survived the Łódź ghetto in Poland and the Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps. After the war she became a world famous sculptor, known for her expressive works reflecting transformations taking place in a human body. She was interested in sensuality and drama and was fascinated by what happens to people in extreme situations. She wrote ‘A fleeting moment, a trifling moment – this is the only symbol of our earthly existence’.

war; and the original testimony of Johanna Majewska recalling in interview the experiences of living as a Jewish person during and after WWII. By remembering women’s stories of WWII we hope to play a part in ensuring we do not forget the atrocities committed by totalitarian regimes when innocent people were murdered. Up to 70 million people died during WWII including men, women and children, democratic governments were dismantled, millions of people were persecuted and atrocious crimes were committed against humanity including the murder of six million Jewish people in the Holocaust and another six million from many different nationalities. The aim is not to glorify war but to acknowledge the human cost of war, the atrocities and destruction that occurred and to acknowledge the voices and experiences of women in order to reveal a wider picture of what happened. People and nation states suffer when human values such as respect, tolerance and democracy are destroyed. Remembering lessons of the past is a prerequisite for building a brighter future. The aim is to remember and learn from history with a view to preventing similar atrocities from happening in the future and at the same time to remember the many different roles played by ordinary, yet extraordinary women during World War II who found their own way to stand up against fascism and totalitarianism and who refused to accept oppression. 1. 2. 3.

4. 5. 6.

Quoted in Howard Wriggins “Picking up the Pieces from Portugal to Palestine” University Press of America ISBN 0 7618 2797 8 Federica Montseny and Spanish Anarchist Feminism by Shirley F. Fredericks, The Anarchist Library, 1976. Writing the Female Revolutionary Self: Dolores Ibárruri and the Spanish Civil War, Byron Kristine, Journal of Modern Literature 28, no 1 138-65 Fall 2004, Indiana University Press http://womenshistory.about.com/od/warwwii/a/holocaust.htmJewish http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4024723.Marta_Hillers http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4024723.Marta_Hillers

By remembering women’s stories of WWII we hope to play a part in ensuring we do not forget the atrocities committed by totalitarian regimes when innocent people were murdered Also remembered are homeless women in Poland who died during World War II. One of the shelters for homeless women in Łódź was run by the Albertine Sisters. On 24 February, 1940 the Gestapo raided the shelter and took away 140 women to an unknown place, and two days later the Albertine Sisters were ordered to vacate the home. Extermination of the homeless during the World War II was a fact and happened as a result of the social eugenics practiced by the Third Reich. So-called ‘research’ justified the killing of selected individuals deemed racially impure, as they had ‘bad’ blood. People targeted as ‘asocials’ included beggars, homeless people, tramps, alcoholics, drug addicts, prostitutes, petty criminals, the poor and people with psychological and physical disorders. Finally, women from Poland include Regina (Inka) Milichtajch, a Jewish woman from Łódź in her twenties whose whole family were forcibly moved to the Jewish ghetto in Litzmannstadt in 1940, where Inka’s mother died, and then to Auschwitz where her father and brother died, with only Inka and her sister surviving the WOMEN WAR AND PEACE l 23


Ireland Herstories Mary Elmes, photo courtesy of AFSC Archives

She then studied as a scholarship student at the London School of Economics where she was awarded the LSE Scholarship in International Studies which led to a summer school in Geneva in 1936. 3 In February 1937, Mary heard about the Spanish Civil War and she decided to assist the refugees by joining the University of London Ambulance Unit in Spain. According to an article by Bernard Wilson on the life of Mary Elmes, Mary was given a feeding station to run, set up at Almería to help cope with the stream of refugees arriving from Málaga. 80,000 women, children, and men had struggled into the town having walked or shuffled the 120 miles from Málaga, having been bombed and machine gunned daily. A further 20,000 had given up and turned back, and more than 5,000 had died en-route, either shot, drowned or starved.” 4 This massacre is known as ‘The Caravan of the Dead’ as over 80,000 people tried to escape from the Fascists by fleeing from Málaga to Almeira only to be attacked by Fascists from the air and sea with thousands dying along the way.

Mary Elmes (1908-2002), a Cork woman who passed away in 2002 was the first Irish person honoured as ‘Righteous Among Nations’ for her work saving Jewish children from the Nazi gas chambers during World War II. The award was bestowed on Mary Elmes in 2015 by Yad Vashem, Israel’s official memorial to Jewish victims of the Holocaust.

Although not a member herself, Mary began working for the Quaker Society, the Friends Service Council, carrying out her refugee relief work in children’s hospitals in Almería and Murica ‘’before moving to Alicante where she took charge of a hospital there’’. 5 During this time Mary received news that her father had died but she refused to leave the hospital where she was working until a replacement could be found. ‘’No replacement was forthcoming and so Mary stayed on’’. 6 The bombing in Alicante had become unbearable for the children so Mary found a refuge in the mountains to which she moved her charges. ‘’Despite her mother’s pleas that she should return home, she carried on with her work until the war came to an end with the victory of General Franco.’’ 7

One of the children saved by Mary Elmes was Ronald Friend, now professor emeritus of psychology at Stony Brook University, New York. At the time he was a two-year-old child whose father would not survive but whose five-year-old brother Michael was also rescued by Ms Elmes. Ronald Friend described the award as ‘a long overdue recognition of Mary Elmes’ courageous and selfless actions in rescuing me and many other children when convoys were regularly departing to the death camps.’ 1

In May of 1939 Mary and a few other workers, with the support of the Quaker organization the AFSC (American Friends Service Committee), “crossed the border into France bringing with them all the records of their work in Spain.” 8 Mary joined thousands of Spanish men, women and children fleeing from the tyranny of Franco’s fascist regime, over the Pyrenees into France. At a certain point Mary returned to Ireland to visit her mother but then came back to France to work with the refugees.

Mary Elmes was born on 5 May 1908 in Cork as Marie Elisabeth Jean Elmes. Her family ‘had a family business in Winthrop Street, J Waters and Sons, Dispensing Chemists, her father being the pharmacist. She was educated at Rochelle School and Trinity College Dublin where she gained first class honours in Modern Literature (French and Spanish) and was awarded the Gold Medal.’ 2

According to Bernard Wilson

Mary Elmes

‘in the first two weeks of February 1939, half a million Spanish men, women and children had struggled into France, bombed and machine-gunned by planes, while enduring the hardships of the terrain and the winter weather. The French WOMEN WAR AND PEACE l 25

response was to section off areas of the beaches with barbed wire, and to enclose the refugees between the wire and the sea. They had to scoop depressions in the sand for shelter. There were no toilets, they had to use the sea in full view of everyone. Drinking water was pumped up from underground but rapidly became polluted, bread was tossed over the wire leaving the refugees to fight for food. The French authorities hoped that their unwelcome guests would return to Spain – some did, but most refused knowing what fate might await them there... By the time Mary arrived in France, things were somewhat more organised, there were now many more camps along the coast and some attempt at shelter and provisions had been made. There was still a pressing need for clothing and food, and conditions were still woefully inadequate. She saw however, that if these camps were to remain for any length of time, there was a need for schooling, for reading matter suitable for both children and adults, for the means to occupy their time and provide some kind of purpose to their existence. In July 1939 she was appointed by the Quaker organization, the International Commission of the American Friends Service Council, to provide relief efforts and cultural activities for refugees from the Spanish Civil War now living in interment camps in France, organizing food supplies and providing educational books for children. She saw the need for books in Spanish, and shortly after her appointment was in Paris buying books for the libraries she was soon to open. She became a familiar figure in the camps, thousands knew her as ‘Miss Mary’ and turned to her for solutions to their problems.’ 9 In 1940 France fell to German occupation and thousands of Jewish people and others fled to the south of the country where they were arrested by the French police and held with Spanish refugees. According to Bernard Wilson, ‘now everyone was short of food. Mary and her colleagues in Perpignan opened canteens, provided meals in schools throughout the region, while still continuing the work in the camps. With the fall of France, British workers had to leave, but Mary as an Irish neutral stayed on. She continued her work in the camps. She was now in charge of the AFSC office in Perpignan and her work included the various camps for Spanish refugees on the coast, of which Argeles was the largest, and canteens in schools throughout the region, extending as far as Montpellier and Carcassonne. There was scarcely a town or village in the whole of that huge area that did not receive help in some form or another from the AFSC office in Perpignan’. In January 1941 a former army camp called Rivesaltes, near Perpignon, was set up as a permanent internment camp firstly housing the Spanish refugees and then in 1942 it was used to intern Jewish people who were being rounded up. All Jewish people rounded up in the unoccupied zone of France were interned in Rivesaltes internment camp. The Quakers and other aid organisations established canteens and workshops there however the camp was overrun with lice and rats and those there had little protection from the harsh winters and scorching summers, the place was filthy with little food and minimum clothing. Many children died at the camp. As the war progressed, there were weekly deportations of Jewish people, both adults and children, from Rivesaltes in railway wagons, taking them to concentration camps in Germany and Poland including Auschwitz where death from the gas chambers or from starvation awaited them. 26 l WOMEN WAR AND PEACE

According to Bernard Wilson, ‘between the 13 August to the 19 October, 9 trains left the Rivesaltes camp for Drancy in the suburbs of Paris filled with Jews, a total of 2,251 persons, of whom 110 were children. The number of children would have been considerably greater had it not been for the intervention of Mary and her colleagues in the other organisations’ 10 Despite the danger to their own lives, Elmes and the Quakers started a campaign to save as many children as possible. If their parents agreed to it, Jewish children in the camp under the age of 16 could be taken out of and sent to designated places. For example Elmes made contact with, and helped transport young refugees to ‘children’s colonies and hotels…a ruse to get them to safety since many simply slipped over the border.’ 11 Elmes even hid children in the boot of her car and drove them high into the Pyrenees. It will probably never be known how many children she saved. The aim was to move as many Jewish children as possible out of the actual camps into other places where they would be safe because, during this time, ‘if Jewish children under the age of 16 were housed separate from their parents outside the refugee camps, they often weren’t searched out particularly if the French officials knew they could already meet their quota for scheduled deportations of Jews.’ 12 In 1942 it is known that Mary made contact with an American woman called Lois Mary Guden who had served in France in World War II with the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) providing World War II relief efforts and helping refugee children. Lois Mary Guden was also one of only a handful of Americans awarded the ‘Righteous Among the Nations’ award. At the time that Mary Elmes contacted her, Lois was working in Canet-Plage at Villa St Christophe, a 20-room convalescent home located on the Mediterranean beach. This home held sixty children, many of them Spanish refugees, and was located about 12 miles from the Rivesaltes Refugee Camp. Mary contacted Lois as she was looking for safe places for children in the refugee camp who were in danger of being deported to concentration camps where their lives would be at risk. Lois wrote in her diary on 9 August 1942 that ‘Mary informed me about return of Polish and German Jews to Poland where death by starvation awaits them’. 13 Lois wrote in her diary on 10 August 1942 ‘when I got back to colony found a little boy crying – asking for his barrack and for the Secours Suisse (Swiss Aid to Children, organization assisting at the refugee camp); Miss Elmes had brought us three Jewish boys in an attempt to save them when their parents leave; had quite some time quieting the poor little fellow; but finally his sobs died down’. 14 In January 1943 Elmes was arrested on suspicion of helping Jews escape. She was never charged, but she was first held in Toulouse and then held for six months in Fresnes Prison near Paris. After her release, she continued her activities as before. According to Bernard Wilson ’she later dismissed her imprisonment with the words ‘Well we all experienced inconveniences in those days, didn’t we?’ Mary refused to accept the salary which had accrued while she was in prison, and likewise the Legion d’Honneur which the French government wanted to bestow on her. She was not a Quaker, though she led the Quaker work in Perpignan throughout the war.’ 15 After the war ended, Mary Elmes married Roger Danjou and they settled in France and had two children. Elmes made frequent trips to Cork before her death on 9 March 2002 at the age of 92. Mary Elmes never sought special recognition for all the help she gave or all the lives she saved.

Endnotes 1. http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/cork-woman-receives-firstirish-honour-for-saving-jewish-victims-of-theholocaust-1.1393486 2/8/15. Article by Bernard Wilson on Mary Elmes, https://toulousequakers. wordpress.com/2012/04/28/mary-elmes-1908-2002/ 3/5/6/7/9/10. Article by Bernard Wilson, Mary Elmes (1908-2002), The First Irish ‘Righteous’ 4. Aristocrats, Adventurers and Ambulances. Linda Palfreeman ISBN 1845 196090 p.129 11. http://www.irishcentral.com/news/irish-woman-saved-jewishbrothers-and-countless-children-from-auschwitz-in-world-warii-138562919-237429511.html 12/13/14. https://www.goshen.edu/news/2013/11/08/letters-from-lois/

Ettie Steinberg in a dress she made herself. Photo courtesy of E. Warmberg on behalf of the Steinberg family

Reference See You Soon Caroline! By Bernard S Wilson, 2015, available from www.amazon.com and www.waterstones.com. Based on the true story of Irish woman Mary Elmes, working for the American Quakers in France throughout the Second World War.

Ettie Steinberg Esther, or Ettie Steinberg (1914-42) was the only female Jewish Irish citizen known to have been murdered in Auschwitz. She was one of a family of seven children who were reared in a small house at 28 Raymond Terrace, off the South Circular Road in Dublin. It is believed that Ettie was born on 11 January 1914 to Aaron Hirsch Steinberg and Bertha Roth in the former Czechoslovakia, in a town called Veretski (Vericky). It is believed Ettie moved with her family to Ireland in 1928 to live in a small house at Raymond Terrace. Ettie, along with her siblings attended St Catherine’s School in Donore Avenue. Ettie worked as a seamstress shortly before she got married. Her sister, Fanny Frankel, recalled in an interview in 2008 how Ettie had such ‘golden hands’ 1 when it came to making clothes. Ettie was described as a ‘beautiful girl and tall and slim with wonderful hands’. 2 On July 22, 1937, Ettie Steinberg married Vogtjeck Gluck in the Greenville Hall Synagogue on the South Circular Road in Dublin. Shortly after their marriage, the couple moved to Antwerp, Belgium to be near Vogtjeck’s family business (goldsmiths), ‘setting up home at Steenbokstraat 25’. Because of the rise of fascism and Nazism and the persecution of Jewish people, the family were forced to flee Belgium in 1939 and they sought refuge in France. It was in Paris that their son Leon was born on 28 March 1939. 3 The family moved from Paris to the South of France to avoid arrest. At this time, the Vichy government, Nazi Germany’s collaborator in southern France, was rounding up Jewish people within the province, forcing the Gluck family into hiding. The family moved from house to house to escape detention and between 1940 and 1942 the family moved around rarely staying in one place for more than two nights. They eventually ended up in a hotel in Toulouse. But Ettie, Vogtjeck and their two-year old son Leon were soon found. According to Yad Vashem records, the Glucks were caught in a round up of Jewish people and were deported from Drancy transit camp outside of Paris on September 2, 1942, at 8.55am and arrived by train in Auschwitz on September 4, 1942 and were immediately exterminated. 4 They were murdered in the gas chambers minutes after they arrived at the notorious death camp.

Back in Dublin, the Steinbergs worked frantically to save the young family. Desperate pleas were sent to the Vatican and the Red Cross for information but to no avail. They succeeded in securing three visas from the British Home Office in Belfast which would allow Ettie and her husband and son to travel to Northern Ireland and sent them to Toulouse, where the family was in hiding. 5 However, the visas arrived a day late as Ettie, Vogtjeck and Leon had been arrested the previous day. On display in the Irish Jewish Museum in Dublin is Ettie and Vogtjeck’s marriage certificate, a copy of the visas which arrived a day late and an envelope sent by Ettie’s father dated 1940 which was censored by both Irish and German censors and returned to Dublin. Also in the museum archive is a postcard. It is understood that Ettie addressed the postcard to her family in Dublin and threw it from the moving cattle car as they were being deported to Auschwitz . Miraculously a passer-by found it and returned it to her family home in Dublin days after Ettie and her son were murdered. The postcard was coded in Hebrew terms. To the common eye, the message Ettie sent may seem like she was talking about finding relatives on the journey. But her family understood the tragic, cryptic message. It reads: ‘Uncle Lechem, we did not find, but we found Uncle Tisha B’Av’. 6 When decoded, it is believed to mean that instead of finding good fortune, the young family had found destruction. Lechem is the Hebrew word for bread and Tisha B’Av is a Jewish fast day commemorating the destruction of the temple. The message indicates that Ettie understood the fate that awaited her family at Auschwitz. WOMEN WAR AND PEACE l 27

The Irish Jewish Music in Portobello, Dublin, has erected a memorial to Ettie and her family and a section of the museum is dedicated to telling her story. A stone memorial was also erected at Malahide Community School in Dublin as a way to create a permanent Holocaust memorial to honour Ireland’s only victim murdered at Auschwitz.

Margaret Skinnider

Endnotes 1 www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/remembering-ettie-steinbergirelands-holocaust-victim.html 2 Article by Conan Kennedy (http://www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/Irelandsonly-Holocaust-victim-the-Ettie-Steinbergs) 3 D. Keogh, Jews in Twentieth Century Ireland: Refugees, Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust, Ireland: Cork University Press, p. 166 4 http://yvng.yadvashem.org 5 Ettie Steinberg The Only Irish Victim of the Holocuast by Ella Hassett, Women’s Museum of Ireland http://www.womensmuseumofireland.ie/articles/ettie-steinberg 6 Ettie Steinberg article by Conan Kennedy http://hetireland.org/app/uploads/2015/02/HMD2009-Booklet.pdf

References • Maguire, J. (2015). The Benefits of a Universal Approach to Holocaust Education in Multicultural Classrooms in Ireland. (M.Phil Thesis). Trinity College Dublin • Irish Jewish Museum, http://jewishmuseum.ie • Donal Fallon article Remembering Ettie Steinberg on the Come Here to Me blog https://comeheretome. com/2012/01/27/remembering-ettie-steinberg/

Margaret Skinnider Margaret Skinnider (1893-1971) was a revolutionary feminist and maths teacher who came to Dublin from Scotland at the age of 23 to take part in the Easter Rising in Dublin in 1916. Margaret was born in North Lanarkshire in England in 1893 to Irish parents who were originally from Tydavnet in County Monahan. Margaret trained as a Maths teacher and joined Cumann na mBan in Scotland, an Irish women’s organization set up in 1913 to achieve Irish independence. It was through her involvement with this organization that she became close friends with Countess Markievicz, one of the leaders of the 1916 Rising. In 1915, she was asked by Markievicz to smuggle detonators, guns and bombmaking equipment into Ireland in preparation for the planned Rising in Dublin. Margaret travelled over to Dublin a week before the Easter Rising took place in April 1916. She joined the struggle on the basis that it promised equal status for women under the new 1916 Republican proclamation. During the Rising Margaret was attached to the Irish Citizen army in Saint Stephen’s Green where she worked as a scout and messenger under Commandant Michael Mallin and her friend Countess Markievicz who became second-in-command. She carried despatches back and forth from Mallin to James Connolly, leader of the Irish Citizen Army stationed at the GPO. When the battalion moved to the College of Surgeons she worked as a sniper. According to the Glasnevin Trust, Margaret was an excellent markswoman, having learned to shoot in a rifle club, which, ironically, had been set up so that women could help in defence of the British Empire. Of her time stationed in the College of Surgeons during the Rising Margaret wrote that “It was dark there, full of smoke and the din of firing, but it was good to be in action . . . more than once I saw the man I aimed at fall”. On Wednesday 26 April Margaret was sent out on a mission by 28 l WOMEN WAR AND PEACE

Commandant Mallon to burn down two buildings near Saint Stephen’s Green in order to cut off the retreat of a group of British soldiers who were positioned on the roof of University Church and who were bombarding the rebels with machine gun and rifle fire. The following is an extract from a Smashing Times performance of Margaret Skinnider based on Margaret’s original testimony. Myself and William Partridge will lead a section of men towards the building to burn them down, forcing the enemy to withdraw. Mallin gives me four men to help. I felt elated. We lock and load our weapons and once outside, we run in short bursts along the side of the street. It takes only a few moments to reach the buildings we are to set on fire. In order to gain entry, Partridge smashes the glass front with the butt of his weapon. A flash follows. The rifle has accidentally discharged. A volley of fire erupts from a nearby building - the flash has revealed us to the enemy. I rush forward calling to the others to take cover as a second volley erupts and I fall. I’ve been hit, I’ve been hit three times . . . Knowing our mission has been compromised we decide to fall back to the College of Surgeons. Once back in the college the men lay me out on a table and cut away the coat of my fine new uniform. I cried over that. The others thought I was crying over my wounds but I was crying for my uniform, the battle dress of the Republic. I have been shot in three places. Had I not turned as I went through the shop door to call to the others, I would have got all three bullets in my back and lungs and surely would have died. They have to probe several times to get the bullets out but the probing doesn’t hurt as much as my disappointment at not being able to go back out and bomb the Shelbourne Hotel. Margaret was taken to St Vincent’s Hospital where she was arrested and then taken to the Bridewell Police Station for interrogation. While there a surgeon who had treated her at the hospital insists that she is returned to hospital where she spends several weeks recuperating. Upon her release from hospital she obtained a permit to return to Scotland where she worked as a teacher but lost her job due to the nature of her injuries, which made it difficult to teach.

After the Rising she wrote her memoir Doing My Bit for Ireland. She went to American to raise money and awareness of the Irish fight for freedom and spent 1917 and 1918 touring the US on behalf of Cumann na Ban. She returned to Ireland and was involved in the War of Independence and Civil War taking the antiTreaty side. During the War of Independence she trained volunteer recruits and in the Civil War that followed she became Paymaster General of the Provisional Irish Republican Army on the anti-treaty side.. She was arrested by the new Irish Free State in 1923 and was imprisoned in Mountjoy jail and the North Dublin Union (1922-23) and subsequently refused a 1916 pension from the government on the grounds that she was a woman. After repeated requests she was eventually granted a pension in 1938. She worked as a primary school teacher at the King’s Inn Street School in Dublin from 1923 until her retirement in 1961 and became an active trade unionist with the Irish National Teachers Organisation campaigning for women’s rights and equal wages and equal status for women. She became a member of the INTO executive in 1949 and president of the union in 1956 and also served on the Irish Congress of Trade Unions executive council until 1963. She died in 1971 and is buried in the Republican Plot beside Countess Markievicz in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin. After Ireland won its independence radical women such as Margaret Skinnider continued to campaign for equality and social justice and to challenge traditional female roles. However during the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s in Ireland, the power of an oppressive patriarchal state linked closely to a conservative church denied women their rights. By the end of World War II most of those women who had devoted decades of their lives to the creation of a different society and political system in Ireland had virtually disappeared from public life. The new Irish Constitution of 1937 firmly put a woman’s place as in the home and conservative politicians and church leaders took over as women were stealthily marginalised. Catholic conservative Ireland had no place for radical women, nor indeed for anyone that did not conform or submit to rigid religious ideology and beliefs. Margaret Skinnider continued to campaign for the rights of women in relation to equal pay and status for female teachers even as her story and the stories of many women like her were, until very recently, hidden and denied. •

Doing My Bit for Ireland by Margaret Skinnider, published by the Century Company, NY, 1917, has been digitized and is available at the following link https://archive.org/details/doingmybitforir00skingoog

Josephine Alexandra Mitchell Josephine Alexandra Mitchell (1903-95) was a jazz singer, bandleader and saxophonist. She was born in Dublin in 1903. The young girl from Phibsborough developed a zeal deemed odd for a female at the time: the saxophone. She was 11 when she performed in her first gig in Dublin. She took her dream across the Irish Sea, visiting England with her musician brother Eddie who was performing a series of gigs around London and he took Zandra along as a ‘novelty’ act. She adopted the stage name Zandra and in a short time she was spotted by a talent scout and asked to join a jazz band. Her parents in Dublin sent her a telegraph saying they would disown her if she did not come home immediately but she refused and instead she joined the

Josephine Alexandra Mitchell

Irena Davis band, the first band she signed with, and toured in Switzerland for six months before moving to Germany where she signed up with Leo Solinsky. She was in her early twenties when she settled in Berlin and performed with jazz legends including Coleman Hawkins, Jack Hilton and Jean ‘Django’ Reinhardt and played with a range of bands as well as forming her own band and travelling extensively throughout Europe. She moved back to Germany in the mid1930s and while she continued playing jazz and classical music she witnessed first hand the transition from the artistic freedom of the Weimar Republic to the cruelest excesses of the Nazi regime. In 1939, she sent her parents a letter discussing the government’s closing down of dance halls and banning music. According to a radio documentary on Zandra’s life story called ‘Zandra: A Sentimental Journey’, made by Irish journalist Mark McMenamin and broadcast in 2015, the Third Reich heavily controlled the type of music that was allowed to be played in Germany at the time with rules for jazz bands saying that no ‘Jewish lyrics’ or ‘negroid sounds’ could be heard as the Nazis were determined to remove the influence of what they perceived as ‘inferior races’, so that music would be pure ‘Ayran’. Zandra was one of only forty Irish citizens who remained in Germany during World War II but she eventually wed a Belgian man in a marriage of convenience in order to get out of Germany. She had hoped that the war would end soon and she could remain living in Germany and that her parents would come and visit. As the Soviet Red Army advanced on Berlin Zandra was forced to flee and entered into the marriage of convenience with a Belgian man and as a couple they were given a letter of support by an American serviceman who asked for permission for Zandra and her husband to be allowed to leave Berlin. Towards the end of the war Zandra made a living by performing for Allied troops and WOMEN WAR AND PEACE l 29

two tunes constantly in demand by the troops were ‘Sentimental Journey’ and ‘Blue Moon’. According to the radio documentary, while in Germany Zandra gave birth to a daughter whom she named Constance Alexandra. She was not married and her boyfriend would not stand by her and so, after the birth she left her daughter with a Russian family to mind. This was the start of a very complex period in her life. Zandra was frequently away touring and at a certain stage when the child was around four the father returned and claimed the child. Zandra did not tell people about her child and it was only publicly known when she died at the age of 93 and left money in her will to her daughter. When Zandra returned to Ireland in 1946 she lived in Dublin for a brief period before she settled in Rossnowlagh, County Donegal living in her family’s holiday home. She lived a reclusive lifestyle, however she had a small number of close friends and played some gigs in Donegal and Sligo in the 1960s and 1970s and is still fondly remembered by local musicians who also played at the time. She died on 23 November 1995 and is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin. Mark McMenamin found out about Zandra’s story through a postmaster in his native Donegal, a man called Michael Gallagher who was also a musician and became a good friend of Zandra in the 1980s. They shared a strong interest in music and he inherited Zandra’s collection of memorabilia. According to the documentary Zandra lived alone, smoked Woodbines and liked a glass of wine. As part of his work in researching the documentary Mark McMenamin attempted to make contact with Zandra’s daughter but was unsuccessful. However he believes she survived the war. Zandra never attempted to find her daughter, whom she named Constance Alexandra, but left her about £3-4,000 in her will when she died in 1995. Zandra ended up as a recluse, living in the basement of her house and had only a few close friends. She told Michael Gallagher she didn’t want her story to be told until after she died. Zandra’s letters are the only known correspondence of an Irish person living in Berlin during World War II. Mark McMenamin’s documentary was aired on RTÉ Radio’s Lyric FM at 7pm on Christmas Day 2015 and people can listen to the documentary on https://soundcloud.com/the-lyric-feature/zandra-a-sentimentaljourney

Dorothy Macardle Dorothy Macardle (1889-1958) was born on the 2 February 1889 in Dundalk, Ireland. She worked as a teacher, writer, historian, novelist, playwright and journalist and is the politicallyengaged author of numerous books including The Irish Republic: A Documented Chronicle of the Anglo-Irish Conflict and the Partitioning of Ireland, with a Detailed Account of the Period 19161923 commissioned and preface by Éamon de Valera. She was a humanitarian, civil liberties activist and feminist and was involved in Ireland’s War of Independence and Civil War taking the anti-Treaty side. She served a prison sentence of six months in Mountjoy Gaol, 1922-23 and shared a cell with Rosamund Jacob. She was a member of the Gaelic League and later Cumann na mBan. Her brother Kenneth died at the Front during World War I. In 1926 she left the Republican party Sinn Féin and joined Éamon 30 l WOMEN WAR AND PEACE

Dorothy Macardle

de Valera’s new Fianna Fáil party, ‘believing that an Irish republic could be achieved through political means’. Although she was a member of the Irish political party Fianna Fáil, she opposed the party’s views on censorship and equality for women and she spoke out against the new 1937 Irish Constitution because of its lack of equality for women. During the 1930s and 1940s she was very involved in international affairs and was a strong supporter of the League of Nations where she worked as a journalist between the two World Wars. She lived in London during World War II and worked for the BBC. She spoke out against the rise of Fascism in Europe and supported the United Nations and international cooperation. Her book Children of Europe: A Study of the Children of Liberated Countries (1950), which she wrote in 1949 is an account of the plight of children during and after the Second World War and the devastating consequences of war particularly as it affected children. The book was an early contribution to the social history of World War II and the Holocaust. She returned to Dublin after the war and worked as a journalist and theatre reviewer. During the 1940s and 1950s she wrote several novels including her first gothic novel, published in 1942 and which was adapted for the screen in 1944 as one of Hollywood’s most successful ghost stories, The Uninvited. According to Irish Professor Luke Gibbons ‘her first gothic novel The Uninvited, filmed by Lewis Allen in 1944, became a cult movie, earning the ultimate accolade in William Everson’s Classics of the Horror Films “quite possibly the movies best ghost story’’ ‘ 1 According to Lisa Coen of Tramp Press, ‘to this day, Martin Scorsese cites The Uninvited as a favourite film of his.’ 2 The Uninvited was recently re-published by Tramp Press (http://www. tramppress.com/shop/), as the second in the Recovered Voices

series. According to one of the founding members of Tramp Press, Lisa Coen, the aim of the company is once a year or so, to find a book that has fallen from public awareness…Dorothy Macardle is one playwright we’ve never heard of. Luke Gibbons (Professor of Irish Literary and Cultural Studies in NUI Maynooth) got in touch with us last year about reissuing The Uninvited, which he teaches. As he writes in the introduction to this new edition, Macardle is “a feminist activist who was also a radical republican; a universalist civil liberties humanitarian who was also a nationalist; a defender of Irish neutrality during World War Two who moved to London to participate in the fight against the Nazis; a brilliant lecturer who held no teaching position; a journalist and historian who was a critic and novelist of distinction; a psychological rationalist who also put in a good word for ghosts and extrasensory experiences.” Macardle even did time in prison during the Civil War. Like many women involved in revolution, she was dismayed at how women were disenfranchised in the new constitution’’ ‘. 3 According to Luke Gibbons, ‘Her awareness of the Nazi menace, acquired as an Irish Press journalist at the League of Nations in the late 1930s, prompted a move to London during the war years. There she identified with the plight of other small nations fighting for their survival, not least the Czechoslovakian government-in-exile…Her arrival in London coincided with the harsh treatment of East European refugees (including up to 8,000 Czechs) by the British authorities, leading to the internment of thousands suspected as being Nazi “fifth columnists”…For Macardle, her republican past and experiences of prison during the Irish Civil War were a means of opening up, rather than closing off, identification with others in the unfolding catastrophe of the second World War…Macardle’s internationalism led to her becoming a founding member of the Irish Institute for International Affairs (IIIA) in the late 1930s’. 4 Dorothy Macardle died on 23 December 1958 and is buried in St Fintan’s Cemetery, near Howth head in Dublin. Endnotes 1. http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-irishman-s-diary-1.1275614 2/3: http://www.writing.ie/interviews/stage-screen/waking-the-feminists-anddisturbing-old-ghosts-the-uninvited-by-dorothy-mcardle/ 4. http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-irishman-s-diary-1.1275614.

Article: Dorothy Macardle (1889-1958): Republican and Internationalist The following is an article on Dorothy Macardle by Nadia Clare Smith who lectures in history at Boston College, USA. Nadia is the biographer of Dorothy Macardle and has written Dorothy Macardle, A Life, published by The Woodfield Press, Dublin. ‘I am a propagandist, unrepentant and unashamed’, Dorothy Macardle, author of The Irish Republic, announced in June 1939. Many readers familiar with her classic history of the Irish revolution, commissioned by her political hero Éamon de Valera, might be only too ready to concur with Macardle’s candid self-assessment. In this instance, however, she was speaking not in relation to her activities as a republican journalist or Fianna Fáil supporter, but as a proponent of the League of Nations who was urging an American audience to speak out against fascism and to support international cooperation. A half-century after her death, Macardle, a historian, journalist, novelist, playwright, activist and student of the occult, is mainly remembered as the politically-engaged author of The Irish Republic.

An unlikely republican, Dorothy Macardle was born in Dundalk in 1889 to Minnie Ross Macardle, a troubled and enigmatic Englishwoman, and Thomas Callan Macardle, the chairman of Dundalk’s Macardle Moore brewery. The Macardles were a wealthy Catholic family with both unionist and Home Rule sympathies. Dorothy moved to Dublin in her teens and was educated at Alexandra College and University College Dublin. In Dublin she met prominent nationalists, such as Maud Gonne MacBride, and moved from cultural nationalism to republicanism while forging a career as a teacher and playwright. She worked as a journalist and publicist during the War of Independence and the Civil War, when she supported the anti-Treaty side and served a prison sentence. In 1926 she left Sinn Féin and joined Éamon de Valera’s new Fianna Fáil party, believing that an Irish republic could be achieved through political means. During the late 1920s and 1930s she researched and wrote The Irish Republic, commissioned by de Valera, while continuing to work as a journalist and playwright. Macardle worked on The Irish Republic during a critical phase in the development of the modern Irish historical profession. She was one of many accomplished Irish female historians during the Free State period. Others included Mary Hayden, Mary Donovan O’Sullivan, Síle Ní Chinnéide, Constantia Maxwell, Alice Stopford Green, Eleanor Hull, Rosamond Jacob, Helena Concannon, Isabel Grubb and Ada Longfield. Like Macardle, many of these women were noted for their political and social activism as well as for their historical works; Green and Concannon, for instance, were both senators. Macardle stood out from her counterparts by writing contemporary Irish political history, as most of the other women historians wrote on early modern Ireland. The 1930s also marked the emergence of the modern, university-based Irish historical profession, whose leading figures were the young academic historians Robert Dudley Edwards of University College Dublin and Theodore Moody of Trinity College, founders of the journal Irish Historical Studies. While the new professionals concentrated on early modern rather than contemporary Irish history, they were aware of Macardle, and RD Edwards praised her efforts. The Irish Republic met with much popular acclaim in Ireland, as well as some misgivings, and brought Macardle widespread recognition when it was published in 1937. The Irish Press, the newspaper linked with de Valera and Fianna Fáil, actively promoted the book by publishing extracts as well as a glowing review. The Irish Times review offered measured praise, as did the Times Literary Supplement, which brought the book to the attention of British readers. The most hostile responses in Ireland came from the Irish Independent, the newspaper of Fine Gael supporters, which opposed Macardle’s treatment of the Free State side in the Civil War and her exaltation of de Valera, and the Catholic Bulletin, which felt that Macardle had slighted the role of the Catholic Church in the Irish independence movement. Overall, the responses to The Irish Republic combined praise for Macardle’s research, thorough documentation, range of sources and narration of dramatic events with reservations about the book’s political slant. Although stocks of the book were blown to bits when the Luftwaffe dropped bombs on a warehouse in London during World War II, The Irish Republic, like the phoenix, rose from its own ashes and was reprinted several times, most recently in 2005. It was pressed into political service by de Valera and WOMEN WAR AND PEACE l 31

Fianna Fáil over the years, as de Valera considered it ‘the only really authoritative account of the period 1916–26’.

Louise Graham née Boyle

Ironically, The Irish Republic was published at a time when Macardle began to raise objections to Fianna Fáil’s policies, particularly censorship and legislation pertaining to women in employment. Her secular, liberal vision of republicanism came into conflict with the official, more conservative nationalism promoted by Fianna Fáil in the 1930s. Like other Irish feminists, she spoke out against the 1937 Constitution because of its clauses on women. In the late 1930s Macardle turned her attention to international affairs and became a strong supporter of the League of Nations and a vocal opponent of fascism. In the late 1940s she reached a rapprochement with de Valera and Fianna Fáil, although she continued to speak out against censorship. At this time she became a supporter of the United Nations and its humanitarian efforts in post-war Europe, and wrote Children of Europe in 1949. An account of the plight of children during and after the war, the book was an early contribution to the social history of World War II and the Holocaust. The completion of The Irish Republic allowed Macardle to concentrate on writing novels, and she wrote four between 1941 and 1953. A student of the occult, three of her novels dealt with supernatural themes, including ghosts, extrasensory perception and witchcraft, while her least successful novel was a wartime romance. Her novels, like some of her earlier plays, tend to feature dysfunctional families, troubled marriages and parent–child relationships, and problematic sexuality, and allowed Macardle to grapple, in creative and coded ways, with some of her own preoccupations. Her most successful novel, Uneasy Freehold, a haunted-house mystery set in England, was adapted for the screen and released as a film called The Uninvited in 1944. It was compared to Alfred Hitchcock’s film Rebecca (1940), based on Daphne du Maurier’s novel, and indeed the two works contain some similar characters and plot devices. Tim Pat Coogan, in his biography of de Valera, recounts how the Taoiseach watched The Uninvited at the Savoy in Dublin with his staff members Kathleen O’Connell and Maurice Moynihan. De Valera apparently disliked the film’s twist ending, in which one character, seemingly an icon of conventional womanhood whom the framers of the 1937 Constitution might like, turns out to be not quite what she seemed. Dorothy Macardle was an accomplished and successful writer in twentieth-century Ireland whose engagement with global events and international currents of thought interacted with her Irish republican thinking. A sophisticated and liberal nationalist and internationalist, her career challenges the related notions that Irish women disengaged from public life between the 1920s and the 1960s and that Irish republicans in the Free State period were simply xenophobic nationalists unconcerned about world events. References • Dorothy Macardle, A Life by Nadia Clare Smith, The Woodfield Press, Dublin, July 2007 • History Ireland, Ireland’s History Magazine, http://www.historyireland.com/20th-century-contemporaryhistory/dorothy-macardle-1889-1958-republican-andinternationalist/ Copyright © 2015 History Publications Ltd, Unit 9, 78 Furze Road, Sandyford, Dublin 18, Ireland Tel. +353-1-293 3568 32 l WOMEN WAR AND PEACE

Mary Fleming and Aileen Turner Smashing Times Theatre Company wish to honour two young Irish women, Mary Fleming and Aileen Turner. Mary Fleming was a 24-year-old emergency service staff nurse from Cappawhite in County Tipperary, Ireland, when she carried out a daring act during the Blitz. In 1941, Grove Park Hospital in London was hit by German bombs and it was on this night that Mary and a colleague, Senior Assistant Nurse Aileen Turner, aged 26, climbed into a first-floor window and entered the burning building, crawling along the floor of an upstairs ward almost in total darkness, to reach the 17 stranded patients. They then lead them back to safety through scalding steam from burst hot water pipes only moments before the floor of the ward crashed to the ground. Both Irish women were awarded the George Medal for their heroism. In a supplement to the London Gazette published 9 May 1941, the paper stated that ‘The King has been graciously pleased to give orders for the undermentioned appointment to the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for the following awards of the George Medal and of the British Empire Medal and for the publication in the London Gazette of the names of the persons specifically shown below as having received an expression of commendation for their brave conduct in civil defence’. The paper carried the names of Mary Fleming, Staff Nurse and Aileen Turner, Senior Assistant Nurse, Grove Park Hospital saying that ‘when a high explosive bomb struck Grove Park Hospital, Nurse Turner and Nurse Fleming climbed through a first-floor window, crawled across the floor of a ward which was in a highly dangerous condition and released several patients who were trapped. The quickness, coolness and courage of these two

nurses resulted in all the patients being rescued a few minutes before the floor collapsed’.

Louise Graham née Boyle The evacuation of civilians in Great Britain during the Second World War was designed to save civilians, particularly children, from the risks associated with aerial bombing of cities by moving them to areas thought to be less at risk. Operation Pied Piper began on 1 September 1939, and officially relocated more than 3.5 million people. Born in Manchester to Irish immigrants just before the outbreak of World War II, Louise Boyle was the youngest of six children; tragically her five-year-old sister died nine months before her arrival. Before joining the British air force, Louise’s father had served in the Irish army during the Irish Civil War. Louise’s mother and her five children were evacuated to a farm in Matlock, Derbyshire where they stayed with the Chapman family. After a brief stay on the farm, Louise’s mother returned to Ireland with four of her five living children. Louise, a small infant remained with Mrs Chapman with whom she shared an affectionate bond forever more. With the rise of Nazism during the 1930s, the Air Raid Precautions (ARP) Department was founded. From 1 April 1935 it was this department that was to direct the British response to passive air defence. In April 1937 the Air Raid Wardens’ Service was created which aimed to recruit some 800,000 volunteers. In 1938, the Air Raid Precautions Act came into force. This compelled all local authorities to begin creating their own ARP services. With the threat of war imminent in 1939, dozens of leaflets were issued advising people on how to protect themselves from the inevitable air war to follow. ARP Wardens enforced the ‘blackout’. Heavy curtains and shutters were required on all private residences, commercial premises, and factories to prevent light escaping and so making them a possible target for enemy bombers to locate their targets. Although Louise has vivid memories of blacked-out windows and dimmed lamps, she remembers always feeling safe with Mrs Chapman during these times. Although only a young child, Louise remembers people from the village gathering at the local cinema where a list of names of those who had died would be presented. In January 1940, the British government introduced food rationing. The scheme was designed to ensure fair shares for all at a time of national shortage. Not all foods were rationed. Fruit and vegetables were never rationed but were often in short supply, especially tomatoes, onions and fruit shipped from overseas.

In late November 1945 a black cab arrived at the farm. After six-and-a-half years it was now time for Louise to be reunited with her biological family in Ireland, something she did not understand. Mrs Chapman’s daughter, Dorothy (Dot) brought Louise back to Ireland, telling the young child about her other family. Louise was dressed in a bright coloured coat so she would be recognisable by her mother and Aunt Eileen who greeted them as they arrived off the ship. They travelled through the streets of Dublin by horse and carriage. This journey had a lasting memory for Louise; it was at that moment she realised she was in a foreign land. The farm was worlds away, she thought, as the horse’s hooves met the hard cobbled surface. Louise’s eldest sister opened the door. As she clung to Dot, her siblings introduced themselves. That night she had an egg for dinner. This indeed was a sign of celebration for Louise as eggs were scarce during the war. Dot stayed with the Boyle family for three days before leaving early one morning while Louise slept. It took Louise some time to realise Dot did this purely out of love and respect for Louise and her family. Dot did not want to see Louise distressed. Within a few short days Louise attended Harold’s Cross School. On arrival Louise’s siblings introduced her to the head nun as Louise Boyle. “Louise is a very English name. What is your middle name?” she said. “It’s Ann” said the young girl. From that day, educators called her Áine Ní Bhaoill. From this day forth, Louise felt her identity had changed. Students were fascinated with her accent and some asked her about the war. A strong relationship remains between Louise and the Chapmans. They kindly sent her a beautiful dress for her communion. Pictures of Louise on her communion day were sent back to Mrs Chapman. Louise went on holiday to Matlock some years later. As an adult, Louise worked as a seamstress and when she had her own family, she brought her children to the English village as she continued to feel a strong connection with the family. Her bond with the Chapmans remains unbreakable. Years have passed and yet Louise is still emotionally attached to the Chapman family and to Matlock, feeling sad when she hears certain music, looking up at the stars or seeing a ship docking. Many stories are very positive, with evacuees being extremely happy, gaining new experiences and making new friends. Many formed a lasting bond with the families they were billeted with and some did not want to leave their wartime ‘foster parents’ behind.

Schools in rural areas such as Matlock remained open but they often had to share their facilities with the evacuees. This meant the introduction of the double shift system. This involved local children using the classrooms in the morning while the evacuees would attend school in the afternoon. Local authorities attempted to provide a full-time education by finding alternative buildings to accommodate the evacuated children and teachers. This included the use of churches and village halls as classrooms. Louise remembers that as well as ordinary lessons, children learned air raid drills, leaving classrooms when the sirens sounded to go to air raid shelters. She also has memories of attending Sunday School. WOMEN WAR AND PEACE l 33

Spanish Herstories on their militant activities. At Café Spanish she met Salvador Seguí, union leader at the time, and Lluis Companys, later president of the Catalan Generalitat. All of them were crucial characters in the social and political history of Spain and later shared with Federica experiences of the labour struggles and tragic Civil War. In late 1920, aged fifteen years, Federica Montseny wrote her first novel, Peregrina de amor which she burned shortly thereafter. At seventeen she began her contributions to the anarchist press, using the pseudonym ‘Blanca Montsan’. In 1923, at eighteen, she joined the CNT (National Confederation of Labour), the large central anarchist union of the time. It was at that time that she received the offer to collaborate with the newspaper Solidaridad Obrera. Federica was to take charge of the section ‘Social Relief’.

Federica Montseny Mañé

Federica Montseny Mañé Federica Montseny Mañé (1905-94) was born in Madrid in 1905. She was a Spanish anarchist leader and was one of the most emblematic figures of the Spanish labour movement. Federica Montseny was also a brilliant writer and speaker. Her early life was marked by the decisive influence of her parents, both activists in libertarian ideas, they were heavily involved in social and propaganda activity in which the need to extend education to all social groups was a fundamental axis: the freedom of men and women could only be achieved through the acquisition of knowledge. A strong sense of freedom also determined her whole process of learning. Personal freedom, empowerment and choice of lifestyle were the foundations of womanhood that her mother passed on to her. The theatre, for which her father wrote many works, also formed a big part of Federica’s education. She also attended free courses at the University of Barcelona and completed an instruction that would broadly distance herself from the women of her time. Rallies and demonstrations were also part of Federica’s teenage life. When just twelve years of age, she accompanied her parents 34 l WOMEN WAR AND PEACE

Federica also joined the directors of the White Magazine, a theoretical organ of the Spanish anarchism team. There she became known through her many writings, spreading her thought through over 600 articles. From 1932 Federica Montseny began to take part in various tours, very unusual at that time, she travelled throughout various parts of the country reporting on syndicalist and revolutionary ideas. She participated in many rallies and speeches that were soon collected in pamphlets. In 1933 Federica gave birth to her first child, the result of a long relationship with fellow anarchist Germinal Esgleas. This however did not mean her departure from the organization or literary work. In the latter field, Federica Montseny wrote about fifty stories, some of which addressed the problem of female freedom, empowerment of women and their right to free will, matters that Federica dealt with through her whole lifetime. Federica remained a leading member of the FAI (Iberian Anarchist Federation), the most radical wing of the CNT, and relentlessly maintained a dialectical confrontation with peers from the more moderate sector. The CNT faced a crucial ethical issue within a few months of starting the Civil War. During the government of Largo Caballero, some members in the CNT opposed any form of government collaboration, which would eventually happen. This event deeply affected Federica Montseny. Indeed, of the four ministers who were appointed as representatives of the CNT in government, occupying the portfolios of Justice, Commerce, Health and

Industry, one of them was Federica Montseny. The ideological scruples and pressures to which she was subjected to by members in the CNT who were opposed to collaboration, was difficult to overcome. Despite this and the serious divisions that the decision resulted in, Federica and her three companions agreed, as they considered intervention in the government essential for structuring a defence against the rebel army. Federica Montseny thus became the first woman in the history of Spain to be in the position of Minister of Health and Welfare. While few reforms could be undertaken in the turbulent context of the war and in the midst of problems within the government, Federica issued from her ministry a decree legalizing abortion and creating centres for prostitutes, where they were offered accommodation and training. She also added to her duties the role of taking care of refugees. During the period of the Civil War, some of her activities included giving lectures and conferences and she wrote several essays. On 26 January 1939 the entire Montseny family went into exile in France, fleeing the advance of Franco’s army. In June 1940 they would suffer a second exodus, this time on the run, with thousands of French, from the Nazi troops. However, exile did not mean the end of Federica’s political militancy, she joined the SERE (Service of Evacuation of Spanish Refugees) and collaborated in assisting refugees who were in great danger to flee by ship to America. During the later years of the Nazi occupation, an alias, Fanny Germain, brings Federica protection from persecution by the Germans who nevertheless chased the ‘Free French’. Finally arrested, the fact that she was again expecting a child saved her from being sent to Spain, but she spent time in French prisons. After the liberation of France by Allied troops, in November 1944, the family settled in Toulouse, where Federica could resume work to reorganize the libertarian movement of opposition to Franco. With the restoration of democracy in Spain in 1977, Federica Montseny was able to return to her country. During her long exile she settled in France, continuing her militant activity with multiple conferences and the publication of several books, most notably her memoir My first forty years in 1987, when she was 80. She also founded with her partner Germinal Esgleas, the weekly L’Espoir. She died on 14 January 1994, in Toulouse, aged 88.

Pilar Tendillo Haro Pilar Tendillo Haro (b. 1926) was born in Burgos in northern Spain on 10 November 1926. She was the daughter of a military father. Six months after her birth her family (consisting of her parents and older sister Margarita, also born in Burgos) travelled to Oviedo, the birthplace of her two younger sisters, Ana and Covadonga. The death of her father when Pilar was only three years old marked her future. Her mother, who was barely 24 years old, had to leave with her four daughters for Larache in Morocco, where her parents lived. Pilar spent her childhood in Morocco and her summers in Málaga with her mother and sisters. The military uprising on the 18 July 1936 against the Republic stunned the family who were on vacation in the neighbourhood of El Palo

Pilar Tendillo Haro

de Málaga. Earlier that same year her grandfather had died of pneumonia. Pilar was nine years old. During the first Franco movements towards Málaga many people panicked at the idea of repression that the fascists would impose. As a result many civilians and militiamen chose to flee by road to Almería as the other roads from Málaga were cut off and controlled by the fascist forces. A road runs along the Mediterranean coast and is an easy target for control from land, sea and air. Everyone who began their escape (some estimates suggest 150,000 people) knew how dangerous the trip was but they deeply trusted and harboured hopes that the revolting army would have respect for an exclusively civilian caravan and so they took the risk of walking the 200 kilometres that separated them from Almería. A cousin of Pilar’s mother, who had a car, tried to drive the six women (grandmother, mother and four sisters) to the city of Alicante where he had a flat. But before they got to Motril, they were arrested, the car was searched and their cousin was killed. The six women were abandoned on the road. They had to walk for eight days from Motril to Almería (130 kilometres), during the daylight they took refuge where they could and walking through the night on what came to be called ‘the road of death’. During that journey on the 8 February 1937, one of the bloodiest episodes of the Spanish Civil War took place, perpetrated by the rebel army with the help of nine Italian battalions and ending in the deaths of about 5,000 civilians fleeing from Málaga city before Franco’s troops got there. All the hopes of those who sought refuge in the republican zone were frustrated when the artillery, tanks and three war cruisers of the rebels proceeded to bombard the long lines of people fleeing Málaga. The three cruisers bombed at pleasure the convoy of unarmed refugees including whole families, women, children and old people. The slaughter was a planned operation, as fascists anticipated the exit of thousands of people from Málaga and they used the Almería road as a death trap for those fleeing. WOMEN WAR AND PEACE l 35

Pilar and her family managed to survive and to get to Almería, they gathered along with everyone else in the bullring, where they stayed a few days, until they could take a train to Murcia (where they took shelter in different schools for two months) and then to Alicante, where they managed to stay in the flat of their murdered cousin. For approximately three years they lived in Alicante, they did so under the constant threat of bombing (there was an underground shelter right next to their house), unable to attend school (the older sister was a teacher of the other three, meanwhile she wrote a diary that her grandmother ordered her to destroy to avoid problems in the future) and living in a situation of permanent distress until the war ended. Luckily, her mother found work in the military commissary and as a result managed to keep safe the whole family during those difficult years. Just after the war, the six women returned to Málaga, but all their properties had been seized (the house and the shop they had), so they had to return again to Larache, where they remained for three years, finally they all moved to Madrid in 1942. Pilar was 16 and a dramatic reminder accompanied her for the rest of her life. In February 2005, a memorial was opened in the Málaga town of Torre del Mar, in memory of the victims of the slaughter, with the assistance of some of the survivors of the exodus, and a ceremony was held in which Pilar Tendillo participated. In recent years there have been several acts of remembrance for the victims and survivors, as well as a travelling photo exhibition entitled ‘The Crime of the Málaga-Almería highway’.

Despite her disability, Rosa Estruch continued her militancy work in hiding, assisting in the reorganization of the PCE in Valencia. In 1952, Rosa Estruch was again indicted and the police tried to arrest her but this was impossible because of her disability status. In 1955 she entered the Sanatorium Malvarrosa of Valencia, where statements were taken from her because she was accused of having participated in the guerrilla movement. When it came time for her to appear in court, she was taken on a stretcher to the courtroom. Again they interned her in the hospital under police surveillance. After the coroner’s report on her physical condition, Rosa was never again disturbed. The stay at the sanatorium Malvarrosa of Valencia, where she remained until her death, marked a new era in the life of this republican. Rosa Estruch was a reference to the comrades who had fought with her in the Republic and civil war. When the dictatorship ended, many Valencian republican activists and communists went to the hospital continuously to visit Rosa, dividing amongst themselves the tasks of assistance and support. For them she represented an example of the struggle that women made in defence of the Republic and freedoms. Rosa Estruch became one of the female icons of the struggle against Franco in Valencia. She died 22 years after her admittance to the hospital on 27 June 1978.

Neus Català Pallejà

After living in Madrid for 47 years (until 1989), Pilar moved to Valencia, where she currently resides.

Rosa Estruch Espinos Rosa Estruch Espinos (1915-78) was born in San Juan, Argentina in 1915. Her parents had emigrated from Vilallonga in search of work. Years later they returned to the village, but the economic situation made them emigrate again, this time to France. Back in Vilallonga in 1936, Rosa was dedicated to teaching French. With the triumph of the Popular Front, she joined the Communist Party and was elected Secretary General of the PCE of Vilallonga. During the Civil War she was a municipal councillor in the Vilallonga UGT union. Joining ranks with the Communist mayor Andrés Tarazona, Rosa Estruch was appointed mayor in the context of war. Thus she became the first woman to become mayor of Vilallonga. After the Civil War, she was arrested and imprisoned in Valencia and underwent interrogations that left her marked for life. In March 1940 she was tried in a summary court martial, accused of professing communist ideas, of helping the rebellion and of participating as a militia. She was sentenced to fifteen years in prison. With an increasingly deteriorating physical condition, her body became immobilized. Incarceration in prison alternated with periods of admission to the Provincial Hospital of Valencia. She was released from prison in 1942 and remained under surveillance until 1951. 36 l WOMEN WAR AND PEACE

Neus Català Pallejà

Neus Català Pallejà (b. 1915) was born in Els Guiamets (Tarragona) in Catalonia, Spain, on 6 October 1915 and was active in the United Socialist Party of Catalonia during the Spanish Civil War. Neus is the only living Spanish survivor of the Nazi concentration camp Ravensbrück and a reference figure in the fight against Franco. Neus Català was raised in Els Guiamets. Her father was a barber and worked in the fields. Soon she began to have and to defend her own ideas. When she asked her parents why her brother was studying to become a teacher and she could not study, she received the response that only one of the children could study and the man will be the chosen one. Neus accepted at that moment that she had to work in the field and demanded fair work conditions from her employers, but also cultivated her love for theatre and did not abandon her dream of studying to

become a nurse. In those adolescent dreams and determination resides the germ of her subsequent rebellion and resilience. The advent of the Second Republic in Spain brings new hope. But the Civil War disrupts her life and her village is affected by the division between the Communists and the CNT (National Confederation of Labour), the large central anarchist union of the time. Neus began as a militant woman in the Unified Socialist Youth and moved to Barcelona to study nursing. Her aim is to work in a hospital, but fate leads her to take care of an infant colony. At the age of 23, after the Republican defeat, she crossed the Pyrenees in 1939 with 182 children who she later helped to repatriate or facilitated their adoption in Europe. When she and her parents, also in exile, began to make roots in France, she started a relationship with a French citizen, Albert Roger, and the couple married. When Hitler occupied France, the two collaborated closely with the Resistance. Neus hid messages under her hair covered with a scarf or hid the messages in a basket of vegetables and made daily marathons cycling and by bus. The couple also facilitated accommodation for and means of escape for members of the French Maquis (French resistance fighters). Neus changed from being a Spanish exile to becoming an active contributor to the French Resistance. In 1943, aware that they had been exposed the couple prepared to flee but Nazi officers burst into their home and arrested them. Neus was held in Limoges and from there, in 1944, she was deported. When she finished the long journey, she was imprisoned in Ravensbrück, a Nazi concentration camp located 90 kilometres from Berlin, in which 92,000 women died. Neus saw many of the women die in a humiliating way. From Ravensbrück she was transferred to a second camp in Holleischen in Czechoslovakia. She and other women were forced to work in an arms factory and she and her colleagues tried to sabotage production. Their moral and militancy helped them think it was worth trying.

and collaborated with the clandestine PCE and the French Communist Party, devoting much of her life to reconstructing the memory of deported republicans. Neus chose to tell of all the horrors that she and others had lived through, experiences that had never been told before, to talk about the agonizing adventure that led her and others to death camps. It is a first-person testimony of someone who had suffered firstly in terms of her exile from Spain and who continued to suffer from accumulative ordeals. But she always remained resolute and combative. In Ravensbrück, her experience was that as soon as you thought they could inflict no more torture on your body or you were about to faint, they would impose a new suffering, and all of this only ended in 1945. She and other Spanish, French, Polish and Russian prisoners fought against this torture in different ways, sometimes through singing or keeping up the belief that they could not lose their dignity even though their jailers always tried to snatch it away from them. Many years after the war Neus began to look for other survivors, collecting their testimonies and publishing their common history. She discovered many names of Republican women who had suffered captivity or who had lost their lives in the Nazi death camps, women who, after losing the war in Spain and despite being foreigners and refugees and barely able to speak French, decided to risk their lives again in their willingness to fight fascism as members of the French Resistance, as Neus did. Neus still lives and has received much recognition for her work and experiences, having been granted several awards by the Catalan Government. She has continued her work in the Communist Party of Catalonia, a miracle in its own right, as she is over 100 years of age. She is an icon as well as a survivor. Her message is that the atrocities that she witnessed should never be repeated.

The ordeal ended with the liberation of the camp by Allied forces in 1945. Neus was then ‘a bag of bones’. The return to her parents’ house in France was painful. Going from being considered a number and a starving body that wore pinstripes back to reality took time. She kept the striped uniform she had worn while in captivity, despite the pain that it evoked whenever she looked at it. One day she realized that she had no photos of the day of her release so she put on the striped suit again, went to the studio of a well-known photographer and asked him to take her picture. In that picture she concentrated her memory and that of the women who accompanied her. Her partner Albert, who was also deported to another camp did not return home: he died before the camps were liberated. So Neus’s life was saved but she had been left a widow. And in Spain, Franco was still in power. It seemed a mockery that the dictator did not fall with Hitler and Mussolini. She had to stay in exile. Although there is much violence in Neus’ memories there is no shortage of laughter as a resistance strategy along with her great love of the theatre. Over the years, Neus Catala rebuilt her personal life in France and went on to marry again and have two children despite the experience of the captivity and thinking that she could not be a mother, for as soon as she reached Ravensbrück they stopped her menstruation with an injection. She resumed her work as a nurse (which she had hidden in the concentration camps in order not to be forced to hurt anyone) WOMEN WAR AND PEACE l 37

Dolores Ibárruri, La Pasionaria Dolores Ibárruri Gomez, ‘La Pasionaria’, (1895-1989) was born on the 9 December 1895 in Gallarta (Vizcaya). She belonged to a family of mine workers. Dolores excelled as a student in the local school. Her teacher tried to get permission from Dolores’ parents for her to continue her teaching studies but the economic hardship of the family and the prejudices of the time frustrated Dolores’ studies and, as a teenager, she had to become a servant. Dolores became interested in the workers’ struggle as her husband was a miner (they had married in 1915, however the marriage did not last) and she started to read and became a socialist activist. Dolores started using the pseudonym of La Pasionaria, writing her first article in El minero vizcaíno in 1918 under that name. From the time of her involvement in the revolutionary general strike of 1917, Dolores Ibárruri gained prestige as a speaker and political columnist. Impressed by the triumph of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, Dolores participated with the socialist grouping of Somorrostro, where she was a member, in the split of the PSOE that gave birth to the Communist Party of Spain (PCE) in 1920. She became a member of its Central Committee in 1930. In 1931 she moved to Madrid to work for the newspaper of the PCE, Mundo Obrero. Her tireless fighter activism saw her being jailed twice between 1931 and 1933. She became a newly-elected deputy for Asturias in 1936, and was involved in the fight against the military uprising against the government which increased her popular appeal as she was involved in propaganda activities during the Civil War of 1936 to 1939. During this time her passionate, sensible and coherent prose and oratory became a symbol of the resistance and militancy of Republican Spain. Her enormous popular support was due to her oratorical skills but also because of her personal involvement in the workers’ struggles. She joined striking miners in the pit; she stood by poor neighbours at a Madrid suburb whose modest belongings had been thrown into the street; and all this activism made her immensely popular along with her parliamentary speeches. In the famous parliamentary debate of June 1936, La Pasionaria delivered one of the most famous speeches of her life, denouncing the fascist machinations and preparation of the coup with the complicity of the military, capitalists and landlords, with the passivity of the government.


Dolores Ibárruri

When the fascist uprising occurred in 1936, La Pasionaria displayed a titanic activity, giving speeches, visiting the front, making Republican propaganda trips, she did a lot of work in terms of agitation and created the most famous slogans of war: ‘Better to die standing than to live on your knees’ and ‘They shall not pass!’. During the war she rose to second-in-command within the party, after its secretary general, Jose Díaz. After the military defeat she went into exile in the Soviet Union (1939-77), continuing her work as a representative of Spain in the Communist International. Díaz died in 1942 and La Pasionaria replaced him as general secretary of the PCE, a position from which she was displaced by Santiago Carrillo in 1960; however, she remained in the honorary position of president of the PCE. After 38 years of exile, Dolores Ibárruri returned to Spain after the death of Franco and the transition to democracy, being chosen again as deputy for Asturias in 1977. She was afflicted by health problems which led her to abandon her seat and withdraw from active politics. She died in Madrid in 1989.

Germany Herstories Anna Seghers

Anna Seghers (c) Aufbau-Verlag

Anna Seghers (1900-83) had the experience of living under two different forms of authoritarianism during her lifetime. Known for her brilliance as a writer and author of anti-fascist essays and especially novels, Seghers first escaped from the Hitler regime during the 1930s and finally ended up as a citizen of the DDR (East Germany), a communist satellite state of the Soviet Union. Between those periods she was a refugee, living in exile in France and later Mexico, which had a big influence on her writing. Anna Seghers was born under the name of Netty Reiling in 1900 in Mainz. As both a communist and Jew, she was aware from an early stage of her ‘bad’ status when the Nazis took over control in Germany in 1933. Her mother was killed in a German concentration camp however Seghers and her husband managed to get away. They moved to France in 1933 but life there was dificult. Anna had to battle with several problems in relation to the acquisition of labour as well as residence permits, while her husband was detained in a French camp for refugees. German state officials were already looking out for Jews and secessionists and pursuing them throughout Western Europe. Seghers described the struggle of getting a visa or looking for permission to board one of the few ships heading for transatlantic destinations in one of her most famous novels Transit. It would take eight more years until she finally got to Mexico. However, apart from the problems and difficult circumstances during her getaway, the 1930s were some of the most productive years in Seghers’ literary career. She finished her magnum opus, the novel Das siebte Kreuz (The Seventh Cross), a book about a group of men arrested during the Nazi rule, who would attempt to break out and flee from their suppressors. It was later described by the famous Polish-German critic Marcel ReichRanicki as a ‘novel against the dictatorship’. Seghers came back to Germany in 1947. The war was over and Germany separated into four occupation zones. Seghers lived in the zone administrated by the Soviets, which would soon turn into the DDR, the Deutsche Demokratische Republik. She lived there until the end of her life. References • Hilzinger, Sonja: Wenn es keine Zukunft mehr gibt, ist das Vergangene umsonst gewesen, Anna Seghers und die beiden deutschen Diktaturen, in: Günther Rüther (Hrsg.).

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Literatur in der Diktatur. Schreiben im Nationalsozialismus und DDR-Sozialismus. Paderborn u.a. Schöningh 1997. S. 195-215. Seghers, Anna/Herzfelde, Wieland: Gewöhnliches und Gefährliches Leben. Ein Briefwechsel aus der Zeit des Exils. 1939-1946. Luchterhand 1986. Darmstadt und Neuwied. Stephan, Alexander: Anna Seghers im Exil. Essays, Texte, Dokumente. Bonn; Bouvier 1993 (Studien zur Literatur der Moderne, Bd. 23).

Esther Bauer Esther Bauer (b. 1924) was born in 1924 in Hamburg. She went to the Jewish school for girls in the Karolinenstraße, run by her father Alberto Jonas, while her mother Marie Jonas was a doctor at the Universitätsklinikum Eppendorf. After nine years, when the Nazis took over, she had to leave the school to do compulsory labour. WOMEN WAR AND PEACE l 39

In the summer of 1942, the family was deported to the concentration camp Theresienstadt, where Esther fell in love with a Czech cook, whom she later married. Her father died after a few months. Because of her profession as a doctor her mother had to work for the Nazis in Theresienstadt, but was murdered in Auschwitz in October 1944. When her husband was deported again, Esther followed him to Auschwitz. She survived the ‘selection’ – she only had to be there for ten days – and came to Freiberg afterwards. She would never see her first husband again. In 1945 the Mauthausen concentration camp was liberated by the Red Army and Esther emigrated to the United States of America. The story of Esther Bauer became famous because of the documentary ‘Einfach Esther – Eine Eppendorfer Lebensgeschichte’ (Just Esther – A lifetime-story from HamburgEppendorf ). The director Richard Haufe-Ahmels, a student who just finished his Abitur while he was doing the movie, accompanied her for two years throughout Hamburg and New York, portraying her new life and recording Esther talking about her memories and experiences. He also started interviewing historians and other people from Hamburg involved in research and remembrance around the Second World War. The movie was awarded many prizes and was used in schools as an example of a women’s life during the rule of the fascist Nazi regime. Esther Bauer would go to these schools herself, telling her story over and over again. She has often been asked why would a woman over 90 years of age still do that? ’Wir sterben aus - umso wichtiger ist es mir, so lange davon zu berichten, wie es geht’ she replied, ‘We, the people who witnessed the Nazi regime, are dying. It is all the more important to tell about it, as long as it works’.

three students were questioned by Robert Mohr, the so-called ‘Vernehmungsberater’, who was responsible for the questioning of witnesses. In fact, his examination had only one goal, to get them to betray each other. But they did not. Nevertheless, one of the most sensational show trials in the history of Nazi rule took place. The judge of the supreme court, Roland Freisler himself, was in charge of the process. Freisler was infamous for having his own absurd interpretation of jurisdiction and therefore was the most feared ‘judge’ in Germany at the time. As a result, the verdict was already passed before the actual process began and the propaganda trial ended up with Sophie and her two ‘co-conspirators’ being sentenced to death by guillotine. Hans Scholl’s last words were Es lebe die Freiheit! (long live freedom!) and Sophie’s resistance lasted until the very end. References • Ulrich Chaussy/Gerd R. Ueberschär. Es lebe die Freiheit. Die Geschichte der Weißen Rose und ihrer Mitglieder in Dokumenten und Berichten. FFM 2013. Fischer. • Sophie Scholl. Die letzten Tage. Hrsg. v. Fred Breinersdorfer. Mit Beiträgen von Ulrich Chaussy, Gerd R. Ueberschär, Marc Rothemund und Fred Breinersdorfer. 2. Aufl. FFM 2005, Fischer Taschenbuch. • Barbara Beuys. Sophie Scholl. Biografie. Carl Hanser Verlag, München 2010.

Marta Hillers

Reference • Homepage of the movie: http://einfach-esther.de/index.php/EinfachEsther3.html

Sophie Scholl One of the most outstanding German women who rejected the ideology of the fascist Nazi regime by forming an organised resistance group was Sophie Scholl (1921-43). Sophie along with her brother Hans Scholl and a few other young students from Munich, Bavaria, fought against the dictatorship until they were arrested and finally executed in 1943. Sophie Scholl was born on 9 May 1921. She grew up with a sister and a brother. When the three siblings got into trouble with the National Socialist youth organisations such as Hitlerjugend and Bund Deutscher Mädel, she refused to follow the so-called Führerkult (the manipulation by Hitler to drive his leadership cult, having him acknowledged as supreme leader) and resigned the membership of these organisations. From the winter of 1942 Sophie participated in the Weiße Rose or White Rose, a resistance group whose members included her brother Hans and his friend Alexander Schmorell. In February 1943 they were caught distributing anti-war leaflets at the University of Munich and afterwards were arrested by the Gestapo. The events following that day are most remarkable for the active resistance against the regime and are a good example of how the Nazi system dealt with renegades like Sophie Scholl. Within two days the 40 l WOMEN WAR AND PEACE

Marta Hillers

Marta Hillers (1911-2001) studied history and the history of art at the Sorbonne in the years 1933 and 1934. After she moved to Berlin in 1934 she worked as a journalist for several newspapers and magazines of the national socialist Germany.

She became famous for the publishing of her autobiographical story Eine Frau in Berlin (A Woman in Berlin) under the name Anonyma in the 1950s. In this ‘series of unsentimental diary entries’, she told her story during the last days of World War II. Hillers was hiding from the Russian soldiers in a basement in Berlin but in the end they found her.

Gertrud Pötzinger

She was born in 1911 as the daughter of a factory manager who died during World War I. At the end of the Third Reich she was 34 years old. The soldiers of the Red Army raped and abused her constantly: ‘In the days that followed, the woman - who was well educated and spoke Russian - sought out the highest-ranking Soviet officer in the neighbourhood and made herself available to him. She describes the arrangement as “sleeping for food”. Hillers described her suffering in a diary – a method of dealing with the atrocities that many other German women also used. The Red Army soldiers saw themselves as liberators: German men were prisoners of war, their women spoils of war. Marta Hillers was just one of many of those victims. Her case raised awareness because of the reception of her publication. Eine Frau in Berlin was already published in a few countries when it came out in Western Germany in 1959. The reaction of the German press was rather restrained, at times negative. Many people accused Hillers of making money out of a sickening story. The book seemed almost forgotten until the year 2003, when it was posthumously republished by famous German author Hans-Magnus Enzensberger. Then it quickly became a bestselling title. Due to the fact that this topic was slowly creeping back into public debate in Germany, one can see it as a perfect image of the process Germany went through when it came to the rehabilitation of the cruelties of World War II in general. Marta Hillers represents the ‘other side’ of women’s stories during the World War II. Women who did not suffer under the fascist regime because of being enemies of the Nazis, but women who suffered because of being more or less part of that regime. References • Gebhardt, Miriam, 2015: Als die Soldaten kamen. Die Vergewaltigung deutscher Frauen am Ende des Zweiten Weltkriegs. München. • Jacobs, Ingeborg, 2008: Freiwild. Das Schicksal deutscher Frauen 1945. Berlin. • Harding, Luke, 2003: Row over naming of rape author, in: The Observer (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/ oct/05/historybooks.germany).

Gertrud Pötzinger Gertrud Pötzinger (b. 1912), born on 1 January 1912 in Hirschberg, was a member of the Zeugen Jehovas (Jehovah’s Witnesses), a religious group that was persecuted by the Nazi regime during WWII. Her father was orginally a patriotic and strong follower of the German emperor before the World War I. As a Christian he believed in God and his home country, so that he volunteered for the army when the war began in 1914. Because of several cruel experiences witnessed on the battlefield his faith began

to decline. After the war he worked as a railway employee when he first came in contact with the so-called “Bibelforschern” or Jehovah’s Witnesses. His daughter Gertrud would accompany him to one of his meetings when she was 13 years old. The Jehovah’s Witnesses in Germany had about 3,000 to 4,000 members at that time and discrimination and criminal convictions against them had already began during the reign of the German reich. After finishing her training as a tailor it was really difficult for Gertrud to find a job because of her religious views. She went to Hungary and Yugoslavia looking for work. In Yugoslavia she first met Martin who later became her husband. The Jehovah’s Witnesses were officially forbidden in Germany in 1933 and their leaflets were all burnt. Gertrud Pötzinger was arrested by the Gestapo in Dresden in 1935. She refused to talk about the secret documents and secret societies of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. The Gestapo tried to force her, during countless questionings and interogations, to sign a paper against the spread of her own faith. She refused to betray her ‘brothers and sisters’ and as a result Gertrud was deported to Ravensbrück Concentration camp in 1941. Meanwhile, her husband Martin was interned in the infamous concentration camp Mauthausen, where many other Jehovah’s Witnesses were arrested and interned. Because of her determined efforts and interventions at the end of the war, she managed to finally see her husband again. Since then, Martin and Gertrud Pötzinger travelled for 31 years throughout Germany spreading the word of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. References • Füllberg-Stolberg, Claus, 1994: Bedrängt, aber nicht völlig eingeengt – verfolgt, aber nicht verlassen. Gertrud Pötzinger, Zeugin Jehovas, in: Frauen in Konzentrationslagern. Bergen Belsen, Ravensbrück. Hrsg. v. Claus Füllberg-Stolberg. Bremen, S. 321-333. WOMEN WAR AND PEACE l 41

Łódz, Poland Herstories Alina Szapocznikow

Introduction Łódź was founded in the 15th century, however, in 1820 it still had only 767 inhabitants. Right before the First World War, their number increased to 600,000, and an agricultural town was transformed into a textile industry centre. Emigrants from Silesia, Bohemia, Moravia, Brandenburg, Switzerland, France, and England came to it. The city became the ‘promised land’ (it was easy to make a fortune there), a place where numerous cultures and religions coexisted and influences merged, and a cultural and ethnical borderland. It was inhabited by Catholics, Jews, members of the Orthodox church, and Protestants. Łódź developed not only in industrial and demographic terms, but also as a city. Buildings erected at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century still reflect its exceptional and multicultural character. Most Germans living in the city were craftsmen and industrialists, Russians were employed in the administration and army, Poles coming from nearby villages became the workforce in factories, while Jews dealt with trade and finances. The coexistence of these groups was not idyllic. Although they tolerated and were kind to each other, the harmonious life of the minorities was disturbed by chauvinist tendencies as well as social and political conflicts. Despite all kinds of tensions, the multicultural atmosphere prevailed in Łódź until the outbreak of World War II. In September 1939, the Łódź Germans welcomed the Nazi army entering the city by cheering in the streets. Despite the fact that Łódź was incorporated into the Third Reich and renamed Litzmannstadt, the city was marked by the trauma of the Holocaust. In the ghetto established within its borders, about 145,000 Jews from all around Europe were killed or transported to concentration camps (there was also a special sub-camp for the Roma in the ghetto). The presented stories of women living in Łódź during the World War II have been chosen so as to show the multicultural character of the city, and to draw attention to the fact that people fall victim to war regardless of their ethnic and religious background, particularly if they are women. References • M. Rzadkowolska, Tradycje w Łodzi wielokulturowej w repertuarze Wydawnictwa Łódzkiego, “Zeszyty Naukowe Politechniki Śląskiej” Seria Organizacja i Zarządzanie 2013, Vol. 65. • The Marek Edelman Dialogue Centre (http://www.centrumdialogu.com). 42 l WOMEN WAR AND PEACE

Alina Szapocznikow Alina Szapocznikow (1926-73) came from an assimilated Jewish family, provincial intelligentsia. She was born in Kalisz on 16 May 1926, her parents were doctors. Her father Jakub was a dentist, and her mother Rywka was a paediatrician. After Alina was born, they moved to Pabianice, as this was Jakub’s hometown. They lived in an elegant quarter, in 4 Narutowicza Street. In 1938, her father died of tuberculosis. This death symbolically ended the happy period in the life of the family. In 1939 the war broke out, and in February 1940 a ghetto was established in Pabianice, where they had to move. On 16 May 1942, Germans started to liquidate the Pabianice ghetto and transport people to Łódź. Alina, together with her mother and brother, were transported there on 18 May. The Łódź ghetto covered an area of about four square kilometres. 150,000 Jews lived there, suffering from hunger, diseases, and a shortage of medicines. The ghetto was located in the poorest quarters of the city, without a sewer system, and it was completely isolated. It could only be entered through official gates. They were housed in 24/4 Hohensteiner Strasse (today’s Zgierska Street). Alina was registered in the list of newcomers as a nurse, and her brother Mirosław was registered as an installation electrician, so that they could find a job. Everyone unfit for work, including children and the elderly, were sent to concentration

camps. Alina’s mother worked in a children’s hospital and through her intercession, in June 1943, Alina was placed in a vocational school at the Leon Glazer underwear and dress factory in Dworska Street, where students were taught sewing and fed, and teachers secretly taught them a secondary school curriculum.

Maria Eugenia Jasińska

The ghetto’s atmosphere was described by Maria Jarosz as follows: “Everyone were afraid probably all the time. They were afraid of death of themselves and their relatives. They would welcome the end of each day with a relief: once again they managed to survive. But what would happen tomorrow or the day after? And what death awaited them? Even I, a small optimist, didn’t know how to chase away bad thoughts. Would I die? Of hunger, killed by a bullet, or in a gas chamber? And were people burnt in crematoria really dead? During the daytime it was easier not to think about it, but before falling asleep it was much more difficult (…) I knew – just like my small brother – that you had to deal with depression on your own, you didn’t involve adults in it”. 1 Alina was about 16-17 at that time and she would always have several boyfriends. Seducing them was her passion. People living in the ghetto enjoyed the moment in case there was no tomorrow, and Alina seized every opportunity to be happy and derive pleasure from life. Here is what she wrote in her yellow book: “Apple trees are in bloom. Oh! How beautiful I am. Oh! How unhappy I am, how happy, imprisoned, depressed, how I crave freedom! How I’d like to get away”. 2 In August 1944, Alina and her mother were taken from the ghetto to Auschwitz, and then to Bergen-Belsen. She survived the war and became a sculptor. She did not return to her wartime experiences. For many years she was battling against cancer, and she died on 2 March 1973, in Paris. She was known for her expressive works reflecting transformations taking place in a human body. She was interested in sensuality and drama – she was looking for a proper form for them, using modern materials. Fascinated by what happens to people in extreme situations, she wrote: ‘A fleeting moment, a trifling moment – this is the only symbol of our earthly existence’. The artist’s works can be seen on the Culture.pl website. (http:// culture.pl/en/artist/alina-szapocznikow) Endnotes 1. M. Jarosz, Obyś żył w ciekawych czasach, Oficyna Naukowa: Warszawa 2009, p. 22. 2. Kroją mi się piękne sprawy. Listy Aliny Szapocznikow i Ryszarda Stanisławskiego 1948-1971, (ed.) A. Jakubowska, K. Szotkowska-Beylin, Muzeum Sztuki Nowoczesnej w Warszawie: Kraków-Warszawa 2012, p. 103.

References • M. Beylin, Ferwor. Życie Aliny Szapocznikow, Wydawnictwo Krakauer: Kraków-Warszawa 2015. • M. Jarosz, Obyś żył w ciekawych czasach, Oficyna Naukowa: Warszawa 2009. • Kroją mi się piękne sprawy. Listy Aliny Szapocznikow i Ryszarda Stanisławskiego 1948-1971, (ed.) A. Jakubowska, K. Szotkowska-Beylin, Muzeum Sztuki Nowoczesnej w Warszawie: Kraków-Warszawa 2012.

Maria Eugenia Jasinska Maria Eugenia Jasińska (1906-43) was born on 20 November 1906, in Łódź. She lived in 10 Żytnia Street in the Bałuty District. She attended Romana Konopczyńska-Sobolewska Girl’s Secondary

School. Most probably, she came from a working-class family. In the third form of the secondary school she joined the 6th Klementyna Hoffmanowa Girl Scouts’ Troop in Łódź and was soon elected by her peers as patrol leader. In the Scouts, she was never an instructor that would acquire instructor licences or serve functions in the organisation. In 1928, she graduated from the secondary school and wanted to graduate in pharmacy and medicine in order to become a paediatrician. On 8 June 1932, she received a degree of an ‘assistant pharmacist’ at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Warsaw. She graduated from extramural studies, while working in a pharmacy of the national insurance system as a trainee. On 1 September 1939, World War II broke out. Two months later the Polish Scouting and Guiding Association was officially dissolved, and the underground Grey Ranks and Wartime Rescue Services of Girl Scouts were established in its place. Jasińska became a member of the resistance and the underground movement in Łódź under the cover of her work in the pharmacy. After the ghetto for Jews was established in February 1940 in the Bałuty District, the Jasińskis had to leave their home because the ghetto area covered their address, and they moved to 80 Wrześnieńska Street, not far from their family home. Maria decided to live alone in 33 Płocka Street in the Chojny District, far from her previous quarter. Working in the pharmacy, she helped those in need. She sold them medicines that were difficult to obtain and organised medical care. She would help everyone in danger of death and those wanted. At some point, having won the trust of the German manager of the pharmacy, called at that time Pod Łabędziem/Under the Swan (37 Wólczańska Street), she produced false documents for the soldiers of the Home Army and escapees in the pharmacy basement. Polish and foreign officers, soldiers, Jews, and priests got them. She sent food parcels to concentration camps, forced-labour camps, and the ghetto in Łódź. As part of the resistance, she was a liaison smuggling people abroad. For example, she took part in the Dorsze/Codfish operation, the aim of which was to smuggle three British officers who had escaped from a POW camp abroad. On 19 April 1942, at 11 am, she was arrested in the pharmacy in WOMEN WAR AND PEACE l 43

6-go Sierpnia Street, where she worked. Initially, she was kept in the prison in Gdańska Street, and then she was transported to Radogoszcz. In the prison she was subjected to prolonged torture, the aim of which was to obtain information about other participants of the operation and names of the Home Army soldiers, however, she did not give away anything. She was accused of helping English officers to illegally cross the border with the General Government. The investigation lasted over a year. Jasińska did not plead guilty to the charges, skilfully refuting the Gestapo’s arguments. During the investigation, the interrogators did not manage to get any specific information concerning her activity or the remaining prisoners out of her. On 8 March 1943 her case was heard in the district court by two generals and ten German officers. Jasińska was sentenced to death by hanging. Such a harsh sentence resulted from her determination, as she skilfully defended herself and others. Only the testimony of Bernard Drozd, a member of an underground organisation from Poznań, most probably obtained through torture, pointed Jasińska out as a resistance liaison. On 20 April 1943, Maria Eugenia Jasińska was executed, probably in the Łódź Jewish cemetery. On 10 November 1944, Colonel Michał Stempkowski, the commanding officer of the Home Army Łódź District, awarded her posthumously the Silver Cross of the War Order of Virtuti Militari. In 1945, her family received a diploma from the Marshal of the air force of the British Commonwealth ‘as a token of gratitude and appreciation of the help she provided to sailors, soldiers, and pilots’. On the thirtieth anniversary of the liberation of the country, Jasińska was decorated with the Cross of Valour ‘for her bravery and courage’. Her body has not been found. Reference • Educational materials of the Museum of Independence Traditions: Okupacyjna noc 1942 roku w Litzmannstadt, http://www.muzeumtradycji.pl/files/okupacyjna_noc_1942_ roku_wlitzmnanstadt.pdf (access date: 10 October 2015).

Homeless women One of the shelters for homeless women in Łódź was run by the Albertine Sisters. They were brought to the then Łódź Diocese in 1926. Their first task was taking care of the elderly and the disabled, for whom a home was established in Sulejów near Łódź. A similar institution was later allotted to Albertine Sisters in Wolborz (1927), and then in Łęczyca (1936) located near Łódź. In 1938 they came to Łódź and started work in a night shelter for homeless women located in 32 28, Pułku Strzelców Kaniowskich Street. It had 180 beds for the needy. Next to the home the 7th National Police Station was established in order to break up fights taking place in the neighbourhood. On 1 September 1939, the home was taken over by the Łódź Municipality. The shelter for women was opened until 24 February 1940, when the Gestapo raided the place. Soldiers took 140 women staying there to an unknown place, and two days later the Albertine Sisters were ordered to vacate the home. Extermination of the homeless during the Second World War was a fact however, not many people realize that. It was a result of the social eugenics practiced by the Third Reich. A certain position in a hierarchy ensured chances of survival. This depended on one’s ethnical background, valued better or worse (Jewish, Roma, and Polish backgrounds were the worst), and one’s position within 44 l WOMEN WAR AND PEACE

the social structure, being a result of one’s views, sexual identity, and social class. The social policy of the Third Reich distinguished the so-called social elements, which were rather broadly defined. They included beggars, homeless people, tramps, alcoholics, drug addicts, prostitutes, petty criminals, and the poor. Research into ‘asocial’ groups, today classified as socially excluded, was conducted in the Reich before the Second World War. At that time, researchers were dealing with projects as part of the activity of the German Committee for Scientific Research. Conclusions from this research delivered ‘evidence’ justifying the killing of selected individuals deemed racially impure, as they had ‘bad’ blood, while ‘bad’ blood could have also concerned poor and other socially maladjusted people. Thus, the research covered ‘tramps’, people with all kinds of psychological and physical disorders as well as representatives of minorities. One of the key researchers from the already mentioned Institute – Robert Ritter – wrote that the low value of people of low social status was equal to the low value of the mentally ill whose disorders were hereditary. He described the then underclass of the city as ‘low-value elements’. He believed that they came from ‘a combination of asocial elements and the mentally retarded, [which] gave birth to the population of idlers, prostitutes, camouflaged beggars, drunkards, and creeps’. Ritter also worked on the project entitled Reasons for insurmountable poverty. This research was conducted on one of the German social estates. Here are the conclusions he drew after the end of the research: ‘poverty is not caused by economic factors but can be ultimately explained in terms of hereditary and biological principles’. During World War II people categorised as the ‘asocial class’ were sent to concentration camps, just like the representatives of ethnic groups, political opposition, and sexual minorities. ‘Asocial’ individuals were marked in the camps with a black triangle. References • P. Zwoliński, Działalność społeczno-dobroczynna Kościoła łódzkiego w okresie międzywojennym. Studium historyczne, Archidiecezjalne Wydawnictwo Łódzkie: Łódź 2006. • E. Klee, Auschwitz. Medycyna III Rzeszy i jej ofiary, Universitas: Kraków 2012.

Regina (Inka) Milichtajch Regina (Inka) Milichtajch was a Jewish woman from Łódź. When the World War II broke out, she was a girl in her twenties. Before the war she had worked as a sales assistant. She had a sevenyears younger brother and a nine-years younger sister. She also had a fiancé but the war broke this bond. In 1940, when the ghetto in Litzmannstadt was established, she was moved there with her whole family, including her parents. She gave a false date of birth – she said she was five years younger in order to be in the same age group as her sister and get deported with her. As she emphasised in her memoirs, in the ghetto she tried to take care of herself despite numerous diseases she contracted because of hunger and poverty (she even stopped menstruating then). However, she did not want to ‘frighten people’ with the way she looked. She saw her friends go mad due to constant hunger they suffered. She said that in the workplaces in the ghetto people had love affairs: ‘sex worked’, she said, despite diseases, hunger, death, and uncertainty. People did not want to wait. She also decided

to have a love affair with a man 20 years her senior, who was lonely, cultured, and clearly interested in her. For a long time, this relationship was platonic. It was broken after she visited him at his home, where he treated her to a feast of bread and tea. He was moved that she had turned out to be ‘a decent girl in the ghetto’, so he proposed to her. Inka turned down his proposal. For some time, thanks to letters smuggled into and out of the ghetto, she would ‘arrange to meet’ one of her schoolmates and her mother – Poles who lived outside the ghetto. These ‘meetings’ took place as follows: on the arranged day, her schoolmate and her mother got on a tram that ran through the ghetto in the Polish part of the city. They were standing on the tram platform, while Inka with her mother and sister were walking down the pavement, following the tram. They ‘met’ without words, without any gesture; they could only look at each other. The Litzmannstadt Ghetto was liquidated in 1944. Inka together with her father, brother, and sister were taken to the camp in Auschwitz. Her mother had died before that, and her father and brother died in the camp. Only Inka and her sister survived the war. After prisoners got to Auschwitz, they had their heads shaved. However, Inka was not completely shaved (which she treated as a happy coincidence). She also managed to hide a small fine-toothed comb (which protected her against lice). Thanks to this, as she said, she ‘was a human being of a specific sex’ because ‘the fact that I had hair often made contacts with other people easier, I didn’t frighten anybody’. After leaving Auschwitz, she and her sister went through the camp in BergenBelsen, and then they got to Magdeburg, where they were when the war ended and from where they safely came back to Poland. On their way back to the country, they stayed on a German farm, where they joined a group of POWs and Polish forced labourers. Separated from their families, people were building new relationships. Inka caught the eye of one of the prisoners – a Serbian. In order to prove his serious intentions, he brought her a big loaf of bread and some chocolate. This was his Red Cross ration, which he had received as a prisoner of war. The bread was eaten by Inka’s sister and her friend. Inka was terrified because she was afraid that the Serbian would treat it as her consent to their relationship, and Inka did not want this. Fortunately, he believed her explanation and left her alone. Reference: • R. (Inka) Milichtajch, Jak przeżyłam drugą wojnę światową. Relacja, Polish-Jewish Heritage Foundation of Canada: Montreal 2005.

Johanna Majewska Johanna: My whole family came from Zgierz since time immemorial. My great-grandmother’s maiden name was Rej, just like this poet Mikołaj. And my grandfather came from Riga, Latvia. He was a great lord. He came to Poland with Mr Possent, a great factory owner from England. They had studied together. And he met my beautiful grandmother, returned to Latvia, said goodbye, fell in love, and stayed. So only my grandfather was from Latvia. But the rest of the family have lived in Zgierz since time immemorial. And, you know, we simply can’t be Germans because we have Polish roots [she raises her voice]…And then, hard times came because my grandfather’s name was Johann Ernest Rosenberg, so Germans thought he was a Jew. And there

were lots of trouble with the Germans, and it all started when my father was taken to Germany in 1942. He escaped…Then searches started and they gave my grandfather a hard time. They kept him several times here in Łódź, in Anstadta Street. The Gestapo headquarters was located there. And they would summon him, it was Easter, and after Easter he was to decide (he was an evangelical) whether he would sign the Volksliste or whether he was a Jew. And on Easter Day he had a stroke and died, while we – my grandmother, my mother, and I – were left alone. My father never came back…He met a woman from Grodno, she was a young girl. Fell in love and divorced my mum. So there were three of us: my grandma, my mum, and I… After 1945, things were bad. 1 You could feel some kind of hatred among people. Before the war, when my parents went somewhere, for example on holiday, they wouldn’t go far, only to Lućmierz, or Rosanów. Rich Jews from Łódź rented rooms there. So everyone stayed together: Poles, Germans, Jews. Everyone were together, no one was alone. And then such hatred appeared…Times were hard. There was hatred. I understand that during the occupation there was a great deal of injustice. But those responsible for it had already escaped. And those who stayed were innocent people. I went to school, there was a lot of snow, they wanted to go past me, they knocked me over, kicked me. The same happened at school: “Kraut, Heinie, she’s stuffed herself with butter”. While I hadn’t even seen butter, you know, if someone had something, it was rape oil or something…During the occupation you would spread oil on bread… Let me tell you a story: it was before Christmas. We lived in the attic. It was cold. There was only a pot-bellied stove there…We were just sitting there and suddenly my grandma said to my mum: ‘What are we going to do now? There’s nothing; there’s no flour, sugar, or bread. There’s literally nothing. What are we going to do?’ And my mum said: ‘I could borrow it somewhere’. She went to one of my aunts, and then to another. They were all so-called aunts. And one of them gave us some sugar, another gave us something else, and so we were sitting there. What was going to happen? Christmas Eve came and we had nothing! Not even a slice of bread. The window had frozen over. I only breathed on the window pane and wiped a circle in it. It’s cold, we’re sitting, waiting. Suddenly my mum says: ‘My God, if you’re in heaven, help us. But don’t help me, help this child.’ And my grandma says: ‘What are you doing? Praying? If God really loved us, he wouldn’t hurt us so much.’ And my mum says: ‘Don’t say such things! What if this God exists?’ And we’re still sitting, and it’s got dark all at once. We didn’t know those residents who lived there. We only knew the Landlord. The Landlady was also from Germany. And suddenly someone knocks on the door. My grandma says: ‘Jesus Christ!’ We lived in fear all the time. And someone knocks on the door [the speaker is clearly moved], my grandma opens the door slightly, and a hand appears with a parcel wrapped up in paper, this hand gave us the parcel. My grandma wanted to look out, but the corridor was dark. She only said ‘Thank you’ and closed the door. There was half a loaf of bread, an apple, some candies, and a piece of pork fat, a big piece. And it wasn’t pork fat for melting, but for slicing. That pork fat was strange. There were a few nuts and a small piece of yeast cake. And my mum said: ‘You see?’ And none of them were hungry all of a sudden. They gave me everything. They didn’t want it. They weren’t hungry, oh, no. We divided the bread. Those loaves were so big, and this was half a loaf. So we divided the bread. For the first and the second days of Christmas. And I also said that I wouldn’t eat the cake if they didn’t eat it… WOMEN WAR AND PEACE l 45

You see what it was like? On Christmas Eve it was already really tight. We had suffered great pain with my mum. And even today, when I see a dog that is looking for food, I go to the butcher’s. The day before yesterday, I was going to Polo Market, you know, and I saw a poodle, a grey poodle. It was gnawing on ice. Someone had left something there, and the dog was trying to get it from under the ice. I said to myself: ‘My God!’ I went to the butchers and said: ‘Give me one sausage.’ Ania gave me a sausage, I paid for it, went out, divided it into several pieces, and gave it to the dog, it ate it immediately…When you’re hungry, your stomach really hurts, water gathers in your mouth, sour water, and you feel really terrible. And I was growing then. When I got my first period, I was nearly seventeen. Because I was so thin, so skinny, I was undernourished, you know. But let bygones be bygones, now it’s better. I’ve got my 840 zlotys. I pay everything, I have no debts. I pay my gas and electricity bills. A postman comes. When he leaves, I already have all bills prepared. The next day I go to the bank. And I pay everything. I also go to a pharmacy and pay 150 zlotys for my medicines, and then, you know, I divide what’s left. Endnote 1.

In 1943 in Sikawa near Łódź, Germans established a penal camp for “educational work” (Arbeitserziehungslager). It ran until January 1945. Immediately after the war, the communist authorities organized a labour camp there, intended mainly for Germans and Volksdeutsche. From autumn 1948 it operated as a camp for German prisoners of war and officers. After December 1950 the camp was intended exclusively for Poles. The number of deaths in Sikawa was approximately 1,080 people. Under Polish law since 1945 there was announced a decree on criminal liability for deviation from Polish nationality during 1939-45. The decree provided for the detention of Volksdeutsche in the camp until they are brought to trial. The law referred only to the Poles who signed volkslista, not the Germans, who were at that time deprived of their citizenship and deported from Poland.

References • An interview conducted on February 13, 2010, by Inga Kuźma and Agnieszka Iwaszkiewicz. • B. Kopka, Łódź-Sikawa – Obóz karny, http://www. miejscapamieci.org/obozy/mpc/Memorial/mpa/show/ mp-place/ Łódź -sikawa-oboz-karny/ • Volksdeutsche pozostaną w obozach jeszcze do 31 marca 1948 roku, „Express Ilustrowany”, 3 XI 1947, nr 301, p. 3.



Chapter

Two: WAR


The Second World War (193945) was a truly global conflict and the greatest man-made disaster in history, killing between 60-70 million people and causing untold misery to the surviving populations across the world.

I

n terms of causes, there were many different factors that led to the outbreak of World War II. Firstly, Europe and the world were still feeling the effects of World War I which had ended with the 1919 Treaty of Versailles between Germany and the Allied powers including Britain, France and the Russian empire. Germany was defeated in World War I and deemed responsible by the Allies. As a result, the Treaty of Versailles imposed harsh sanctions on Germany for the damage caused. In addition to losing territory and being forced to demilitarize the Rhineland, Germany was forced to pay large reparations to the victorious powers. Secondly, the severe economic hardship of the Great Depression affected many countries around the world and placed a huge strain on the German economy leading to mass poverty and deprivation. This environment was ripe for manipulation by the Nazi party, led by Adolf Hitler. Many countries had been left devastated by World War I and Fascism was now on the rise as dictators set up strong controlling regimes. Francisco Franco, a Spanish army general, became dictator of Spain in 1939 with the support of Nazi Germany and Benito Mussolini came to power as a dictator in Italy in 1922.

The Second World War: A Global Conflict By Mary Moynihan

Franco was involved in the military rising that led to the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939, eventually overthrowing the Spanish democratic republic and taking over as ruler until 1975, brutally suppressing all forms of democracy and freedom. At the same time as Fascism was on the rise in Europe, Japanese militarism was also on the rise. Japan as a country was growing rapidly and began to look outside of its own boundaries for national resources and land in order to sustain growth. Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931 and China in 1937. Back in Europe Adolf Hitler was now part of the rising fascist force and the Nazi party rose to power in Germany in 1933 with Hitler proclaimed WOMEN WAR AND PEACE l 49

‘Fuhrer’ or leader in 1934 becoming dictator of all Germany. Hitler wanted to get rid of the sanctions imposed on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles. He allied himself with Mussolini in Italy and in 1938 he invaded and took over Austria. Nothing was done to stop Hitler and in 1939 he annexed Czechoslovakia. Hitler continued pursuing policies of colonization and expansion and he believed in the idea of an ‘Ayran’ or ‘master race’ referring to other groups as ‘sub-human’ in particular Slavic and Jewish communities. A policy of appeasement (attempting to meet demands) was initially taken towards Germany and Italy in response to their aggressive expansionist policies as many countries were war-weary from World War I. When Hitler invaded part of Czechoslovakia in 1938 Great Britain and France colluded as part of the Munich Agreement which was referred to by Czechoslovakia as the ‘Munich Betrayal’. The League of Nations, an intergovernmental organisation set up after World War I to maintain peace, failed to prevent another world war and was eventually replaced by the United Nations in April 1946. The policy of appeasement did not work and it only gave dictators such as Adolf Hitler time to build up his army. World War II started on September 1, 1939 when Germany invaded Poland without a declaration of war. France and Great Britain declared war on Germany on September 3 and all the members of the British Commonwealth joined except for Ireland which remained neutral, although many citizens went to fight with or assist the Allies. The Axis powers consisted of Germany, Italy and Japan. Spain remained neutral. Hitler went on to invade numerous countries in Europe including France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark and Norway while Japan aimed to control Asia and the Pacific. The Allies consisted of Great Britain and its commonwealth nations (including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, India and China), France, the Soviet Union and the United States of America fighting against the Axis nations of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Japan and their smaller allies. The Soviet Union was invaded by Germany in 1941 and the United States of America declared war on Japan in 1941 after the bombing of a naval base at Pearl Harbour in Hawaii by Japan. 50 l WOMEN WAR AND PEACE

Impact The Second World War affected Europe, the Pacific, Southeast Asia, China and North Africa. The war ended on 2 September 1945 with the victory of the allies, resulting in the deaths of 60-70 million people (of whom about 40 million were civilians) and bringing to an end the German ‘Third Reich’. The ending of the war in 1945 was achieved by the Allied armies invading Germany and by the United States, with the support of Great Britain, dropping two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing over 100,000 people. Many people suffered including those in Europe caught between the totalitarian millstones of Nazi Germany and Stalin’s USSR, and who died as a result of the interaction of the two systems. Since 1933, 14 million had died in Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, the Baltic States and the Balkans. The vast majority of the six million Jewish people brutally slaughtered by the Nazis also came from those regions. The Holocaust or ‘Shoah’ was a form of genocide committed against the Jewish people by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime. They also murdered political prisoners, Christians, homosexuals, gypsies, people with mental and physical disabilities, trade unionists, people of different ethnic groups, socialists, communists, pacifists, members of the Spanish International Brigades, Spanish Republican refugees, Catholics, Jehovah’s Witnesses, conscientious objectors, resistance fighters and prisoners of war from many different countries. Poland lost 17% of its population during the war, Ukraine 16% and the dead in Belarus amounted to a staggering 25% of the country’s inhabitants. In the war in Asia more than 20 million people died in China alone, the hostilities there dating from the 1931 Japanese invasion of Manchuria. Recent research has revealed the true horror of the war in the east, from the 1937 Rape of Nanking to the treatment of local populations and prisoners of war as ‘human cattle’ to feed Japanese soldiers.

in 1945 and was prevented only by news of the development of the atomic bomb by the USA. He had over 400 divisions of battlehardened soldiers at his command and the operation to invade Western Europe was to be completed in a month. The Second World War ended with the defeat of the Nazis and the Japanese in 1945. This was followed by the beginning of the Cold War between the twin superpowers of the USSR and the USA. The ending of the Second World War did bring about the end of the colonial domination of Britain and France whose economies were shattered by the war. Former French colonies such as Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam became independent, and the disintegration of the British empire saw countries like Myanmar, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Jordan and Egypt gain their freedom. Likewise, the Dutch and Italian colonial empires were casualties of the war. How long would this decolonisation process have taken if there had not been a World War II?

Human Rights War crimes were committed by all sides in the conflict, from Hitler’s ‘war of extermination’ against the Jewish people to the Allies’ mass rape of over two million German women and the rape of Japanese women and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. According to the historian Anthony Beever ‘at least two million German women are thought to have been raped, and a substantial minority, if not a majority, appear to have suffered multiple rape’, 1 with these crimes committed by Allied forces including Russian and American soldiers. Rape victims of these war crimes included women from Russia, Poland, Japan and many other countries. Describing the Second World War as a ‘good war’ does not stand up to scrutiny when you consider that one half of Europe had to be sacrificed to Stalinist tyranny to save the other half.

As a result of the Second World War the United Nations was established and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was created, a major development in the history of human rights. Drafted by representatives with different legal and cultural backgrounds from all regions of the world, the Declaration was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on December 10, 1948 as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations. It sets out for the first time fundamental human rights to be universally protected, declaring that ‘all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights’. The position of women in society was altered by the war, as they took up work traditionally done by men who were in the armed forces. Most of them lost these jobs when the war ended but the seeds sown came to fruition in the battles for gender equality over the next decades. In England, for example many of the leaders

Describing the Second World War as a ‘good war’ does not stand up to scrutiny when you consider that one half of Europe had to be sacrificed to Stalinist tyranny to save the other half. The treatment of Poland was a glaring example of this. On July 5, 1945 the United States and Britain recognized Stalin’s puppet government in Poland and abandoned the Polish government-inexile in London. To further appease Stalin the British government excluded Polish armed forces from the victory parade in London. The USA and Britain also allowed the Soviet Union to continue to control the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania which they had invaded in 1940. All the countries of eastern and central Europe remained under Soviet control until the collapse of that State and the communist system itself in 1989. In July 1945 at the Potsdam conference the US ambassador to Moscow, Averell Harriman said to Stalin: ‘It must be very pleasant for you to be in Berlin now after all your country has suffered.’ The Soviet leader replied: ‘Tsar Aleksandr went all the way to Paris’. It is clear that the Soviet leader planned to invade Western Europe

of the Women’s Liberation movement of the 1960s had their first experience of work outside the home during the Second World War. Finally in the years following the devastation of World War II, the European Union was founded. ‘After the decimation of the Second World War, reconciliation between Germany and France was an important step towards fostering peace in Europe. The two countries - which by then had fought three wars within the space of 70 years - built the European Coal and Steel Community together with four other countries in 1952. This organization became the foundation for an ever-broader cooperation within what has been known since 1993 as the European Union (EU). 2 Endnotes 1. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/may/01/news. features11 2. https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/laureates/2012/ eu-facts.html WOMEN WAR AND PEACE l 51

The Roots of Hate

Fascism, Nazism, totalitarianism and war By Kilian Cuerda Ros

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ften the collective imagination draws attention to the hardest and most terrible aspects of European history that of the Third Reich, the fascism, the totalitarianism, the terrible massacre of World War II - from a point of view of the monstrous, of collective madness and of a crime typical of psychopaths. Not infrequently Hitler and the Nazi armies have been referred to as “forces of evil” or the reality of the concentration camps as “hellish”. Indeed, they are. However, sometimes this is dangerous given the fact that the real roots of these evils are not easy to define, we must tackle the analysis of this historical reality from a critical, materialist position that does not remove the phenomenon from its social and material reality to take it to the indeterminate (and finally irresponsible) field of madness or the demoniac field. The rise of fascism and Nazism, the totalitarian wave of the 1930s in Europe (and not just in Europe) as well as World War II are not


understandable without resorting to an analysis of industrial and financial capital and its accumulation processes and its influence in the creation of an imperialist policy in the European powers of the preceding decades. The First World War and its ending, with the Treaty of Versailles, plays a major role in the collective imagination as a source of further evils, although it is rather a symptom of other phenomena with longer life cycles. Since the early 1870s, European powers developed a strong imperialist and colonial expansion over much of the global territories, involving a first phase in which the British and French colonial empires were built with the incorporation later of Germany and Italy into the process of imperialist expansion, in addition to others - Belgium in the Congo or the Netherlands in the Far East (although the latter had a previous origin in time). Throughout this period, the great industrial and financial capital expansion developed a military occupation, taking control of vast territories in order to access their raw materials and resources. This was done by building a form of imagination and speech which dehumanized the ‘different’ and legitimised the colonial plunder. With a good substrate given by the experience of the slave trade, the racist

ideas of the white man’s superiority experienced a substantial rise and the same happened with militarism and brutality becoming a daily practice in the occupation and treatment of colonised people as a normal and legitimate means to build the empires of the European powers. Although the exacerbated Nazi anti-Semitism seen years later in Germany does not have an equivalent in other countries, the elements needed for its synthesis were already present in the environment: Social Darwinism had been born in England, and in other countries like France or the US, arguments were launched in favour of eugenics (in the latter case, with support from Theodore Roosevelt who later became President). The atrocious colonial massacres were justified as a “means” (ownership of land and resources, ending the resistance to the conquest), not as an end in itself as was the Shoah for Nazism, but the ideology and literature that justified them were as forcefully and as ‘scientifically’ argued as Nazi anti-Semitism. To a great extent they were very similar, for example to the directives given to the army on the eastern front in 1941 for the extermination of Jews, communists and ‘subhumans’ 1. Anti-Semitism and extreme nationalism were not a novelty years later.

This process of capital accumulation and growth in industrialization (including the arms race) based on colonial expansion and in a globalized capitalism context subjected to the contradictions imposed by the Nation-States political reality, aggravated by the concentration processes in large cartels or trusts, all contributed to the break out of conflict in Europe and the unprecedented violence of World War I. This begins a cycle that some authors such as Enzo Traverso have called the ‘European civil war’ of 19141945. 2 This was a process in which the advent of mass society, the transition from liberal capitalism to monopoly capitalism, the political democratization, the mass nationalization and military revolution all preceded armed outbreak in 1914. In this war the central powers including Germany, Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria confronted the Allies including France, the British Empire, Russia and, at a later stage, the United States of America. World War I was an unprecedented massacre and a European avalanche of chauvinism, militarism and dehumanization. The brutality of the trenches finally penetrated into the discourse of political reality. In parallel with the capitalist forces development there was a rise and growth of the labour movement which WOMEN WAR AND PEACE l 53

enabled a revolution in Russia to overthrow the tsarist autocracy and to open the way for the construction of a new workers’ state. It also spread the revolutionary example to the rest of Europe. The so-called ‘Central Powers’ defeat in World War I generated a power vacuum and seizure leading to the fall of their regimes and the creation of republics in Germany and Austria as well as in other countries. In this context, vigorous labour movements sought the implementation of revolutionary processes in places like Germany where they failed in the midst of bloody clashes and repression. It is in this environment that fascist movements and Nazism developed starting from the reality of the historical process underway. As noted at the beginning, we are not talking about a ‘natural catastrophe’. Trotsky defined Hitler and fascism as “a chemically pure product distilled by imperialist culture”. 3 To a large extent, it is. Within the concept put forward by Traverso of a ‘European civil war’, two major warring factions are defined during this period, namely, the forces linked to the Enlightenment tradition, encompassing both liberal democracies and the labour movement, and the reactionary forces that connect with the anti-liberal tradition, which would be represented by the various fascist movements. As discussed previously, there is a fermenting of extreme nationalism, of chauvinism, of militarism, of armed expansion over other peoples, and the promotion of racist ideas. All this is connected to new intellectual currents, such as Futurism, with its talk of the glorification of violence, along with the protest against and rejection of the old society and the growing decline of liberal regimes. But in order to be born, fascism needed World War I, its true matrix according to Gentile, 4 as this war caused the crisis of civilization in Western Europe that precipitated the different elements coming into contact. Finally, the nineteenth-century European order collapsed, questioning the whole world order and giving way to a more aggressive, militaristic, violent, undemocratic and imperialistic nationalist character. Without this, the fascist groups and their ideals would not have succeeded in moving in from the margins. Now, no fascist movement could come to power without support, by act or omission, of traditional elites. 5 So fascism, despite its rhetoric of ‘regeneration’ and a construction of the ‘new man’ with it’s opposition to a decrepit order of liberal bourgeois society, exaltation of technology and a certain image of modernity, it is in essence purely counter-revolutionary growing out of a civil war climate on the rise in Europe after 1917. Despite some ‘revolutionary’ varnish and a recourse to a populist ‘workers’ rhetoric to win support among the working classes (some fascists came from leftist movements that had experienced a shift toward radical nationalism), what defines very clearly the different type of fascism in Europe is its radical opposition to the communist revolution. The economic crisis in the 1920s and 1930s appeared as a consequence of the limitations and contradictions of the development of capitalist forces in its period of imperialism and hegemonic monopoly, this crisis led to a strong social and political polarization, with large masses of workers doomed to unemployment and economic hardship. As has been said before, there was a rise of revolutionary movements in the heat of this situation: the advent of mass society and democratic achievements paved the way for the possibility of profound change and direct participation of the masses, against the old bourgeois governments and against the capitalist system that created the crisis. 54 l WOMEN WAR AND PEACE

In this sense, a time came when the traditional elite and the bourgeoisie saw that the form and shape of state law and liberal culture limited their chances of winning power and they saw a threat to their status with the arrival of the new and growing revolutionary forces, so they started to break away from democratic forms, moving towards totalitarianism, fascism, Nazism. They thus support the fascist movements, which will be strengthened as a way to abort the growing aspirations of progressive masses. The most glaring cases were the counter-revolution and seizure of power in Italy and Germany by the Nazi-fascists and the coup and civil war in Spain with the intervention of foreign fascists to abort the progressive changes of the Second Republic. In addition, the German and Italian bourgeoisies were in a bad situation after World War I (especially in Germany as a result of the conditions of defeat and the blocking of its imperial expansion by the other imperialist powers). Capitalism itself is in crisis and a part of its own forces now lined up under the aegis of fascism and Nazism in a real attack on the people of Europe. The advent of fascism arises in many cases as a ‘nationalisation or re-nationalisation project’. With the rise of mass society (with its democratic tools and the possibility of transformation following the Soviet example), fascism seeks, from its extreme nationalist position, to ‘regenerate’ the nation or collective community, that is, to redefine the nation following its own standards, cutting the process of democratisation and the revolutionary advances of the labour movement, which was to the liking of the traditional elites and bourgeoisie. As Walter Benjamin said, fascism replaces citizens’ rights by ritualized common values. In Germany, the process of radicalisation of Nazism combined two elements inherited from the German past, a racist nationalism and an imperialist expansionism with a strong Social-Darwinist

The use of totalitarianism, fascism, war and violence are configured not as historical accidents but as real and natural options of power to be used by elite forces. character, and this in confluence with the alliance with the traditional elites, resulted in a capitalist, totalitarian, racist and imperialist regime doomed to total war. The war waged by the Nazis against the peoples of Europe was a war of assault of German imperialist elites against other imperialist powers they faced in World War I and a classic colonial war on the Eastern Front, with two images of ‘otherness’ to eliminate: the Jewish and indigenous. We must therefore ask, in the light of this analysis, about the origin of the war. The study and analysis of a large majority of conflicts and violence throughout history often shows an economic source for many of the wars with fighting for ownership of resources. In our contemporary historical period, from the French Revolution onwards, we have the bourgeois nation-state as a key political player. This state is not a neutral element, in reality it has a ‘class’ nature. Also, uniquely and unlike other historical periods, it has the monopoly of using violence. When we find the traditional elites of this state controlling the structural economic system in the form of large cartels and trusts (which arose during the imperialist period of capitalism and monopoly), and facing a lack of control within a democratic environment, we see clearly how these States fought against each other to defend their interests by force of arms. The advances in democratic structures that provide for the participation of the majority of the population is an uncomfortable and even dangerous threat to a liberal bourgeois system that wants to maintain it’s dominant status. Thus, the use of totalitarianism, fascism, war and violence are configured not as historical accidents but as real and natural options of power to be used by elite forces.

Endnotes 1. Luxemburg, Rosa. Reforma o Revolución. Biblioteca de Pensamiento Crítico, Diario Público, 2009, pág. 26. 2. Traverso, Enzo. A sangre y fuego. De la guerra civil europea (1914-1945). Publicacions de la Universitat de València, 2009, págs. 29-34. 3. Trotsky, León. El Programa de Transición. Fundación Federico Engels, 2008, pág. 87 4. Gentile, Emilio. Qu’est-ce le fascisme? Histoire et interpretation. Gallimard, 2004, pág. 85. 5. Traverso, Enzo. La historia como campo de batalla. Interpretar las violencias del siglo XX. Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2012, pág. 129-132.

References • Benjamin, Walter. Illuminations. Nueva York, Schocken Books, 1969. • Gentile, Emilio. Qu’est-ce le fascisme? Histoire et interpretation. Gallimard, 2004. • Luxemburg, Rosa. Reforma o Revolución. Biblioteca de Pensamiento Crítico, Diario Público, 2009. • Traverso, Enzo. A sangre y fuego. De la guerra civil europea (1914-1945). Publicacions de la Universitat de València, 2009. • Traverso, Enzo. El totalitarisme. Història d’un debat. Publicacions de la Universitat de València, 2002. • Traverso, Enzo. La historia como campo de batalla. Interpretar las violencias del siglo XX. Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2012. • Trotsky, León. El Programa de Transición. Fundación Federico Engels, 2008.


Valencia

By Kilian Cuerda Ros

DURING THE SECOND REPUBLIC AND THE CIVIL WAR: A HOPE ABORTED

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he Second Republic (1931-1939) was a key moment in Spain regarding the conquest of freedom, social progress, justice and civil rights. The municipal elections in 1931 were won in emphatic fashion by Republican forces, and this caused the collapse of the monarchy, with the king fleeing the country. These facts made possible the proclamation of the Second Republic in Spain and the drawing up of a new democratic Constitution. The task of social reform and progressive transformation of the first governments was going to be very intense, and not without difficulty and conflict. Military reform was launched to modernize the army and free it from its old undemocratic conception. Work began on the creation of a secular Spain with a firm commitment to developing culture and education and overcoming the privileges of the church. Strong land reform was attempted to address the grave injustices and deprivation suffered by the 56 l WOMEN WAR AND PEACE

majority of peasantry and a powerful labour law was launched in defence of the working class (minimum wage, working hours, collective bargaining law, etc). During this period, the country experienced political freedom as well as a powerful explosion of political turmoil and agitation within and between the different democratic elements, however unprecedented progress and achievements were made particularly in relation to women’s rights. Spanish women were incorporated as never before into the political life of the country, a whole new space for debate was opened up. Rights such as divorce, civil marriage, abortion, equal access to education and also for the first time in the history of Spain, the female vote, were approved. However, the traditional elites and the right-wing, which was experiencing a process of creeping fascism, did not accept the democratic changes and progress made by leftist and labour

organizations. Thus, from the beginning they conspired to topple the nascent Republican government and aided by the disappointments felt by the masses as a result of progress being slower than they had expected (with consequent socio-political agitation), the traditional elites and right wing forces promoted a growing climate of violence in the streets, largely perpetrated by right-wing paramilitaries, and by some anarchist and insurrectionary groups. The general elections of 1933 saw far-right elements taking control of the government, ruling ministries and imposing repression on leftist movements. In this context occurred the outbreak known as the Social Revolution of Asturias, a miners strike in Asturias in Northern Spain in 1934 against the entry of right wing elements into the Spanish government. The strike developed into a revolutionary uprising and resulted in fierce repression of left-wing agitators and miners by government forces under General Francisco Franco. After a period of stagnation of open reform processes which happened as a result of right wing elements taking control of the government, the progressive forces were now able to submit a single candidacy, the Popular Front, which won in the elections of 1936. This time, the conservative elites (bourgeoisie, landowners, the Catholic Church and reactionary sectors of the army), decided to act outside of democratic law and later that same year, in July, they launched a military coup against the Republican government of Spain which brought three bloody years of civil war. Loyal republican forces and other voluntary forces, militias, parties, trade unions and labor movements, initiated the resistance and they stopped the coup in large parts of Spain. Those against the democratic Republican government of Spain known as the nationalists, received aid from Nazi Germany and fascist Italy while the Republicans received aid from the Soviet Union as well as from the International Brigades, made up of volunteers from Europe and the United States. These facts are entirely within the context of a “European civil war” described by Traverso for the period 1914-1945, and they are not a “tragic Spanish specificity” as some conservative historiography would maintain. If there is some specificity, it is (among other things) the nature of the forces of the right rising against the Republic and against democratic processes: they were extremely reactionary, ultraconservative, authoritarian and violent, formed directly by the traditional elite, and with a fascistic varnish which they appropriated and assumed, without however the claim of ‘building a new society and a new man’ which fascist organisations in other European countries were purporting to do. The Spanish Civil War was of great importance and significance at a European level, it is often interpreted as the ‘first act’ of World War II. This is where Hitler practised new techniques of war, and where atrocities against civilians were seen for the first time on European soil, including the bombing of cities. At the same time international solidarity saw members of many countries join the Republican forces, creating the International Brigades who came to Spain to defend freedom and democracy. Against the turbulent backdrop of the civil war, and as a result of the power vacuum that existed, a social revolution broke out particularly in areas loyal to the Republic. It involved violence, strong disputes and controversies within the Republican forces, whose aims were to accelerate and deepen the changes initiated in the first republican-socialist government as a means of mobilizing the people in the struggle against the coup, and leading for example to the collectivization of means of production and services.

During this period, women experienced a strong level of emancipation, with the participation of numerous women’s militias fighting at the frontline in defence of democracy and social achievements. Valencia became the political epicentre of republican Spain as the siege imposed on Madrid by the coup side forced the republican government to move from there to Valencia. There was great excitement in the city not only politically but also culturally. Despite the stress of war and bombings, the Second Congress of Antifascist Writers for the Defence of Culture was held in Valencia in 1937 by the Alliance of Antifascist Intellectuals for the Defence of Culture, which also had its headquarters located in Valencia. The eyes of the whole cultural world and Europe were on Valencia and the civil conflict in Spain, which acted as a prelude to the great and bloody war against fascism and Nazism that was about to be unleashed globally. As a result of the dynamics of war, many women involved in the militia during this period (especially at the beginning of the war) were incorporated into jobs and employment throughout the supply chain, which led to greater equality and gender empowerment. For the first time a woman, Federica Montseny, who was affiliated to the Anarchist party, held the position of minister of health, giving a boost to women’s rights and to issues such as abortion. Republican forces were eventually defeated by a military coup, supported by Hitler and Mussolini, which resulted in a conquest of rights and an end to the process of democratic change taking place, leading to genocide against all democratic forces, unions and labour movements. From the beginning of the military rebellion, assassinations and the physical elimination of all opposition and all prominent members of the democratic forces was carefully planned, starting initially in areas occupied by rebel forces and beginning with the execution of all council and union members, politicians, progressives and supporters of democracy who could be located. The traditional and ecclesiastical elite came out in force against the educational reform which had been set up by the Republic and which had resulted in the implementation of public education for the entire population without any segregation of the sexes and was secular and scientific and inspired by the principals of free education. The elite forces proceeded to clear out any teachers who could be located, with most of them arrested and murdered. The repression of women was especially brutal with frequent public appeals made by the coup leaders to troops under their command to carry out massive violations and rapes of any women identified with the Republican cause. Women suffered a double oppression, firstly as Republicans and democrats and secondly as women now living under a dictatorship that was, from its onset, rooted in sexist, reactionary traditions. All progress concerning women’s rights were now lost and women were confined to the home and family under the control of husbands. Civil marriage, the right to divorce and abortion were all abolished and education was once again segregated and returned to national, Catholic control. The fight for the restoration of democracy and for rights and freedom in Spain would cost decades of struggle in the coming years. References: • Aguado, Ana (Coordinator) Història Contemporània del País Valencià. Tabarca Llibres, 1992. • González Calleja, Eduardo. La violencia y sus discursos: los límites de la “fascistización” de la derecha española durante el régimen de la Segunda República. Ayer 71/2008 (3): 85-116. • Traverso, Enzo. A sangre y fuego. De la guerra civil europea (1914-1945). Publicacions de la Universitat de València WOMEN WAR AND PEACE l 57

1916 women in Garden of Ely O’Carroll’s House in Peter’s Place, Dublin, summer 1916 (courtesy of Kilmainham Gaol Museum)

Ireland: Women in 1916 and WWII 58 l WOMEN WAR AND PEACE

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p to 1921 Ireland was under the control of the British Empire. In 1916, a six-day armed insurrection known as the Easter Rising took place mainly in Dublin. The aim of the Rising was to formally declare the existence of an independent Irish Republic. Amongst the leaders of the Rising were poets, playwrights and visionaries including Padraic Pearse, Thomas Mc Donagh, Joseph Mary Plunkett and Constance Markievicz.

According to Tom Clonan in his article The Forgotten Role of Women Insurgents in the 1916 Rising, 1 ‘up to ninety women participated in the city-wide rebellion of Easter 1916’ with 77 arrested yet their stories and experiences have been effectively airbrush from historical accounts of the rising. In more recent times the stories of these women have received a new audience through the work of powerful women historians. However, according to Dr Shirley Graham ‘In secondary schools today, Leaving Certificate students only learn about two women from the 1916 era: Countess Markievicz and the artist Evie Hone. There are many more who have been forgotten and whose contributions have been minimised, ignored or erased from our history books. Despite the fact that women make up 50% of our population, and that a number of feminist historians have been writing women back into history since the 1970s, the majority of the well-known personalities spoken about and revered as Irish heroes, revolutionaries and history makers are men.’ As part of the 1916-1923 centenary celebrations in Ireland, Smashing Times Theatre Company brought different artists together to create a dialogue on a remembrance of Irish women’s stories from 1916. The company presented The Woman is Present: Women’s Stories of 1916 based on original testimony and new Irish writing by Pom Boyd, Mary Moynihan and Peter Sheridan. Performances and post-show discussions took place at City Hall, Dublin, and DIT Aungier Street, on Easter Monday 28 March 2016, and at Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin, Thursday 21 April 2016.

By Mary Moynihan

The women’s stories explored in The Woman is Present: Women’s Stories of 1916 include Helena Moloney, a member of Inghinidhe na hÉireann and the Irish Citizen Army, stationed at City Hall Garrison during the Rising; revolutionary feminist Margaret Skinnider who fought in the College of Surgeons at St Stephen’s Green and who also fought in the War of Independence and civil war on the anti-Treaty side; Dr Kathleen Lynn, a medical doctor, feminist and social activist and member of the Irish Citizen Army, stationed at City Hall; Countess Markievicz (Constance Gore-Booth) an Irish politician, revolutionary and socialist, first woman elected to the British House of Commons and first female WOMEN WAR AND PEACE l 59

Cabinet Minister in Europe; Grace Gifford who married Joseph Mary Plunkett , one of the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising, in Kilmainham Gaol chapel seven hours before his execution and Elizabeth O’Farrell, nurse and member of Cumann na mBan, who waved the 1916 Rising surrender flag and who was subsequently airbrushed out of the photograph where she stood alongside Padraig Pearse when he surrendered to the British authorizes. In the photograph only her shoes remained. Elizabeth showed considerable courage as she risked her life on several occasions during the fighting in 1916. The performances reflect on the experiences of women as revolutionaries and insurgents fighting on an equal basis with their male counterparts, as advocates for social justice and as pacifists and advocates for peace. The aim of the performances are to make remarkable women in history visible, to ensure their contribution is valued and acknowledged as we remember the diverse roles played by women and the incredible impact they had on events at the time. The Easter Rising, organized by the Military Council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, started on Easter Monday 1916 as members of the Irish Volunteers, the Irish Citizen Army and Cumann na mBan gathered across Dublin and seized a number of key locations. Barricades were erected around the city which led to clashes with civilians as the city filled with the sound of machine guns and sniper shots. One of the first actions of the Rising was a failed attack on Dublin Castle, the base for British rule in Ireland. Following this failed attempt the rebels then occupy a number of strategic locations including City Hall and the GPO (General Post Office) on Dublin’s O’Connell Street. British retaliation was severe and on Monday night fresh British troops poured in to crush rebel strongholds. The British army under General Sir John Maxwell put down the rebellion and martial law was imposed. The rebels manage to hold the GPO for a week before a decision is made to evacuate and under fire

The treaty was passed and resulted in the founding of the Irish Free State in 1922. The vote was 64 in favour and 57 against. The men and women who voted against the Treaty walked out of the new Dail Eireann, leading to a bloody civil war between those who accepted the signing of the treaty and those who rejected it including a large number of women who wanted to continue the struggle for a full Irish Republic. The civil war took the form of guerilla warfare and there were atrocities committed on all sides until the anti-Treaty side or the ‘irregular’s’ called a cease-fire. Prior to the treaty Ireland was historically divided into 32 counties or districts and as part of the Treaty negotiations Ireland was now partitioned as Britain retained control of 6 of the counties in Northern Ireland (granting this area a form of devolved government as part of the United Kingdom). Britain relinquished control over the other 26 counties and these became known as the Irish Free State. Britain granted a form of ‘dominion status’ to the Irish Free State. They had their own parliament but had to remain part of the British commonwealth and Irish elected representatives had to take an oath of allegiance to the King. Many women were active in the ongoing fight for suffrage and equality and played a strong role in 1916, in the War of Independence and Civil War and in the founding of the new Irish Free State. According to Tom Clonan in his article The Forgotten Role of Women Insurgents in The 1916 Rising, “six women deputies were elected to the first Dail of May 1921. Forty three women were also returned to borough and district councils’’. 2 Kathleen Clarke was elected the first female Lord Mayor of Dublin, her husband Tom was executed as one of the 1916 leaders and women served as judges in the Sinn Fein courts which ran between 1919 and 1921. However, there was a backlash against woman and Clonan goes on to say that:

Many women were active in the ongoing fight for suffrage and equality and played a strong role in 1916, in the War of Independence and Civil War and in the founding of the new Irish Free State. the leadership make their way out of the building up to Moore Street, just off Dublin’s main thoroughfare, where they remain until the surrender on Saturday. After the Rising over 3,500 were arrested and there were 97 courtmartials where the verdict was death by firing squad. The majority were commute to various terms of imprisonment but 16 leaders were executed. At first the public were against the Rising, then opinion changed as people were outraged at the executions that followed. The Easter Rising was unsuccessful and was classified as a military failure. However the Rising had stirred up a desire for freedom and in January 1919 the War of Independence commenced as Irish revolutionaries fought against British Rule. The War of Independence lasted until 1921 when there was a truce declared. This led to treaty negotiations between the British Government and representatives from Ireland. A treaty agreement was proposed by England and voted on by Irish parliamentarians in the new Dail Eireann that they had set up. 60 l WOMEN WAR AND PEACE

‘’as the country descended into civil war in the early 1920’s, the newly founded Free State reverted to traditional Catholic values . . the women’s ongoing anti-Treaty revolutionary activities – already well outside the prescribed gender roles of the time – were now deemed not only ‘unseemly’ by a deeply conservative Irish establishment but also a significant threat to the security of the state. A London newspaper at the time, ‘The Sunday Graphic’ published an article carrying the headline ‘Irish Gunwoman Menace’ which described Irish women as ‘trigger happy harpies’. In a pastoral letter issued in October 1922, the Catholic hierarchy in Ireland urged all women to desist from revolutionary activities. The (Irish) government of the Free State banned Cumann na mBan (a women’s organization) in January 1923 and opened up Kilmainham Jail as a detention prison for ‘suspect’ women. Minutes of the Executive Council of the Senate and Army Intelligence reports of the period – held at Military Archives – identify female dissidents at the time as a primary threat to the security of the state . . Slowly but surely, the women were deterred

Constance Markievicz (1868-1927)

from continuing in their dissident activities as greater numbers were arrested and interned.’’ 3 Initially the new Irish Free State government, Cummann na nGaedheal, implemented a written constitution that acknowledge the rights of citizens and in 1921 gave the vote and equal civil rights to all adult women. However throughout the 1920s and 1930s Ireland was increasingly controlled by conservative, Catholic influenced governments which saw the rights of women reneged on. The new Irish Free State became entrenched in rigid Catholic values as strong patriarchal atittudes towards women were once again re-inforced. In the early years of the new Free State, the Cumann na nGaedheal government prohibited women from entering certain areas

of the civil service on the grounds of sex. The Catholic Church took control of primary and secondary schools and heavily influenced government policy. Under successive governments the Conditions of Employment Bill in 1935 aimed to ensure that industrial jobs went to men instead of women and the new Irish Constitution of 1937 firmly put a woman’s place as in the home. The feminist politician Hanna Sheehy Skeffington describes these as ‘fascist’ acts against women and an ‘endangerment to women’s rights’ as conservative politicians and church leaders took over and women were stealthily marginalised. Radical women continued to campaign for equality and freedom and to challenge traditional female roles but the power of an oppressive patriarchal state linked closely to a conservative church denied women their rights. WOMEN WAR AND PEACE l 61

Dr Kathleen Lynn (1874-1955)

Between WWI and WWII the dominant view in Ireland and in Europe was that a woman’s place was in the home. In The Second World War and Irish Women – An Oral History Mary Muldowney writes that in relation to World War I after a sustained campaign to persuade women into traditional male areas of work during the First World War, inequality in pay and conditions continued to be a feature of the workplace in the post-war years so far as women workers were concerned. The potentially liberating outcome of such employment for women was offset as soon as the First World War ended by reiteration of the notion that women’s ‘natural’ place was in the home.’ 4 During the 1930s and 40s this policy was vigorously pursued by the growing Fascist and Nazi regimes in Europe who saw the role of woman as staying at home to raise the children, the motto being ‘children, kitchen, church’. The aim was to promote family values at the expense of women’s freedom and to ensure that women stayed in the home and had limited rights to work and be independent. As the Spanish politician and orator Dolores Ibárruri, La Pasionaria said, when a woman is denied the right to work she becomes a ‘domestic slave’. The position of women in Europe did alter during WWII as women took up work traditionally done by men who were now 62 l WOMEN WAR AND PEACE

in the armed forces. Countries involved in the war demanded that women, in addition to being the homemakers and primary care givers should also contribute to the war effort in whatever way possible and this had the effect of increasing a woman’s workload. While both men and women suffered during wartime, evidence from a range of historians suggests that many women, in Europe and in Ireland, welcomed the opportunity to become part of the war effort as this gave them increased freedom in terms of employment and access to work and life experiences outside of the home. Women experienced an increase in ‘freedom’ in relation to employment in a range of countries such as Great Britain where huge numbers of women were required to join the workforce particularly in munitions factories. ‘The Essential Work Order (1941) was a form of non-combatant conscription for women, requiring females aged 20-24 to choose between the women’s services, civil defense or the munitions industry. Millions of women volunteered to clear rubble and recuperate bomb victims. Women were permitted to serve in the armed services but without arms’. 5 Women played a key role in underground resistance movements

in Europe fighting the Nazis and were active in armed forces and in employment. After the war the women were expected to return to the home and to let the men resume their role as the main breadwinner. However, because of the social and economic freedom women experienced when working full-time during the war, they did not easily return to the home without some resistance which led to increasing gains in relation to women’s emancipation. While many women lost their jobs as soon as the war was over ‘more women entered and remained in the workforce after World War II than World War I’ 6 and the demand for women’s rights would continue. The Second World War had a positive benefit particularly where it gave women the opportunity to work outside of the home or to travel abroad to take part in the war effort. While gender equality was still a long way off, women had experienced an empowerment that had a strong social impact on the growing demand for women’s rights.

Times refers to a period in Irish history, during the first decade of the twentieth century, when women were campaigning for the right to vote. As part of the suffragette movement in Ireland, the women decided to go around smashing in the windows of public buildings to show their frustration and anger at being excluded from the power structures housed within, and this became known as the smashing times period of the suffragette movement. We liked the name because of its association with women in history and because it symbolises resistance and a proactive struggle for equality. That was 100 years ago. There is a need now, more than ever, to work in a pro-active way for a genuine form of gender equality, to celebrate difference and diversity so all needs are recognized and respected and everybody has the opportunity to be involved and empowered. We are all different, yet we are all equal.

The marriage bar in England was lifted during World War II and it was not reinstated after the war unlike Ireland where the marriage bar remained in place until the 1970s

This impact was not as strongly felt in Ireland as the country had a policy of neutrality during World War II. The Irish government declared a state of emergency, employment was scarce, wages were frozen, curfews were put in place and food and other goods were in short supply and were rationed. Many Irish men and women did go and join the Allies in their fight against fascism and Nazism but for women who remained in Ireland the increasingly oppressive control of the Catholic Church on social and political life affected them hugely. For example The Marriage Bar was a law that forced women to resign their civil service employment when they got married. The marriage bar in England was lifted during World War II and it was not reinstated after the war unlike Ireland where the marriage bar remained in place until the 1970s. Another example refers to the wearing of trousers which became acceptable in the 1940s in England as it was more practical for war work but in Ireland it remained unacceptable for women to wear trousers until the 1960s. While advances have been made with regard to women’s rights in the West today, inequality still remains. The name Smashing

Endnotes 1 Clonan, T. (2006); The Forgotten Role of Women Insurgents in the 1916 Rising, The Irish Times 2 Clonan, T., (2006): The Forgotten Role of Women Insurgents in The 1916 Rising, The Irish Times 3 Clonan, T., (2006): The Forgotten Role of Women Insurgents in The 1916 Rising 4 The Second World War and Irish Women – An Oral History, Mary Muldowney, page 168 5 The Second World War and Irish Women – An Oral History, Mary Muldowney, page 168 6 British and Irish Women Writers and the Women’s Movement: Six Literary Voices of their Times Jill Franks, page 73


Chapter

Three:

HUMAN RIGHTS, GENDER EQUALITY AND PEACE 64 l WOMEN WAR AND PEACE

Human Rights and Gender Equality As early as in antiquity, Greek Sophists and Stoics referred to the superiority of natural law over codified law, propagating freedom and equality among people. To Roman thinkers, such as Cicero and Seneca, the source of original sovereignty was the people.

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he ancient idea was continued by medieval Christian philosophers, mostly by Saint Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, who believed that laws were not granted by any authority, but they were inseparably connected with human nature, and man was given them by the Maker. 1 It was in the Middle Ages when the first deeds giving rise to respect for human rights appeared, such as Magna Carta Libertatum, which was a charter granted by King John Lackland in 1215. 2 Crucial moments in the development of the idea of human rights were the founding of the Spanish University of Salamanca by Spanish lawyers and the Renaissance natural-law school from the 17th century, based on humanism and belief in the value of the individual nature of man. 3 The liberal concept of human rights based on the assumption that every individual is a subject of the natural laws, including freedom, equality, and property, while their freedom is only limited by the freedom of others and the interests of the society, was formulated before the end of the 17th century. 4 In the 19th century, as a result of the Napoleonic Wars and the Spring of Nations (1848-1849), the liberal doctrine of human rights spread also geographically.

By Edyta Pietrzak and Inga Kuzma

The American Declaration of Independence of 1776 recognised moral rights as inalienable. The French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1789 stated that men were born free and equal in rights, and so they deserved liberty, equality, security, and the right to resist oppression. In this case, liberty was the ability to do everything that did not harm the community, while the flow of ideas and opinions was the most valuable right of men. 5 However, one should remember that this concerned males only. Thus, in 1791 Olimpia de Gouges published the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen, in which she demanded, among other things, granting women the WOMEN WAR AND PEACE l 65

right to education and to dispose of private property, the right to honours and positions, including those held by men, the right to join the army, and sex equality in a family. Her manifesto was based on the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. The first article of the Declaration written by de Gouges proclaims that ‘Woman is born free and remains equal to man in rights’. The most famous sentence from the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen is: “Since a woman has the right to climb to the gallows, she should also have the right to climb to the tribunal”. 6 At the beginning of the 20th century, countries in Europe and North America saw the formulation of a doctrine of human rights based on civil rights and political liberty, paying particular attention to the role of community in the life of individuals. 7 However, in the first half of the 20th century, market economy and parliamentary democracy, forming the basis for the Western civilisation, were questioned in several European countries where totalitarianism developed. The fascist system completely negated the values of human liberty and dignity, subordinating individuals to the state. ‘Mussolini perceived women as birthgivers, while men were supposed to be warriors. He claimed that war was for men, while parenthood was for women’. 8 People gave up their rights for the community, for the sake of pursuing goals set by the leader. In order to increase the number of births, the fascist government introduced financial privileges for large families and initiated activities aimed at reducing the number of employed women. The Italian fascism treated women as ‘reproducers of the nation’. 9 Also in Nazi Germany, the government encouraged women to stay at home and bear children. 10 This policy was enhanced by awarding women with at least four children the Cross of Honour of the German Mother. ‘Fascists promoted family values, including a policy aimed at reducing the number of working women; from then on women were to become mothers. Fascists banned literature on birth control, and said that abortion and contraception were crimes against the state’. 11 Also the communist doctrine of human rights rejected the idea of the natural law and the innate dignity of every individual. It defined the position and rights of individuals from the angle of the special position and rights of the communist state as a sovereign. Human rights were overshadowed by social, economic, and cultural rights as guarantees of political rights. A turning point in the history of human rights was the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted on December 10, 1948, by the United Nations General Assembly. The Declaration recognises innate dignity and equal, unalienable rights of all members of the human community as the basis for liberty, justice, and world peace. Article 1 of the Declaration states that all people are born free and equal in dignity and rights, they are endowed with reason and conscience, and they should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. Article 2 establishes the principle of non-discrimination – equality in the use of rights set forth in the Declaration, without any distinction between races, colours, sexes, languages, religions, political or other opinions, national or social origins, property, birth, or other status. Importantly, Eleanor Roosevelt, a member of the Human Rights Committee and of the editorial team, changed the noun ’man’ used in the Declaration, as it means both a person and a male. It was substituted with ‘human being’, and thus the non-discrimination policy was also introduced into the language. Based on the Declaration, several categories of human rights can be distinguished: fundamental, civil, political, economic, and social. Fundamental rights include: the right to life, liberty, security, a prohibition on slavery, torture, degrading treatment, the right to 66 l WOMEN WAR AND PEACE

Since a woman has the right to climb to the gallows, she should also have the right to climb to the tribunal.

recognition as a person before the law, equality before the law, the right to justice, the right to independent and impartial tribunal, the right to privacy, secrecy of correspondence, and a prohibition on arbitrary arrest, detention or exile. Civil rights include: the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state and the right to leave any country and return to one’s own country, the right to seek asylum, the right to a nationality, the right to marry and to found a family, the right to own property, and the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. Political rights include: the right to freedom of opinion and expression, the right to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media, regardless of frontiers, the right to freedom of assembly and association, the right to take part in the government of one’s country. Social and economic rights include: the right to social security, the right to work and protection of its conditions, the right to just remuneration, the right to form trade unions, the right to rest and leisure, the right to an adequate standard of living and health protection, the right to free education, and the right to participate in the cultural life. 12 Because of the multitude of ideas, concepts, and interpretations of human rights, they are sometimes divided into certain categories. Thus, we can talk about fundamental civil and political rights (as presented above), resulting from the liberal revolutions of the 17th and 19th centuries. These rights form the first generation of human rights. The second generation of human rights consists mainly of economic, social, and cultural rights, resulting from the activity of workers’ movements and socialist parties in the 19th

century. The third generation of human rights results from common global problems of humanity that arose over the last decades, and it is connected with collective and group rights. This third, latest generation of human rights includes the right to peace, development, natural environment, communication, the common heritage of the whole of humankind, and humanitarian aid. These three generations reflect the triad formulated during the French Revolution: liberty, equality, fraternity. 13 As a result of the need to cooperate in order to rebuild Europe after the Second World War and to prevent further wars, the ideas of integration, present in the philosophy for a long time, found their supporters among politicians called the founding fathers of Europe: Konrad Adenauer from Germany, Leon Blum, Robert Schuman, and Jean Monnet from France, Paul-Henri Spaak from Belgium, and Alcide De Gasperi from Italy. Political projects were realised on May 5, 1949, when the Council of Europe was founded by Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, Italy, Norway, and Sweden. Its aim was to enhance and develop democracy, protect human rights, justly resolve social problems, and enhance the European cultural identity. Out of 160 conventions developed by the Council, the most important is the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, and the development of a European system of human rights protection. The Convention determines rights and freedoms and each of the member states ensures they apply to every individual within their jurisdiction. These rights include: the right to life, a prohibition on torture and other inhuman or degrading treatment, a prohibition on slavery, the right to personal liberty and security, the right to a fair trial and a public hearing before a tribunal, a prohibition on retroactive criminalization of acts, the right to property, the right to freedom of conscience and religion, the right to freedom of expression, the right to freedom of assembly and association, the right to marry, the right to an effective remedy for violations of rights under the Convention, and a prohibition of discrimination in the enjoyment of rights under the Convention. Moreover, protocols to the Convention determined: protection of property rights, the right to education as well as free and democratic elections, a prohibition of imprisonment for debt, the right to freely move, choose the place of residence, and return to one’s own country, general guarantees for foreigners, the right to appeal in criminal matters, a prohibition of re-trial, and a general prohibition of discrimination. On April 18, 1951, six countries (France, Italy, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Belgium) signed a treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), while on June 1-2, 1955, a meeting of foreign ministers of ECSC member states was held in Messina, during which a decision was taken to establish new communities, and on March 25, 1957, two Treaties of Rome were signed: one establishing the European Economic Community (EEC), which was renamed as the European Community based on the Treaty of Maastricht of 1992, and the other establishing the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom). Members of the new organisations were the six founding members of ESCS. 14 As the European Union develops, problems faced by EU institutions include: promotion of equality between men and women in all areas of life; political, professional, and cultural activity of women; and prevention of violence towards women. Promotion of equality between men and women, provided for in the Treaty of Amsterdam, which entered into force on May 1, 1999, was recognised as one of

the priorities of EU social policy. It is reflected in a prohibition of any discrimination on account of sex and the introduction of the gender mainstreaming concept. The Treaty of Amsterdam was the first to recognise equality between men and women as the basic principle of the European Union, similarly to the principles of democracy and human rights. A demand for equal participation of men and women in all levels of government as well as other public areas, such as economy and finances, was accepted by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on April 27, 1995. Economic activity of women is regulated by the Treaty of Amsterdam and Directives of the Council concerning equal treatment of men and women in the labour market and in matters of social security. 15 Endnotes 1 F. Compagnoni, Prawa człowieka. Geneza, historia i zaangażowanie chrześcijańskie, Wyd. WAM, Warszawa 2000, p. 223. 2 R. Kuźniar, Prawa człowieka. Prawo, instytucje, stosunki międzynarodowe, Wyd. Naukowe Scholar, Warszawa 2002, s. 21. 3 Hugo Grotius (On the Law of War and Peace, 1642), Thomas Hobbes (Leviathan, 1651), John Locke (The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina,1696), Samuel Pufendorf (De jure naturae et gentium libri octo, 1672). 4 See J. Baszkiewicz, Wolność. Równość. Własność, Czytelnik, Warszawa 1981. 5 R. Kuźniar, Prawa człowieka. Prawo, instytucje, stosunki międzynarodowe, Scholar, Warszawa 2002, p. 24. 6 T. Wysłobocki, Obywatelki. Kobiety w przestrzeni publicznej we Francji przełomu wieków XVIII i XIX, Universitas, Kraków 2014, p. 211. 7 J. Baszkiewicz op. cit., p. 27. 8 Ch. Bollas, Being a Character: Psychoanalysis and Self-Experience, Routledge, New York1993, p. 205. 9 H. McDonald, Mussolini and Italian Fascism , Nelson Thornes 1999 p. 27. 19 M. Mann, Fascists, Cambridge University Press 2004, p. 101. 11 Fascist and conservatives: the radical right and the establishment in twentieth-century Europe, Routledge, New York 1990, p. 14. 12 E. Pietrzak, Ku globalnemu społeczeństwu obywatelskiemu. Transgresje idei, Elipsa, Warszawa 2014, p. 139. 13 K. Drzewiecki, Trzecia generacja praw człowieka, „Sprawy międzynarowodwe” 1983 Nr 10, p. 99-101. 14 I. Skomerska-Muchowska, Prawo wspólnotowe i integracja europejska, PUW, Łódź 2005, p. 8. 15 E. Pietrzak, Wolność, równość i siostrzeństwo, Wyd. WSHE w Łodzi 2008, p. 131-134.

References • J. Baszkiewicz, Wolność. Równość. Własność, Czytelnik, Warszawa 1981. • Ch. Bollas, Being a Character: Psychoanalysis and SelfExperience, Routledge, New York1993. • F. Compagnoni, Prawa człowieka. Geneza, historia i zaangażowanie chrześcijańskie, Wyd. WAM, Warszawa 2000. • K. Drzewiecki, Trzecia generacja praw człowieka, “Sprawy międzynarowodwe” 1983 No. 10 • Fascist and conservatives: the radical right and the establishment in twentieth-century Europe, Routledge, New York 1990. • R. Kuźniar, Prawa człowieka. Prawo, instytucje, stosunki międzynarodowe, Wyd. Naukowe Scholar, Warszawa 2002. • M. Mann, Fascists, Cambridge University Press 2004. • H. McDonald, Mussolini and Italian Fascism , Nelson Thornes 1999. • E. Pietrzak, Ku globalnemu społeczeństwu obywatelskiemu. Transgresje idei, Elipsa, Warszawa 2014. • E. Pietrzak, Wolność, równość i siostrzeństwo, Wyd. WSHE w Łodzi 2008 • I. Skomerska-Muchowska, Prawo wspólnotowe i integracja europejska, PUW, Łódź 2005. • T. Wysłobocki, Obywatelki. Kobiety w przestrzeni publicznej we Francji przełomu wieków XVIII i XIX, Universitas, Kraków 2014. WOMEN WAR AND PEACE l 67

The United Nations

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he United Nations was set up in 1945 following the devastation of World War II with one central mission: the maintenance of international peace and security. The UN does this by working to prevent conflict; helping parties in conflict make peace; peacekeeping; and creating the conditions to allow peace to hold and flourish. These activities often overlap and should reinforce one another, to be effective. The UN Security Council has the primary responsibility for international peace and security. The General Assembly and the Secretary-General play major, important and complementary roles, along with other UN offices and bodies.

Security Council The Security Council takes the lead in determining the existence of a threat to the peace or an act of aggression. It calls upon the parties to a dispute to settle it by peaceful means and recommends methods of adjustment or terms of settlement. 68 l WOMEN WAR AND PEACE

Under Chapter VII of the Charter, the Security Council can take enforcement measures to maintain or restore international peace and security. Such measures range from economic sanctions to international military action. The Council also establishes UN Peacekeeping Operations and Special Political missions.

General Assembly The General Assembly is the main deliberative, policymaking and representative organ of the UN. Through regular meetings, the General Assembly provides a forum for Member States to express their views to the entire membership and find consensus on difficult issues. It makes recommendations in the form of General Assembly Resolutions. Decisions on important questions, such as those on peace and security, admission of new members and budgetary matters, require a two-thirds majority, but other questions are decided by simple majority.

The UN maintains international peace and security by:

Preventive Diplomacy and Mediation The most effective way to diminish human suffering and the massive economic costs of conflicts and their aftermath is to prevent conflicts in the first place. The United Nations plays an important role in conflict prevention, using diplomacy, good offices and mediation. Among the tools the Organization uses to bring peace are special envoys and political missions in the field.

Peacekeeping Peacekeeping has proven to be one of the most effective tools available to the UN to assist host countries navigate the difficult path from conflict to peace. Today’s multidimensional peacekeeping operations are called upon not only to maintain peace and security, but also to facilitate political processes, protect civilians, assist in the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of former combatants; support constitutional processes and the organization of elections, protect and promote human rights and assist in restoring the rule of law and extending legitimate state authority. Peacekeeping operations get their mandates from the UN Security Council; their troops and police are contributed by Members States; and they are managed by the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and supported by the Department of Field Support at the UN Headquarters in New York.

Peacebuilding United Nations peacebuilding activities are aimed at assisting countries emerging from conflict, reducing the risk of relapsing into conflict and at laying the foundation for sustainable peace and development. The UN peacebuilding architecture comprises the Peacebuilding Commission, the Peacebuilding Fund and the Peacebuilding Support Office. The Peacebuilding Support Office assists and supports the Peacebuilding Commission with strategic advice and policy guidance, administers the Peacebuilding Fund and serves the Secretary-General in coordinating United Nations agencies in their peacebuilding efforts.

Countering Terrorism The United Nations is being increasingly called upon to coordinate the global fight against terrorism. Eighteen universal instruments against international terrorism have been elaborated within the framework of the United Nations system relating to specific terrorist activities. In September 2006, UN Member States adopted the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy. This was the first time that Member States agreed to a common strategic and operational framework against terrorism.

Disarmament The General Assembly and other bodies of the United Nations, supported by the Office for Disarmament Affairs, work to advance international peace and security through the pursuit of the elimination of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction and the regulation of conventional arms.

Summary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Article 1: All human beings are born free and equal. Article 2: Everyone is entitled to rights outlined, without distinction such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Article 3: Right to life, liberty and security of person. Article 4: No one shall be held in slavery or servitude. Article 5: No one shall be subjected to torture or degrading treatment. Article 6: Right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law. Article 7: All are equal before the law. Article 8: Right to an effective remedy by a competent national tribunal. Article 9: No one subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile. Article 10: Entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing. Article 11: Right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty. Article 12: Freedom from interference with privacy, family, home or correspondence. Article 13: Right to freedom of movement in and out of a country. Article 14: Right to asylum from persecution. Article 15: Right to a nationality. Article 16: Right to marry and to found a family. Article 17: Right to own property. Article 18: Right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. Article 19: Right to freedom of opinion and expression. Article 20: Right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association. Article 21: Right to take part in the government. Article 22: Right to social security. Article 23: Right to work and to join trade unions. Article 24: Right to rest and leisure. Article 25: Right to an adequate standard of living. Article 26: Right to education. Article 27: Right to freely to participate in the cultural life of the community. Article 28: Right to a social order where these rights can be fully realized. Article 29: Duties to the community essential to free and full development. Article 30: Right to freedom from state interference re the above outlined rights. References: • www.un.org • United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commission http://www.ohchr.org

Universal Declaration of Human Rights The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is an international document that states basic rights and fundamental freedoms that all human beings are entitled to. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 10 December 1948 in response to the preceding world wars. The document sets out for the first time a list of fundamental human rights to be universally protected.


Council of Europe and the European Convention on Human Rights

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he Council of Europe has 47 member states and is considered the continent’s leading human rights organization. 27 of the member states are also members of the European Union. All Council of Europe member states have signed up to the European Convention on Human Rights, a treaty designated to protect human rights, democracy and the rule of law. The European court of human rights oversees the implementation of the convention in the members states. Individuals can challenge national laws and practices through the European Court of Human Rights but they cannot challenge EU laws. The EU has made efforts for agreement on the accession of the European Union to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and this process is ongoing.

alleging violations of the civil and political rights set out in the European Convention on Human Rights. Since 1998 it has sat as a full-time court and individuals can apply to it directly. In almost fifty years the Court has delivered more than 10,000 judgments. These are binding on the countries concerned and have led governments to alter their legislation and administrative practice in a wide range of areas. The Court’s case-law makes the Convention a powerful living instrument for meeting new challenges and consolidating the rule of law and democracy in Europe. The Court is based in Strasbourg. From here, the Court monitors respect for the human rights of 800 million Europeans in the 47 Council of Europe member States that have ratified the Convention.

The European Court of Human Rights is an international court set up in 1959. It rules on individual or state applications

Reference: • http://www.coe.int/en/


The European Union The EEC was set up in 1957 and later renamed the European Union (EU). The EU is made up of different independent countries who have come together as members of the EU and pooled some of their sovereignty in order to gain strength and the benefits of size.

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ooling sovereignty means that the Member States delegate some of their decision-making powers to the shared institutions they have created, so that decisions on specific matters of joint interest can be made democratically at European level. 1 The main bodies are the European Commission, the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Council.

men and women was recognised as a principle and key priority of the European Union and is reflected in a prohibition of any discrimination on account of sex and the introduction of the gender mainstreaming concept.

Respect for human rights, dignity and gender equality together with principles of freedom, democracy and diversity are fundamental values of the European Union. The EU supports human rights through legislation and the European Commission, parliament and Council have all adopted and agree to a Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union which states that the EU is founded on the ‘universal values of human dignity, freedom, equality and solidarity; it is based on the principles of democracy and the rule of law.’ Since 2009, the Charter has been legally binding on the EU institutions and national governments (when they are implementing EU law). The Charter is consistent with the European Convention on Human Rights. 2 Within the EU (following the Treaty of Amsterdam 1999), equality between

The European Commission is made up of commissioners, one from each member state who are approved by parliament. The European Commission has a president who is proposed by the European Council and then elected by the European parliament. He or she then selects the 28 other members of the commission, on the basis of suggestions made by member states. Each member state proposes a commissioner who has to be endorsed collectively by MEPs after a series of public hearings. The responsibilities of the European Commission are to ‘propose laws, implement decisions made and do the day-to-day running of the EU’ and ’the Commission has the most power when it comes to legislation, as they propose legislation and it then goes to the European Parliament and the Council of the European

The main bodies that make up the EU are:

1. European Commission


Union to be debated and for amendment proposals before it is passed. The Commission is the only institution that can directly propose legislation’. 3 The European Commission is the main administrative body of the EU proposing and drafting new laws and implementing and enforcing laws that have been passed. To summarise, the commission proposes new laws which the Council and Parliament adopt and which the commission then implement.

made by European parliament, and then this new legislation is voted on. For example trade ministers from each government meet as a Council of Ministers and vote on a trade law, with weighting of votes based on the population of the country represented. Some areas require a majority vote while others require unanimous decisions. Once an agreement is made by ministers the law then has to have agreement in parliament before a new EU law can come into being.

2. The European Parliament

4. The European Council

Members of the European parliament (MEP’s) are democratically elected every five years, they have the power to approve, amend or reject proposals from the Commission in relation to new EU legislation or changes to existing legislation. Under recent EU changes, the European parliament members can also request the commission to bring forward proposals for new legislation although they cannot directly bring in legislation themselves. MEP’s form into groups that share similar political beliefs.

The European Council sets or decides the EU’s political agenda, direction and priorities including common foreign and security policy but does not negotiate or pass EU laws. It is made up of heads of state or governments of all EU countries, the president of the European Commission and the President of the European council. The European Council meets on average 4 times a year (quarterly EU summits) where EU leaders meet to set the broad direction of EU policy making.

3. The Council of the European Union

Endnotes

The Council of the European Union, sometimes known as the Council of Ministers, is made up of national government ministers grouped together by policy area for example ministers of justice negotiate justice issues. It coordinates policy in certain areas, develops common foreign and security policy, concludes international agreements and adopts the EU budget of the European parliament. The presidency of the council rotates among member states every six months. The Council of the European Union (different to the European Council, see below) negotiates, adopts and votes on EU legislation together with the European parliament. The Council of Ministers consider new laws or proposals put forward by the commission or on ammendments to these new laws or proposals

1 The European Union explained: How the EU works, pg 3 2 http://eurlex.europa.eu/summary/chapter/human_rights.html?root_ default=SUM_1_CODED=13 3 http://spunout.ie/news/article/european-union-and-its-institution

References • Summary of the history and founding of the European Union: http://europa.eu/about-eu/eu-history/index_en.htm • Information on the European Union: http://europa.eu/ index_en.htm • http://spunout.ie/news/article/european-union-and-itsinstitution

How to influence the EU ELECTIONS: Vote in EU elections that are held every five years whereby EU citizens have the opportunity to vote on candidates for the European parliament. MEPS: Meet with elected MEPs.

EUROPEAN OMBUDSMAN: Any citizen of the European union has the right to refer to the European ombudsman cases of maladministration in the activities of the institutions, bodies, agencies of the Union.

PETITION: Any citizen of the EU may individually or in association with others submit a petition to the European Parliament on a subject which comes within the European Union’s fields of activity and which affects them directly. Any company, organisation or association with its headquarters in the European Union may also exercise this right of petition, which is guaranteed by the Treaty. A petition may take the form of a complaint or a request and may relate to issues of public or private interest. The petition may present an individual request, a complaint or observation concerning the application of EU law or an appeal to the European Parliament to adopt a position on a specific matter. http:// www.europarl.europa.eu/atyourservice/ en/20150201PVL00037/Petitions

EUROPEAN CITIZENS’ INITIATIVE: As of 1 April 2012, European Union citizens have the right of initiative under which they may invite the European Commission to propose a legal act in any field within its competence. It is the first example of transnational participatory democracy. The Regulation establishes the rules and procedures governing the citizens’ initiative. To ensure that support is sufficiently broad, a citizens’ initiative must be supported by one million citizens from at least a quarter of EU countries, which currently means seven countries. There is also a requirement for a minimum number of signatories from each of these countries, roughly proportionate to their respective populations (degressive proportionality). To launch an initiative, citizens must

REFERENCES: • http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?qid=1450278082446&uri=URISERV:ai0044 • http://www.europarl.europa.eu/atyourservice/en/20150201PVL00039/Citizen’s-initiative 72 l WOMEN WAR AND PEACE

form a ‘citizens’ committee’ comprising at least seven members residing in at least seven EU countries. All must be old enough to vote in European Parliament elections. The initiative must be registered on the European Commission’s website. If the registration criteria set out in the regulation are fulfilled, the registration is confirmed by the Commission and the organisers have one year to collect signatures (statements of support). The same voting age requirement applies to those signing the statements of support. These statements can be completed either on paper or online if organisers have set up an online collection system. After gathering one million signatures, the commission has three months to examine the initiative. During this time, the Commission meets with the organisers who also have the opportunity to present the initiative at a public hearing in the European Parliament. The Commission presents a formal response explaining what it intends to do and the reasons for that decision. It is not obliged to propose legislation.

EU common laws,

policies and procedures for promoting human rights, gender equality, peace and democracy Charter of Fundamental Human Rights The Charter of Fundamental Rights recognises a range of personal, civil, political, economic and social rights of EU citizens and residents, enshrining them into EU law. In June 1999, the Cologne European Council concluded that the fundamental rights applicable at European Union (EU) level should be consolidated in a charter to give them greater visibility. The Heads of State or Government aspired to include in the charter the general principles set out in the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights and those derived from the constitutional traditions common to EU countries. In addition, the charter was to include the fundamental rights that apply to EU citizens as well as the economic and social rights contained in the Council of Europe Social Charter and the Community Charter of Fundamental Social Rights of Workers. It would also reflect the principles derived from the case law of the Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights. The charter was drawn up by a convention consisting of a representative from each EU country and the European Commission, as well as members of the European Parliament and national parliaments. It was formally proclaimed in Nice in December 2000 by the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission. In December 2009, with the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, the charter was given binding legal effect equal to the Treaties. To this end, the charter was amended and proclaimed a second time in December 2007. The charter brings together in a single document rights previously found in a variety of legislative instruments, such as in national and EU laws, as well as in international conventions from the Council of Europe, the United Nations (UN) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO). By making fundamental rights clearer and more visible, it creates legal certainty within the EU. The Charter of Fundamental Rights contains a preamble and 54 articles, grouped in seven chapters;

Chapter I: Dignity Human dignity, the right to life, the right to the integrity of the person, prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, prohibition of slavery and forced labour; Chapter II: Freedoms The right to liberty and security, respect for private and family life, protection of personal data, the right to marry and found a family, freedom of thought, conscience and religion, freedom of expression and information, freedom of assembly and association, freedom of the arts and sciences, the right to education, freedom to choose an occupation and the right to engage in work, freedom to conduct a business, the right to property, the right to asylum, protection in the event of removal, expulsion or extradition; Chapter III: Equality Equality before the law, non-discrimination, cultural, religious and linguistic diversity, equality between men and women, the rights of the child, the rights of the elderly, integration of persons with disabilities; Chapter IV: Solidarity Workers’ right to information and consultation within the undertaking, the right of collective bargaining and action, the right of access to placement services, protection in the event of unjustified dismissal, fair and just working conditions, prohibition of child labour and protection of young people at work, family and professional life, social security and social assistance, health care, access to services of general economic interest, environmental protection, consumer protection. Chapter V: Citizens’ Rights The right to vote and stand as a candidate at elections to the European Parliament and at municipal elections, the right to good administration, the right of access to documents, European Ombudsman, the right to petition, freedom of movement and residence, diplomatic and consular protection. Chapter VI: Justice The right to an effective remedy and a fair trial, presumption of innocence and the right of defence, principles of legality and WOMEN WAR AND PEACE l 73

proportionality of criminal offences and penalties, the right not to be tried or punished twice in criminal proceedings for the same criminal offence Chapter VII: General Provisions The charter applies to the European institutions, subject to the principle of subsidiarity, and may under no circumstances extend the powers and tasks conferred on them by the Treaties. The charter also applies to EU countries when they implement EU law. If any of the rights correspond to rights guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights, the meaning and scope of those rights is to be the same as defined by the convention, though EU law may provide for more extensive protection. Any of the rights derived from the common constitutional traditions of EU countries must be interpreted in accordance to those traditions.

2. Reducing the gender pay, earnings and pension gaps and thus fighting poverty among women. Objectives are: • Continue to reduce the persisting gender pay, earnings and pension gaps and thereby gender inequality in access to financial resources through life; • Substantially reduce gender inequality in economic sectors and occupations; • Increase the overall working hours of women; ensure effective implementation of equal pay legislation; • Eliminate barriers to accessing the labour market of vulnerable groups, such as migrant women and single parents; • Address the causes and consequences of the gender pension gap.

Reference: • http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=URI SERV:l33501&qid=1467274990193&from=EN

3. Promoting equality between women and men in decisionmaking. Objectives are: • Continue efforts to improve the gender balance in economic leadership positions, in particular among the non-executive directors of companies listed on stock exchanges (at least 40% of the under-represented sex); • Improve the gender balance among executive directors of major listed companies and in the talent pipeline; • Improve data collection and gender balance in decisionmaking positions in research organisations; • Improve the gender balance in political decision-making and public life, including sports; • Reach the target of 40 % women in senior and middle management positions in the Commission.

Gender Equality Equality between women and men is one of the European Union’s founding values. It goes back to 1957 when the principle of equal pay for equal work became part of the Treaty of Rome. The European Union’s achievements in fostering equality between women and men have helped to change the lives of many European citizens for the better. Although inequalities still exist, the EU has made significant progress over the last decades. This is mainly thanks to: • equal treatment legislation • gender mainstreaming (integration of the gender perspective into all other policies) • specific measures for the advancement of women Some encouraging trends include the increased number of women in the labour market and their progress in securing better education and training. However, gender gaps remain and in the labour market, women are still over-represented in lower paid sectors and under-represented in decision-making positions. The Strategic Engagement for Gender Equality 2016-2019 was published in December 2015 and is a follow-up and prolongation of the Commission Strategy for Equality between women and men 2010-2015. It sets the framework for the Commission’s future work towards improving gender equality. In its work programme, the Commission has reaffirmed its commitment to continue its work to promote equality between men and women. This means maintaining the focus of gender-equality policy on the five existing thematic priority areas: 1. Increase female labour-market participation and the equal economic independence of women and men. Objectives are: •R each the EU target of 75 % of men and women in employment in 2020 and close the employment gap for women; •M ore equal sharing between women and men of time spent on care and household responsibilities and improved possibilities for balancing caring and professional responsibilities; •A ttainment of the Barcelona targets on childcare and consider serious reflection with Member States on possible ways of making them more ambitious and extending them to cover care of other dependants; • Promotion of female entrepreneurship and gender equality; • Better labour market integration of migrant women. 74 l WOMEN WAR AND PEACE

4. Combating gender-based violence and protecting and supporting victims. Objectives are: • Combat gender-based violence; protect and support the victims; • Improve data availability, quality and reliability; • Raise awareness, promote attitudinal change and foster prevention; • Improve victim support and access to justice; • Eliminate FGM. 5. Promoting gender equality and women’s rights across the world. Objectives are: • Promote, protect and fulfil all human rights fully and effectively implement obligations and commitments to women’s rights in all international fora, in particular the UN Convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women, the Beijing Platform for Action and the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development; • Ensure that women’s and girls’ rights, gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls are an essential element of financial and non-financial means of implementing, and of the review, monitoring and accountability mechanism of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; • Ensure that gender equality and the adoption of the EU gender-equality agenda are assessed in the accession process. The EU will promote gender mainstreaming by continuing to integrate a gender equality perspective into every aspect of EU intervention (effective gender mainstreaming). Across all priority areas, attention will be paid to the role of men, dismantling gender stereotypes and promoting non-discriminatory gender roles. Particular attention will be paid to the specific needs of groups facing multiple disadvantages, for example single parents and

at risk of poverty and social exclusion than older men and no mitigating trends have been observed in recent years. Without new action, women are likely to continue to be economically disadvantaged by motherhood during their career and in retirement, in particular as a result of an unequal sharing of care and housework responsibilities (working women still devote two and a half hours a day more to parenting and household duties than men). The report also states that gender-based violence is still widespread and can take many forms. According to the report, one woman in three has experienced physical or sexual violence, 5% have been raped since the age of 15 and 20% have experienced online harassment. Such violence happens everywhere – at home, at work, at school, in the street or online – regardless of social background.

older, migrant, Roma and disabled women. A mix of the following legislative, non-legislative and funding instruments will be used to achieve the objectives under each priority, including:

‘Gender-based violence and negative stereotypes in sport, for instance, are widespread. It harms victims not only in terms of their health and well-being, but also their working lives, thereby damaging their financial independence and the economy in general. It is estimated that 500,000 women and girls in the EU are at risk of female genital mutilation (FGM). In addition, women and girls make up the majority of human trafficking victims (68% women, 17% men, 12% girls and 3% boys).’

• Integration of a gender-equality perspective into all EU activities; • Enforcement of equal treatment legislation; • EU funding programmes for 2014-20; • Ongoing improved data collection with the support of Eurostat, the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), Eurofound, the Council of Europe (CoE) and the Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA); • Exchanges of good practice and peer-learning between Member States and cooperation with all actors; • An annual review of key actions carried out, in connection with the preparation of annual progress reports on equality between women and men, to assess the need for additional action.

European Institute for Gender Equality

According to the Strategic Engagement for Gender Equality 201619 report published in December 2015, many advances have been made in regard to gender equality with the most substantial improvement seen ‘’in countries that introduced legislative measures’’. However many issues still need to be addressed. According to the report

References: • http://ec.europa.eu/justice/gender-equality/index_en.htm • http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?qid=14502768 16888&uri=URISERV:c10938

‘’Women are more likely to have a higher education degree but remain overrepresented in fields of study that are linked to traditional female roles such as care-related fields and are under-represented in science, mathematics, IT, engineering and related careers. As a result, inequality in occupations is taking new forms rather than diminishing and, despite their investment in education, young women are still twice as likely as young men to be economically inactive. Women also represent the biggest untapped source of entrepreneurial potential, representing only 29% of entrepreneurs. In terms of access to financial resources over a lifetime, gender equality remains elusive. Women (particularly migrant women and women heading single-parent households) still generate a much lower proportion of income on the labour market than men. Women in employment, especially mothers, are much more likely to work part- time and are paid on average 16 % less than men per hour of work. Older women are much more

The European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) is an autonomous body of the European Union, based in Vilnius, Lithuania, and established to contribute to and strengthen the promotion of gender equality, including gender mainstreaming in all EU policies and the resulting national policies, and the fight against discrimination based on sex, as well as to raise EU citizens’ awareness of gender equality. Gender equality is a priority policy of the European Union (EU). However, further progress must be made in order to achieve real gender equality in the spheres of both professional and private life. In this respect, the European Institute for Gender Equality plays a significant role in providing the expertise needed to develop gender equality policies across the EU. The website is http://eige.europa.eu.

Peace and Democracy ‘’The EU is based on the rule of law: everything it does is founded on treaties, voluntarily and democratically agreed by its member countries. The EU is also governed by the principle of representative democracy, with citizens directly represented at Union level in the European Parliament and Member States represented in the European Council and the Council of the EU.The EU has delivered more than half a century of peace, stability and prosperity and in 2012, the EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for advancing the causes of peace, reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe. One of the EU’s main goals is to promote human rights both internally and around the world. Human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights: these are the core values of the EU. Since the Lisbon Treaty’s entry in force in 2009, the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights brings all these rights together in a single document. The EU’s institutions are legally bound to uphold them, as are EU governments whenever they apply EU law’’. (source; https://europa.eu/european-union/ about-eu/eu-in-brief_en). WOMEN WAR AND PEACE l 75

Many factors contribute to conflict - poverty, economic stagnation, uneven distribution of resources, weak social structures, lack of good governance, systematic discrimination, oppression of minorities, the destabilising effects of refugee flows, ethnic antagonism, religious and cultural intolerance, social injustice and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and small arms. To help combat these factors, the EU implements numerous actions to contribute to peace and stability around the world. The EU maintains diplomatic relations with nearly all countries in the world and undertakes a range of actions with strategic partners, key international players, and emerging and developing powers. One of the organisations in the EU responsible for promoting peace outside of the EU is the service for Foreign Policy Instruments (FPI) which is responsible for operational expenditures in the crucial area of EU external action. Core tasks of the Service for Foreign Policy Instruments (FPI) include the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) of the European Union which aims to preserve peace and strengthen international security and the Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace (IcSP) which enables the EU to help third countries prevent conflicts or responds to actual crises as they unfold. The EU Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace (IcSP) which runs from 2014 to 2020 is the EU’s main instrument supporting security initiatives and peace-building activities in partner countries. It came into force in 2014, replacing the Instrument for Stability (IfS). The IcSP can provide short-term assistance, for example in countries where a crisis is unfolding, or long-term support, notably to mitigate a variety of risks, tackle global and transborder threats, and build capacity for lasting socioeconomic development. Technical and financial aid under this instrument mainly focuses on three priorities, as follows: 1. Swift response to crises or emerging crises to prevent political conflicts or ensure situations do not escalate into armed conflict (measures usually don’t exceed eighteen months). This includes; a. support for the implementation of the United Nations resolutions on women, peace and security or for international criminal tribunals; b. measures to rebuild key infrastructures, homes, public buildings and economic assets post-conflict; c. actions to fight the illicit use of firearms, mine detection and clearance and d. support to address the impact of sudden population movements. 2. Conflict prevention and crisis preparedness (measures are usually long-term actions): a. promoting early warning and conflict risk analysis in policymaking and confidence building through mediation, dialogue and reconciliation in the context of intercommunity tensions; b. deployment of civilian stabilisation missions; c. curbing the use of natural resources to finance conflicts (such as actions to stop the trade in conflict diamonds). 3. Addressing global threats, such as long-term actions to fight against organised crime and terrorism, protecting critical infrastructure, and security threats emanating from climate change. Conflict prevention The EU Commission Communication of 11 April 2001 is intended 76 l WOMEN WAR AND PEACE

to increase the efficiency of EU action in the field of conflict prevention through more coordinated and systematic use of EU instruments and by promoting international cooperation and improving its capacity to react to incipient conflicts. The Communication is divided into three sections referring to the Commission’s priorities: long-term prevention, short-term prevention and enhanced international cooperation. Long-term prevention: projecting stability As a promoter of integration, the EU has for decades maintained special relations with its neighbours, which have helped to maintain a high level of stability and prosperity. Trade is an important aspect of cooperation and development and contributes to conflict prevention. Through the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP), the EU facilitates access to the European market for most products from developing countries. The system is based on tariff preferences at variable rates, accompanied by traderelated capacity building. Since February 2001, the Everything but Arms initiative has given duty-free access to the European market, without quotas, to all products from the least developed countries (LDCs) other than arms. These preferences may be suspended if a country’s political situation deteriorates. Conflict prevention must be incorporated in cooperation programmes, since violent conflict rarely springs out of nowhere, but is the result of a gradual deterioration. Development policy and cooperation programmes are therefore effective instruments for dealing with the root causes of conflict. Their emphasis is on reducing poverty. It is, however, not enough for the EU to be a major supplier of aid to the world. Its approach must also be integrated, ie take account of each country’s specific conditions while seeking sustainable or structural stability. Country strategy papers (CSP) are an essential part of this integrated approach. A democratic deficit goes hand in hand with the potential for conflict. Countries at risk therefore tend to have a poorly developed democratic process, making external support difficult to implement. To support democracy, the rule of law and civil society, the EU conducts operations in the fields of transition, democratic elections, civil and political rights, freedom of expression and of the media, good governance, the development of civil society and gender equality. Particular emphasis will be placed on support to electoral processes, parliamentary activities and the administration of justice. Measures to support security reforms (police, armed forces, etc) and specific measures for post-conflict situations are also necessary. The latter include demobilisation, disarmament and reintegration (DDR), demining operations, particular attention to children affected by armed conflict, and measures to promote the reconciliation process. A third aspect of long-term prevention is more effective handling of cross-cutting issues such as drugs, small arms, the management of natural resources, environmental degradation, communicable diseases, massive population flows, human trafficking and privatesector interests in unstable areas. The Communication gives examples of EU initiatives to combat the negative impact of these practices and explains the importance for conflict prevention of eliminating them. Private businesses in unstable areas have a responsibility in terms of a country’s socio-economic development and also in terms of their possible contribution to maintaining, or even creating, structural causes of conflict. Guidelines therefore encourage businesses to behave more responsibly. This includes respect for the human rights of local people, and non-interference in the political process.

Short-term prevention: reacting rapidly to incipient conflicts In parallel with the long-term strategy, early-warning and rapid reaction capacity is also needed. Two classic EU instruments, of which optimal use must be made, are emergency economic assistance and election observers. It also has political and diplomatic instruments at its disposal, such as political dialogue, Special Representatives and the use of sanctions. Enhancing international cooperation on conflict prevention The Commission considers that the “Friends of” approach, bringing together a country’s suppliers of aid, is a good method for coordinating action with partner countries in post-conflict situations. Prevention also occupies an important place in the EU’s dialogue with industrialised countries. In terms of international organisations, the Commission advocates enhanced cooperation with the United Nations, the Bretton Woods institutions (World Bank and International Monetary Fund), the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Council of Europe, the Organisation for Cooperation and Economic Development (OECD) and the G8 (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States). Such cooperation will take account of the specific characteristics of each organisation.

with human rights defenders, visit detained activists, monitor their trials, and advocate for their protection. Dedicated Liaison Officers in EU diplomatic missions act as the first point of contact for local defenders, and their contacts details have been posted on EU Delegation websites. The EU frequently highlights individual cases of human rights defenders in public statements and in multilateral forums, raises such cases in its political dialogues with partner countries, and urges its counterparts to ensure that human rights defenders are properly protected. The EU’s political commitment to support human rights defenders is complemented by the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) which provides dedicated financial assistance to organisations providing support to the work of human rights activists. The EU provides direct, urgent financial assistance to human rights defenders at risk, through the EIDHR emergency fund for human rights defenders. The UN is a key ally of the EU in its work to protect human rights defenders, and the EU is a strong supporter of the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights Defenders. The EU cooperates closely with partner countries that have their own policies to protect human rights defenders, and works with the human rights mechanisms of other regional organisations, including the African Union, the Organisation of American States,

The EU works to protect and support human rights defenders, who play a fundamentally important role in the promotion of human rights and democracy

References • http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?qid=14502765 49809&uri=URISERV:110102_3 • 230/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2014 establishing an instrument contributing to stability and peace • http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?qid=14502765 49809&uri=URISERV:r12700 • Commission Communication of 11 April 2001 on Conflict Prevention [COM(2001)211 final

EU policy on Human Rights Defenders Support to human rights defenders is one of the major priorities of the EU’s external human rights policy. Human rights defenders are our natural and indispensable allies in the promotion of human rights and democratisation in their respective countries. The EU works to protect and support human rights defenders, who play a fundamentally important role in the promotion of human rights and democracy. Human rights defenders, who can be civil society activists, journalists, bloggers, or anyone who works to promote human rights in a non-violent way, face increasing pressure in many countries, and are regularly subjected to intimidation, harassment and violence. EU foreign ministers adopted Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders in 2004 which were updated in 2008. Diplomats at EU Delegations and Member State embassies meet regularly

the Council of Europe and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Reference • http://eeas.europa.eu/human_rights/defenders/index_en.htm

Youth Participation The EU plays a strong role in promoting youth participation in civil society. The EU Youth Strategy seeks to encourage young people to participate in the democratic process and in society. Specifically, the Commission pursues these objectives through (a) structured dialogue and involving young people in the process of making EU youth policy and (b) through the Erasmus+ programme providing opportunities for young people to participate in cross-border projects and events. Areas of focus in relation to young people’s needs include employment, education, training, volunteering, participation, health, digitization, active citizenship, intercultural dialogue, raising awareness of and respect for human rights, democracy, peace and rule of law and supports for young migrants and refugees. References • http://ec.europa.eu/youth/policy/youth_strategy/civil_society_ en.htm • http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CEL EX:42014Y0614(02)&from=EN


By Arne Schrader

Summary of Women War and Peace Online Questionnaire As part of the Women War and Peace project an Online Questionnaire was developed to identify what citizens want from the EU in relation to the promotion of peace and gender equality. The questionnaire was filled in by 25 citizens from each partner country, totalling 100. Results were collated by Germany, translated into English and made available online. The results are as follows: 78 l WOMEN WAR AND PEACE

QUESTION 1: What does peace mean to you? A third of all participants who filled out the on-line questionnaire, particularly in Poland and Ireland, associate peace with the state of an ideal society, where everybody can live and coexist in harmony and free will. Participants, particularly those from Germany, also describe peace as a life without any war or fighting. Furthermore, for a quarter of all participants, peace is more of an abstract feeling or ‘way of life’. In particular people in Spain argue on an emotional basis that peace represents the perfect way of dealing with one’s own life. Some participants see peace as the implementation of their personal freedom. Peace is a human right everyone should have.

QUESTION 2: What are the risks of maintaining peace? The participants of the survey deal mostly with two topics when it comes to the possible risks of maintaining peace. On the one hand, participants refer to self-interested motives meaning political or economic power play of individuals. On the other hand, people are fearful of losing their identity due to increasing methods of surveillance - mostly in Germany. Also participants expressed a concern over the suppression of less powerful ethnic or other groups within the population in order to maintain peace. There are fewer opinions describing the risk of using more military forces to implement peace in Europe or other parts of the world. Some people also see no risks in maintaining peace in general.

QUESTION 3: In what ways is gender equality important to you? One half of the participants surveyed characterize gender equality as a basic human and social right. Debates about opportunities in business life and getting the same the same access to jobs play an important role in thinking about gender equality. In Germany for example the discussion about quotas for women and fairness about working opportunities is very present. It is also observable that there are some people who think that gender equality has not been achieved everywhere and that there is a lot more work to do in order to reach a status where all women and men are treated equally.

QUESTION 4: Do you see any drawbacks to gender equality? Please specify! More than half of the participants in the survey see absolutely no drawbacks to gender equality. Besides that, there are three possible drawbacks named. The first is the unrealistic implementation of gender equality within daily working processes plus the link between work, social and personal life. The second concens some unfounded privileges for women through arbitrary quotas in business which may discriminate against men. And finally, most people criticize the slow process for dealing with gender equality within the population and/or government. The latter point for example seems to be less common in Ireland as it is in the other countries. One could assume that there are different stages for dealing with these topics within each country, and therefore Irish people do not recognize the missing engagement with those problems since gender equality is perhaps more accepted within the population.

QUESTION 5: What role can the EU play in relation to peace and gender equality? The majority of participants in the survey wish the EU to be an institution which coordinates member-states by regulative governance in order to create common laws and legislation. The European Union should implement measures and acts that defend policies and values involving peace and gender equality. Almost a third of participants share these opinions in general. Some participants in the survey also believe that the EU should encourage and promote gender equality and peace, that the EU can raise awareness of gender equality and defend peace by implementing campaigns and distributing leaflets throughout the European Union But also some people claim several other aspects the EU should encourage. In relation to raising awareness of gender equality and defending peace through campaigns and leaflets all over the Union, the focus should lie on promoting these aspects through education, both in schools and other educational systems. In the political dimension some participants postulate better cooperation between member states of the European Union as there are inherent difficulties in several countries of the Union.

Some participants in the survey also believe that the EU should encourage and promote gender equality and peace, that the EU can raise awareness of gender equality and defend peace by implementing campaigns and distributing leaflets throughout the European Union


By Mary Moynihan

Summary

What can be done to promote human rights, gender equality and peace

T

hroughout history there have been many different treaties and documents created to promote human rights, equality and freedom for both men and women. In Human Rights and Gender Equality by Edyta Pietrzak and Inga Kuzma (contained in this book) reference is made to the American Declaration of Independence, 1776, the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, 1789 and the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen, 1791. Before and during World War II, Fascism and Nazism negated the values of human liberty and dignity ‘subordinating individuals to the state’ and denying people basic human rights. After the devastation of WWII, the United Nations was set up in 1945 to maintain international peace and security. The United Nations created the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 which recognises the ‘innate dignity and equal, unalienable rights of all members of the human community as the basis for liberty, justice, and world peace’ and defines human rights under the categories of firstly fundamental, civil and political rights and then economic, social and cultural rights.


In order to prevent further war after WWII the Council of Europe was set up in 1949 by Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, Italy, Norway, and Sweden. Its aim was to enhance and develop democracy, protect human rights, justly resolve social problems, and enhance the European cultural identity’. Today the Council of Europe has 47 member states and is considered the continent’s leading human rights organization. 27 of the member states are also members of the European Union. All Council of Europe member states have signed up to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (1950), a treaty designated to protect human rights, democracy and the rule of law. The European Court of Human Rights oversees the implementation of the convention in the member states. Within the European Union (EU), respect for human rights, dignity and gender equality together with principles of freedom, democracy and diversity are fundamental values. The EU member states all support human rights and the main EU bodies - the European Commission, the European parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Council - are committed

to a Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union which states that the EU is founded on the ‘universal values of human dignity, freedom, equality and solidarity; it is based on the principles of democracy and the rule of law.’ Since 2009, the Charter has been legally binding on the EU institutions and national governments (when they are implementing EU law). The Charter is consistent with the European Convention on Human Rights. 1 Within the EU (following the Treaty of Amsterdam 1999), equality between men and women was recognised as a principle and key priority of the European Union and is reflected in a prohibition of any discrimination on account of sex and the introduction of the gender mainstreaming concept.

women in subordinate positions, which are often accepted even by women. There is a need to reaffirm a commitment to legislation and action for gender equality and gender mainstreaming as key components for democracy and peace and to commit to women’s rights as an essential component of universal human rights. For real change to take place and for equal status we need equal representation in public life and in decision-making processes. We have to challenge prejudice, patriarchy and fundamentalism, end violence against women and the objectification of female sexuality, and promote new feminist visions that ensure social, political and economic equality for all men and women, making women equal and visible in society, in leadership roles, politics and the arts.

Organisations such as the EU and the UN carry out a range of activities to ensure peace and democracy. These include the promotion of: • Good relations and international cooperation between different countries • Democracy, justice, the rule of law, good governance and the development of civil society with full gender equality and full respect for all human rights • Civil and political rights, freedom of expression and the media • Support for the implementation of the United Nations resolutions on women, peace and security • Mediation, dialogue and reconciliation re intercommunity tensions • Humanitarian and emergency aid • Disarmament and long-term actions to ban the use of firearms and all forms of weapons • Early warning and conflict risk analysis systems and the use of election observers • Support for international criminal tribunals • Ending impunity for perpetrators of genocide and mass atrocities and providing measures of justice to survivors • Support to address the impact of sudden population movements • Addressing global threats such as terrorism, organized crime, gender-based violence, security threats from climate change or natural disasters, cyber security challenges and the proliferation of the arms industry • Ethical and responsible business with proper governance, accountability and controls for the private-sector • Support for human rights defenders

Instruments such as the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the Council of Europe European Convention on Human Rights and the European Court of Justice; the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Human Rights and the EU’s use of legislation for gender equality and the promotion of gender mainstreaming can all be used to promote equality, human rights and peace and to affirm women’s rights as an essential component of human rights.

A key element for promoting peace and human rights into the future is to ensure full gender equality and gender mainstreaming. Women’s rights are an essential component of human rights and achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls is necessary to promote human rights and maintain peace and security. Gender equality leads to a heightened awareness of equality for all people and groups and equality and fairness plays a key role in the prevention of conflict. It is essential to teach young people that gender is socially constructed. For centuries patriarchy has imposed a ‘male-centred’ perspectives on state policies, religious teachings and culture that have, at times, become internalised and accepted as the ‘norm’ by both men and women. Creating new laws is an important part of promoting human rights and gender equality but change also has to happen at different levels within society. Misogyny can often be encoded in different areas and there is a need to challenge governments, religions and culture that promote inequality and perpetuate common stereotypes particularly those that place

A key part of the Women War and Peace project is to remember women’s stories from World War II. In recent times women historians have been doing a great job to put the role of women back into history, however much more needs to be done to ensure that the contribution of women in history is not ignored or mimimised. Women make up 50% of the population and yet our young people in schools are still not being taught about the role of women in history on an equal basis to male stories. All stories are important and by remembering women from World War II we hope to play a part in opening up debate on the many different roles women have played in history. There is a commonality and multiplicity of stories from women in European history and we hope the stories and personal testimonies can be read by everybody to remember and acknowledge the different roles played by ordinary, yet extraordinary women during World War II who found their own way to stand up against fascism and totalitarianism and who refused to accept oppression. Equal access to social and economic resources is a key part in maintaining peace. The growing divide between rich and poor and the promotion of economic policies that favour large corporations or extremes of wealth needs to change so that there is a more equal distribution of resources in the world. Many institutions work on disarmament, the reduction of arms and weapons through international treaties, however work needs to be done to bring about complete disarmament in both nuclear and conventional weapons and an end to the arms industry, a global industry that manufactures and sells weapons and military technology, and a complete reduction in defence spending. The biggest arms manufacturers are the United States, Great Britain, Russia, Italy, France and Japan. Western countries sell weapons of war to countries around the world and then wonder why they are faced with the mass exodus of people fleeing wars in which those very same weapons are used. Finally young people and adults today can volunteer or work with local, national and international human rights, gender equality and peace building organisations and campaigns and they can support elected representatives that support democracy, accountability, peace building, gender equality, human rights and disarmament. 1 http://eurlex.europa.eu/summary/chapter/human_rights.html?root_ default=SUM_1_CODED=13


Chapter

Four:

WOMEN WAR AND PEACE REMEMBRANCE THROUGH THEATRE WORKSHOP MODEL 82 l WOMEN WAR AND PEACE

Women War and Peace Theatre Workshop Model Remembrance through Theatre is a three-hour workshop using drama and theatre to explore the role of women in Europe from World War II to the present and the power of the EU in promoting peace and gender equality today. The workshop is created by Mary Moynihan and Freda Manweiler of Smashing Times Theatre Company with support from the Women War and Peace project partners.

E

xploration in the workshop is through active participation in drama and theatre games, exercises, image work and improvisations. The workshop is suitable for all, both adults and young people, and participants do not need to have any previous experience of drama. The aim is for adults and younger people to develop a stronger awareness of the issues through a quality arts experience. The workshop model is printed in full in this Women War and Peace Resource booklet in order to share skills and knowledge and to make the drama model available to a wider public. The Research and Resource material - articles and information accompanying the workshop are also available in this book. We recognize that it is not possible to cover all the material contained in this book in a short three-hour workshop so we recommend expanding the material and conducting more than one workshop with a group if time permits. Prior to the workshop participants meet to explore the article Human Rights and Gender Equality by Edyta Pietrzak and Inga Kuzma, contained in this book. Alternatively, the facilitator can WOMEN WAR AND PEACE l 83

refer to this article throughout the workshop and afterwards provide participants with a link to the article and book for further reading and discussion. Participants are encouraged to meet after the workshop to do follow-up work in terms of exploring the information and articles contained in this book.

Workshop Aims

• To provide information on the Women War and Peace project • To actively involve citizens in EU-linked fun activities that promote remembrance, debate and learning in relation to European history with a focus on women’s experiences of WWII and their journey within Europe from WWII to the present day • To explore the role and power of the EU in promoting peace and gender equality today • To explore how we can affirm women’s rights, gender equality, democracy and peace and to promote women’s rights as an essential component of universal human rights • To celebrate women as powerful drivers of change • To introduce participants to drama and theatre skills and the use of creative processes to raise awareness of women’s experiences of war and peace. In addition to exploring 84 l WOMEN WAR AND PEACE

women’s stories of World War II, the model can be adapted to different national contexts such as the Irish independence struggle and the Spanish Civil War

Objectives To provide participants with: • A deeper awareness of key themes and remembrance, debate and learning in relation to World War II with a focus on women’s experiences and their journey within Europe from World War II to the present • A deeper awareness of the power of the EU in promoting peace and gender equality today • A deeper awareness of gender equality, democracy and peace and the promotion of women’s rights as an essential component of universal human rights and women as powerful drivers of change • A deeper awareness, if applicable, to the role of women in war in national contexts • Access to a quality arts experience • The opportunity to gain confidence • The opportunity to gain a better understanding of key issues and to work together towards an equal future for all

Learning Outcomes On completion of the drama workshop participants have knowledge of: • Issues around key themes in relation to World War II with a focus on women’s experiences, war, peace, gender equality, democracy and the promotion of women’s rights as human rights • The power of the EU in promoting peace and gender equality today • Access to a Women War and Peace Research and Resource Document

Skills Development • Developing communication skills and communicating viewpoints in a logical and coherent manner • Developing ability to work on own and with others either in pairs or in a whole group • Confidence Building • Problem Solving re thinking, sharing and discussing ideas on key themes and decision-making


EXERCISE 1 INTRODUCTION TO KEY THEMES IN RELATION TO WOMEN WAR AND PEACE AIMS •

To provide information on the Women War and Peace project

•

To provide information on the European Union and the Europe for Citizens programme of the European Union

•

To introduce themes of war and peace with reference to World War II and, where appropriate, to wars in a national context

•

To introduce gender equality and to begin a discussion on raising awareness of women’s experiences during World War II

•

To ascertain the participants level of knowledge and interest in key themes of World War II, peace and gender equality

•

To find out what the group feel has been the impact of World War II on Europe

Focus: Materials: 86 l WOMEN WAR AND PEACE

Low

Place:

Beginning

Flipchart stand, paper and pen, Women War and Peace Research and Resource book

Instructions: 1. The facilitator asks the group to form a circle sitting on chairs or on the floor as suits the group. The facilitator introduces him or herself. 2.

The facilitator gives an introduction to a. The Women War and Peace project - see page 8 b. Europe for Citizens programme - see page 13 c. Workshop Aims d. The European Union – see first three paragraphs on page 71

3. The facilitator distributes a sign-in sheet and asks the participants to sign the form in order to register for the workshop. 4. The facilitator then begins a discussion on the theme of war. Firstly ask the participants some general questions in relation to war. What does war mean to you? When you hear the word war what do you think of? 5. Then ask specific questions in relation to war. What do you know about World War II? The workshop can focus solely on World War II or the facilitator may also ask ‘What do you know about the Spanish Civil War or the Irish Uprising and War of Independence?’ The questions are dependent on which country you are from. 6. Then ask specific questions on the impact of war. What impact do you think World War II had on people in Europe? Finally has World War II or any war had any impact on your own life or family?

8. Then ask the participants to close their eyes and think of the word ‘war’. What does that word mean to you? After a few moments, ask the participants to call out any words that come to mind when they think of the word ‘war’. Then ask what does this word make you feel? What emotions do you think are associated with ‘war’ and again call out any words that come to mind? The facilitator writes down the emotions spoken by the participants on a flipchart or takes notes of the words on a page if no flipchart is available. The list of emotions will be used later in the Sculptor and Muse exercise to be conducted as part of the workshop. 9. Then ask the participants what does ‘peace’ mean to you? When you think of the word ‘peace’ what comes to mind. Ask the participants to call out as many words or emotions that come to mind when they think of the word ‘peace’. The facilitator writes the words down on a flipchart or on a page in order to build up a vocabulary around the key themes. Do the words relate specifically to men or women or both? 10. The facilitator introduces the terms ‘war’ with reference to causes of war and the term ‘peace’ – see key terms page 112. 11. The facilitator refers to key points in the article Human Rights and Gender Equality By Edyta Pietrzak and Inga Kuzma.

7. Then ask What would be your knowledge of the role of women during World War II? What role do you think World War II had on women’s lives and gender equality? WOMEN WAR AND PEACE l 87

EXERCISE 2

PHYSICAL WARM-UP AIMS •

To prepare bodies, voices and imaginations for work

•

To promote energy

•

To support the participants to get to know each other

Focus:


Low

Place:

Beginning

Materials

None

Instructions: 1. Form a circle. Each person gently massages the main muscle areas of their own body, calves, thighs, stomach, chest, back, and arms and then a gentle massage of the facial areas and scalp. Add in a gentle jog on the spot to warm up the muscles and get the energy flowing. 2. Ask the participants to carry out the following actions. Standing with feet parallel and hip distance apart, gently flex the neck up and down and from side to side, rotate the elbows and wrists, stretch out fingers, then rotate the shoulders, hips, knees and ankles, first one way and then the other. Circle shoulders forward and back again. Inhale and lift shoulders up towards ears, aim to touch ears to shoulders. Exhale and let shoulders drop down. Repeat two more times. Make sure the shoulder balls and blades are well dropped down and arms hang loosely at sides and hands and fingers are relaxed. 3. Standing with feet parallel and hip distance apart, close eyes and concentrate on the breath, allowing it to naturally slow down and deepen. Extend your awareness to include the whole body. On the in breath imagine the breath filling the whole body. On the out breath imagine the body emptying. On each exhalation feel your hands and arms swell out and float away from the side of your

body and imagine your breath is like a wave of the sea. At the beginning keep movements subtle and small, as the practice progresses, the feeling is that they are effortless and coming from the inside out, non-acting, non-doing, unification of the body and breath. Extend the movement gradually, breathing in as you raise the arms out and breathing out as you relax them, all the time imagining the breath as waves of the ocean flowing through you. 4. Standing with feet parallel and hip distance apart take three deep breaths, raising arms and heels all the way up on the inhale and lowering on the exhale for each breath. The arms start by the side of the body and are raised forward and upwards palms facing down until the arms are straight up, palms facing forward. 5. To finish stand still maintaining awareness of the breath and how you feel. For alignment, concentrate on the top of the head; imagine a silk thread pulling the whole body upwards as though the skull were being suspended from it. Visualise the vertebrae in the back as beads on that thread.


EXERCISE 3

NAME GAME AIMS •

To break the ice and connect with a sense of fun and playfulness and to free up the group

•

To get our bodies moving in space

•

To provide a fun and quick way to learn names

•

To synchronise and promote energy

•

To support the participants to get to know each other

Focus:


Medium

Place:

Beginning

Materials

None

Instructions: 1.

Form a circle.

2. The facilitator steps into the middle of the group and says his or her name accompanied by a full body gesture. 3. All participants in the group step into the circle simultaneously and repeat the facilitator’s name and gesture. 4. The participant to the right of the facilitator steps into the middle of the circle says his or her name and makes a fullbody gesture – different to the one already made by the facilitator. This is the person’s own gesture. 5. Again all participants in the group step into the circle simultaneously and repeat the name and gesture.

7. Each member of the group is given the opportunity to enter the circle and say his or her name accompanied by a gesture. 8. The exercise is repeated two or three times with the speed of the actions increasing each time the exercise completes a circle. Each participant repeats his or her initial gesture. 9. When the facilitator feels that the group have become comfortable with everyone’s name and gesture, he or she then asks the group to enter the circle along with the individual who is saying his or her name and making a gesture and for all the group to enter and state the person’s name and make his or her gesture at the same time. At this point the participants are working simultaneously, stepping into the circle in one unit to say each individual’s name and gesture one after the other.

6. The next person on the right enters the circle, says his or her name and makes a full body gesture. The whole group follows by entering the circle and repeating the name and gesture.


EXERCISE 4

EXPLORATION OF WOMEN IN OUR FAMILIES & WOMEN WHO HAVE EXPERIENCED CONFLICT IN WAR AIMS •

To remember the mothers in our families and reflect on their memories

•

To reflect on the experiences of women who live through war

•

To explore how we are all connected in Europe

Focus:


Medium

Place:

Beginning

Materials

Ball of wool or twine

Instructions: 1. Group participants form a circle. 2. The facilitator holds the ball of wool or twine and takes the end of the wool and winds it around her index finger and says her name and family tree as follows:

- My name is _________ (participant name) - I am the daughter/son of ________(mother’s name) - I am the grand daughter/son of _______ (grandmother’s name) - I am the great grand daughter/son of _______ (great grandmother’s name)

He/she continues to wind the wool around his or her finger according to the number of names he or she says, continuing back through the woman’s line as far as he or she can remember or has information on. 3. The facilitator then passes the ball by throwing it across the circle to another participant who winds the wool around his or her finger and follows the same process of

naming their mother, grandmother, great grandmother and so on. 4. This process continues until all participants in the group have had an opportunity to say the names of their mothers lineage. 5. The facilitator then asks each person to talk briefly about a woman they admire who lived during World War II or during a conflict such as the Spanish Civil War. The women can either be from the person’s own family or a person they know about from history. The participants unwind the wool and pass the ball around in reverse order spending a couple of minutes talking about the women they admire as they are unwinding. 6. The facilitator comments on the women’s stories that have been told and comments on how the stories connect us all in the same way the wool connected us.


EXERCISE 5

ENERGY EXERCISE AIMS •

To get our bodies moving in space

•

To improve concentration

•

To synchronise and promote energy

Focus:


Medium

Place:

Beginning

Materials

None

Instructions: 1. Form a circle. 2. The Facilitator turns their body fully to the right and makes eye contact with the person to their immediate right, the facilitator shouts ‘ONE’ while touching their right shoulder with their left hand. 3. The person the facilitator has turned makes a similar gesture, making eye contact and touching their right shoulder with their left hand while turning to the person on their immediate right and shouting ‘TWO’. And so on until ‘SEVEN’. 4. The person at ‘SEVEN’ decides if he or she wants to continue in the same direction or to change direction. He or she indicates this by placing both arms in front of the chest in parallel and the arm on top with fingers pointing shows the direction in which to continue. The direction is indicated by where the top arm is pointing. 5. Every time someone makes a mistake, they have to run around the whole circle on the outside until they arrive

back at their original place. The rest of the group does not wait for them, they continue with the game. 6. Allow the numbers to move all around the circle a couple of times without pausing even when someone makes a mistake. Instead keep the game going and let the person who made the mistake run around the circle back to their space and to continue the next time the numbers come back to them. The aim is to get a rhythmical flow of numbers going around the circle without a break. 7. The facilitator can then gradually introduce variations. For example, number ‘FOUR’ has to be replaced by the name of a city, ‘TWO’ by an animal, etc. Variations can be related to the theme that the group is working on for example countries that were involved in World War II (such as Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, France, Soviet Union, Japan or the United States) or cities that were bombed during World War II (such as London, Cologne, Hamburg, Dresden, Hiroshima or Nagasaki). The number and increasing difficulty of the variations added will depend on the group level of performance, it is better when it is difficult but not impossible! WOMEN WAR AND PEACE l 95

EXERCISE 6

COLOMBIAN HAND HYPNOSIS AIMS •

To break the ice and connect with a sense of fun and playfulness

•

To get the group’s bodies moving in the space

Focus:


Low

Place:

Beginning or Middle of workshop

Materials

None

Instructions: 1. Participants walk randomly around the room always walking towards an empty space. 2. Facilitator says ‘stop’ and participants pair off with the person nearest them. 3. Facilitator chooses one person to illustrate the exercise with; facilitator places the palm of his/her hand one foot in front of the participant’s face, with the tips of the fingers at the same level as their partner’s hairline and the bottom of the hand at the same level as the person’s chin. Facilitator explains that the participant is now ‘hypnotised’ to the facilitator’s hand and the distance of one foot must always be maintained between facilitator’s hand and participant’s face. Facilitator then moves his/her hand back and forwards and participant should move too. Facilitator can walk forwards or backwards, move up or down, etc. 4. Pairs then decide who is A and B. A places his/her hand in front of B’s face, with the tops of the fingers level with the hairline and one foot away from the face. A leads B around the room always ensuring that B’s face is one foot from A’s hand and avoiding other players. 5. When A and B have had sufficient time to practice, the roles are reversed so that B now leads and A follows. 6. Facilitator asks for three volunteers. A extends both of his/her arms so that palms are facing outwards. B and C are then placed one foot from both hands. As A moves hands B and C move accordingly. Participants can then be divided into groups of three and this part of the exercise can be practiced. Reverse roles so that all three in each group have a chance to lead. 7. Facilitator now asks for one person to volunteer as the ‘leader’. The ‘leader’ will hypnotise the whole group by leading them with a particular part of his or her body, to be called out the facilitator. All the participants stand in one group together and the ‘leader’ stands in front of the group facing them. The facilitator then calls out a part of the body and the group now become hypnotised by that

part of the leader’s body for example the ‘leader’s’ right eye, left knee, right hip, left little finger, right big toe etc. The leader can move around the space freely. Reverse the leader so that several participants can have a go at leading the full group. 8. After the second person has had the opportunity to lead the whole group add in sound. Explain to the group that while they are being led by the ‘leader’, the whole group will make an abstract sound all together. Explain briefly that an abstract sound is a non-verbal sound that has no meaning for example ‘aaah’ or ‘oooh’. The group makes the sound and explains that the sound gets louder as the ‘leader’ goes up and the sound gets lower or goes down as the ‘leader’ moves down. 9. At the end of the exercise, the facilitator asks the following questions: a. Which part of the exercise did you find easier? Leading or following? b. Did the leader make it easy to follow or did they make it difficult? How did they make it difficult? By moving their hand too quickly so that it became difficult to follow? c. Who has the most control or power in this exercise? The leader or follower? Participants may say either the leader or the follower. When a person was leading, did they sometimes, as leader, abuse this power or exploit the other person? How? Why? A short discussion on power and equality can ensue. For example, within a relationship, people may often exploit each other rather than work in harmony. Talk to the group about working in harmony and that the leader and follower can share power by working together. If there is time, get the group to repeat the exercise in pairs with the leader and follower sharing power by working together. When the exercise is repeated a second time, ask participants: In what way did it feel different? Why? Is it healthy for us to exploit each other? Is it healthy to allow ourselves to be exploited? d. Introduce the terms ‘Cultural Diversity’, ‘Equality’ and ‘Human Rights’ - see key terms page 112. WOMEN WAR AND PEACE l 97

EXERCISE 7

NEAR AND FAR (OR BOMB AND SHIELD) AIMS •

To get participants moving in a fun way

•

To develop group and spatial awareness

•

To develop concentration

Focus:


Low

Place:

Beginning or middle of workshop

Materials

None

Instructions: 1.

Group moves randomly around the space.

2. As the group are moving explain the instructions. In a few moments each person chooses one other person in the room, without ever letting that person know, and tries to walk as far away from that person as possible (as if you feared this person). This person is your bomb. 3. Choose your bomb now. Continue walking with as much distance as possible between you and your bomb. 4. Keeping your bomb, you now choose another person, (without letting them know). Try to get this person in BETWEEN you and the person you fear. This person is your protector or shield. 5. Continue walking with your bomb and shield. You have ten seconds to get as far away from the bomb and as close to the shield as possible starting now. 6. Count down from ten to zero. On zero everybody freezes. Ask each person to name the person they fear and who is protecting them. 7. Ask for volunteers to share with the rest of the group a ‘bomb’ in their life and a ‘shield’ they have against this

‘bomb’. This relates to the participants’ real lives and their own personal experiences. 8. Within Europe what are the structures or areas that keep you safe, what is your shield? What are the structures or areas that threaten you within Europe, your bomb? How do we as a society protect ourselves from going to war and what role does Europe play in preventing war?

rovide a sample of ways to promote peace. Ways P to promote and maintain peace include supporting organisations and politicians that genuinely support democracy, social justice, gender equality, accountability, peace building, human rights and disarmament; support for international treaties such as the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Council of Europe, Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and the EU, Charter of Fundamental Rights; actions such as the promotion of good relations and international cooperation between different countries; promoting democracy, justice, rule of law, good governance, social justice, gender equality, freedom of expression, media freedom, ending the arms industry, accountability in governments and business and support for human rights defenders.


EXERCISE 8

BOTTLE EXERCISE AIMS •

To get participants to think of their individual relationship with power

•

To consider what changes they might like to make in their current power relationships

•

To develop group and spatial awareness

•

To develop concentration

Focus: Middle


Place:

Middle

Materials

Empty Plastic Bottle, Women War and Peace Book

Instructions: 1. Place a bottle standing upright in the centre of the floor. The bottle represents power. 2. The facilitator then explains to the group that if the room the participants are now standing is the universe of this particular group (the type of group is determined by who the participants are for example a group of students, work colleagues, friends, etc) and the bottle in the centre represents power, where would the participants position themselves in relation to that power. Participants work in silence exploring the power structures in their particular group and how much influence they have, placing themselves within the room and taking into consideration their relationship to each other and to the bottle at the centre which represents the ultimate power. The participants position themselves in the space and they can also make a frozen image with their bodies to express further the choice they have made. 3. Once all the participants have chosen their shape and where to place themselves, ask everybody to freeze in position. Then ask the participants to take a moment to look around and observe all the other participants. 4. Then ask would anybody like to comment on what they see or what strikes them? Participants may or may not speak and can comment on their own or someone else’s position. 5. After all comments have been heard, ask the participants to decide on their final position as they may wish to adapt or change their original position. Once everybody has decided on and moved into their final position ask the group to take a moment to look around and observe all the other participants.

6. Now tell the participants that the room is the universe of a new environment, their local political regional or council area and the bottle represents the power structure of this different environment. Ask the participants, if the room is the universe of this new environment and the bottle represents the centre of power where would they stand in relation to where the power is, where would they stand in relation to where they feel they would have power or influence over the central power structure? Ask the participants to work in silence. 7. Now tell the participants the bottle represents the power held by their national government. Again ask the participant to position themselves according to how they feel in relation to this state power, positioning themselves in silence in relation to where they feel they would have power or influence? 8. Now the bottle represents the centre of the European Union and again ask participants to position themselves in relation to where they feel they would have power or influence. 9. Discuss why participants choose to stand where they did in relation to the power system at a regional, national and European level and how do they feel about their ability to have influence in order to impact on power structures. How can participants make changes to their personal power in each area? How can ordinary people affect change? 10. End with a discussion on the various way to influence the European Union as outlined under the section ‘How to influence the EU’, see page 72.


EXERCISE 9

REMEMBRANCE This section is conducted by the facilitator if her or she has experience in and knowledge of the key themes or by a co-facilitator who is a guest speaker. The facilitator or guest speaker brings everyone together in a small group and establishes an atmosphere that is intimate and quiet. The time for this session is 20 minutes maximum. The aim is to highlight women’s experiences of WWII including those who actively campaigned against Fascism and Nazism and promoted liberty by referring to the 20 women’s stories gathered as part of the Women War and Peace project and documented in this booklet


Instructions: Firstly the facilitator or speaker talks for about ten minutes on the following: • Provide an introduction to the causes and Impact of WWII – see The Second World War: A Global Conflict on page 49. • Discuss the 20 women’s stories and personal testimonies from WWII and the Holocaust – from Ireland, Spain, Germany and Poland – highlighting stories of women who actively campaigned against Nazism and Fascism, and spoke out against totalitarianism and advocated for peace. The speaker can provide a brief summary of four stories, one from each country and participants have the opportunity to explore the stories further later on in the workshop and also to access this booklet after the workshop and read all the stories. • Introduce the terms gender, gender equality, gender mainstreaming, gender-based violence and feminism – see key terms page 112.

Myths and Facts: -

Nothing can be done to prevent war.

Myth

-

Men and women are not equal.

Myth

- Discrimination occurs when someone or a group of people act on their prejudices. - Nothing can be done to erase discrimination and racism.

Myth

- Human rights apply to everyone irrespective of their country.

Fact

- It is not sufficient to make men and women equal by simply passing legislation, in addition to passing laws, countries also have to take proactive actions to promote gender equality.

Fact

- Gender Equality is for women only. • To finish, provide an outline of the article Summary of what can be done to promote Gender Equality, Human Rights and Peace – see page 80. Encourage participants to meet and do follow-up work on the articles in this book.

Myths and Facts A list of ‘Myths’ and ‘Facts’ based on key themes are prepared. The speaker can approach the use of the Myths and Facts in two ways. He/ she can state a myth or a fact and ask the audience whether they think the statement is true or false, and then go on to discuss and explain it. Alternatively, the speaker can place three large sheets of paper on the floor. On the paper will be clearly written ‘Agree’, ‘Disagree’ and ‘Not Sure’ or ‘Myth’, ‘Fact’ and ‘Not Sure’. When the speaker calls out each statement, participants in the room walk over and stand beside their chosen piece of paper on the floor. A short discussion on each statement can then take place and the speaker can explain why the statement is a myth or a fact, referring to the information contained in this booklet. Choose three to five statements to call out.

Fact

Myth

- Equal economic independence for women and men is essential for gender equality.

Fact

- Gender Equality is essential for lasting peace.

Fact

- Equality between men and women is a basic principle of the European Union, similar to the principle of democracy and human rights.

Fact

To finish this section, the facilitator calls for a minute’s silence to remember all those who died in war.


EXERCISE 10

SCULPTOR AND MUSE AIMS •

To develop skills in using image theatre work and to build competency in communicating experiences through physical images

•

To explore themes through an embodied way, using the body

Focus: Materials

Medium

Place:

Middle of workshop

A list of emotions which have been gathered at the beginning of the workshop


Instructions: 1. The facilitator asks the group to walk around the room. Every time you see an empty space, walk into that space. 2. The facilitator then asks the participants to stop and pair up with the person closest to them. 3. Designate A and B. A becomes the sculptor and B is the muse. 4. The facilitator walks around and assigns each sculptor an emotion. The facilitator whispers the emotion into the participant’s ear so no one else can hear. Each sculptor is given one of the emotions identified by the group at the beginning of the workshop in relation to the theme of war. 5. The sculptor then sculpts an image of the emotion by using their partner’s body. The sculptor moves their partner’s body into an image that, to the sculptor, most suggests the emotion they are trying to portray. The sculptor moves their partner’s arms, legs, torso and can even sculpt the face.

6. Each pair, in turn, presents their finished ‘sculpture’ or image to the larger group and the group guess which emotion is being portrayed. 7. Reverse the pairs so that the muse becomes the sculptor and the sculptor becomes the muse. The facilitator now assigns each sculptor an emotion from the list identified by the group at the beginning of the workshop in relation to the theme of peace. 8. The sculptor then sculpts an image of the emotion by using their partner’s body and each pair, in turn, present their finished ‘sculptor’ or image to the larger group and the group guess which emotion is being portrayed. 9. The group discusses their experience in preparing and presenting the images.


EXERCISE 11

IMAGE THEATRE AND IMPROVISATION ON THEMES AIMS •

To build competency in communicating experiences through physical images

•

To explore stories of women from World War II

Focus:

Medium/High


Place:

Middle to End

Materials

Women’s Stories of WWII

Instructions: 1. The facilitator explains that participants will, in a few minutes, be divided into teams and each team will be given a story based on a woman’s experience during a specific war situation. Each team will discuss their story and then collectively create an image theatre presentation based on the story. 2. Each team works together to come up with three group images to tell the woman’s story. Each group present their images to the full group and those watching may comment on the images. 3. Each group has to collaboratively agree on the three images and everyone in the group has a role in the image. The images show the woman’s story and the oppression the woman is experiencing and specifically the woman’s attempt to rise up against or overcome the oppression. Point out to the participants that while the stories all describe situations where oppression exists for example a country under the control of a dictatorship, the fact still remains that all the women in the stories are active agents, actively combatting and resisting oppression. The women in the stories are not giving in or accepting

defeat, there are active, brave and powerful. Therefore, participants are showing ‘resistance’ through the images, the ways in which the women are actively resisting the oppression others try to impose on them. 4. Image theatre involves using our bodies to create still images or tableaux to tell the story. The still image or tableaux is created by the group working together collectively and should ideally show key moments of action. Everyone within each team contributes to each picture. The image is a sort of three-dimensional snapshot, which expresses the theme in terms of the relations between human beings as the picture is made of human statues communicating moments of action from the story. After deciding on the story in terms of who (characters), where (location), when (time and what is happening) and what (action or story), each group works on their feet to create still images with their bodies. The participants become the characters, frozen in mid-action within the ‘still picture’, like statues, using their bodies to show a collective view (this needs to be discussed and worked out privately within each group) on the theme being explored. Remind each group to explore the image WOMEN WAR AND PEACE l 107

as fully in possible in terms of emotion, gesture, facial expression, use of the actor’s bodies and space. The actors are using their bodies within the tableaux to suggest what the characters are doing, how they are reacting to each other and to the situation taking place within the moment. The tableau should have a strong point of focus and have variation such as different levels, actions and opposing character intentions.

12. If there is time, the following variations can be explored:

5. After clarifying themes and how to structure image theatre, participants are divided into teams of four. Separate the teams, placing them around the room. 6. Give each group a sheet with a woman’s story on it, taken from the 20 women’s stories gathered as part of the Women War and Peace project and documented in this booklet. If feasible, have the participants read the stories prior to the workshop taking place and each group can choose their own story to work on. 7. Each group takes 20 minutes to read the story and to discuss it in detail and to then begin work on creating their three images in order to show the story, through the images, to the rest of the group. 8. The facilitator moves from group to group and goes over the main points in relation to the theme and structuring of the images, offering advice and encouragement as required. 9. Each team now presents their images. Seats for the audience are arranged so that they face on to the designated playing area. The facilitator decides the running order and each group, one at a time, now present their images. To begin the participants in team one strike and hold the first tableaux and then move in slow motion on to the second and then third tableau or image. 10. After each team have shown their three images the facilitator asks the audience to comment. Suggestions for discussion are; a. What does each image suggest to you? b. Where is the story taking place? c. What has caused the oppressive situation? d. What is the main character doing to overcome the oppression? What else can be done? e. What strategy helps him or her in this situation? f. Any other comments? 11. To finish ask each team to create a fourth ‘ideal’ image where the oppression or ‘war situation’ is overcome or has ended, to create an ideal image of ‘peace’. Each image is then shown one after the other. After each team have shown their image the facilitator asks the audience to comment in relation to what each image suggests to them. During the above the facilitator can take note of new words or phrases that come up and add these to the flipchart. Remember there are no right or wrong answers; participants are simply opening up areas for discussion as they explore what a particular theme means at this given time. In relation to time each group is different and some may take more time than others working through the image theatre work. 108 l WOMEN WAR AND PEACE

a. Ask the team to recreate their images. As they hold each image the facilitator calls ‘action’ and each team member instantly carries out a gesture and/or sound to elaborate on what is happening. b. Ask the team to re-create their first image. The facilitator calls ‘action’ and the team come to life and begin an improvisation, speaking in character to each other. To begin the team strikes and holds their first image and on a signal from the facilitator they begin moving and speaking as the tableau comes to life and the improvisation begins. The team themselves are responsible for ending scene one and moving into the still image or tableaux to start scene two and so on. If the scene is running on too long, the facilitator will say ‘Please move to your next image within thirty seconds’.

After all teams have shown their work, the facilitator can guide a discussion: •

What do they think are the most dominant stories that we hear about following a war?

•

What happens to the other stories?

•

What women’s stories of war do we hear about today?

•

Having heard the stories of powerful women from WWII, can the group identify any powerful women in Europe today and what can we do to celebrate women as powerful drivers of change.

•

What can we do to prevent war and promote peace? (See above). Ask the group to suggest ways in which individuals, society (schools, community and youth groups, churches, sporting organisations, etc), governments and the EU can promote gender equality, human rights and peace today for all.

•

Is gender equality important for peace and why? The facilitator can explain how gender equality leads to a heightened awareness of equality for all people and groups and discuss the role equality and fairness plays in the prevention of conflict.

•

Can the group establish a list of principles to promote gender equality?

The drama facilitator and speaker offer a summary of suggestions for active strategies while also providing space for the participants to come up with their own effective ideas for the problems illustrated in the image theatre exercises. The facilitator provides the participants with a link to this online book which the participants can use for further reading or ideally, for discussion and work as part of a follow-up workshop where participants, as a group, explore the above questions again.

Audience Feedback ‘The work Smashing Times is doing is so important. We need to hear more of these stories’

‘It was just brilliant! The two actors were phenomenal. Well done to everyone involved!’

- Laura Brady, Audience member

- Niamh Clowry, Audience member

‘I’m amazed I never heard those stories before. It was so interesting, thank you for a wonderful performance’

‘Brilliant, moving, eye opening journey into stories of women’s bravery tonight. Well done to all involved’

- Elaine Cronin, Audience member

- Audience Member

‘Such a moving piece of theatre. The performances were excellent’

‘The two drama pieces were excellent.’

‘Superb! Way exceeded my expectations and is sending me away with lots of food for thought. Thank you so much.’

- Sabina Higgins, Áras an Uachtaráin

- Mick Fox, 5th Year Head, St Paul’s CBS

- Symposium Participant

First Lady

Secondary School

‘Thanks Freda and all the cast and crew of The Woman is Present! What a wonderful evening’

‘The concept was fantastic and something I feel is extremely worthwhile.’

‘I feel so grateful to have been present for the discussions offered today - extremely inspiring. Thank you.’

- Mary Duffin, Audience member

- Aoife Rodgers, Transition Year

- Symposium Participant

‘Saw The Woman is Present last night, a call to the heart: Stop war and trumpet the heroism of women, missing from history’

Coordinator, St Louis High School

‘Thanks very much, that was really good’ - Synge Street Student

‘Can we come again next year? We always really enjoy Smashing Times workshops’ - St Paul’s Student

‘I loved the play. We need more workshops like this’

‘Congratulations on a successful event. You had great engagement from everybody there.’

- St Louis Student

- Audrey Keane, The Arts Council

- Dr Eric Weitz, TCD


CLOSING EXERCISE

WIND DOWN AND PINKIE FINGER CLAP AIMS •

To create a sense of group connection

•

To provide the group with the opportunity to thank each other for their work

•

To provide an opportunity for feedback, evaluation and discussion

Focus:


Low

Place:

End

Materials

Email sheet, evaluation form, pens

Instructions: At the end allow time for evaluation and discussion, for participants to give verbal feedback or ask for further information and for the participants to ask any questions they may have. To finish the workshop, a written evaluation form and pens are distributed to participants to complete and the facilitator can ask the questions on the evaluation form, as the participants fill them out. Participants are then provided with an online link to the Women War and Peace digital book that they can take away with them after the workshop for further reading and discussion on key areas such as: • The history of human rights, the Council of Europe, the European Convention on Human Rights, the United Nations and the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights • Information on the EU in relation to its formation, history and diversity and the role of the EU today in promoting peace, gender equality, human rights and the well being of all its citizens equally with reference to the Charter of Fundamental Human Rights; the EU’s Strategic Engagement for Gender Equality 2016-2019; and the EU Peace and Democracy Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace (2014-20) • Information on the rise of totalitarianism, Nazism and Nazism, and the history, causes, ending and impact of WWII • 20 women’s stories or personal testimonies from WWII and the Holocaust - five per country from Ireland, Spain, Germany and Poland - highlighting stories of women who actively campaigned against Nazism and Fascism, and spoke out against totalitarianism and advocated for peace.

Instructions for Pinkie Finger Clap 1. Form a circle. 2. The facilitator asks the group to hold their hands out to the side and to touch the little finger of each hand with the little finger of the person next to them. 3. The whole group now watches the facilitator and when the facilitator claps, all the participants try to clap at the same time. 4. Repeat several times until the clap is completely unified. 5. Now the facilitator can ask another person in the group to lead the clap and then another person. 6. After several people have had a chance to lead, the facilitator leads the clap again. On this round, the facilitator repeats the clap more and more quickly until the whole group are giving themselves a sustained round of applause. 7. The facilitator congratulates the group on their efforts in the workshop and encourages them to congratulate themselves and each other 8. End the workshop by bringing the group into a circle. They come closer until standing shoulder to shoulder. They put their hands on each others backs, take a couple of breaths together and the facilitator thanks them for their participation. Ask the group to imagine a society where people are welcoming and friendly and where people recognise and respect difference and respect each other regardless of race, disability, religion, political views or sexual orientation. Congratulate everyone on their contribution and group finishes with applause for themselves.

The facilitator then conducts the Pinkie Finger clap exercise to end the workshop. WOMEN WAR AND PEACE l 111

Key Terms: War: War is a state of armed conflict between different countries or between different groups within a country. Many factors contribute to conflict - poverty, economic stagnation, uneven distribution of resources, weak social structures, lack of good governance and human rights, the oppression of women, systematic discrimination, oppression of minorities, the destabilising effects of refugee flows, ethnic antagonism, religious and cultural intolerance, social injustice and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and small arms.

Guidelines for Theatre Facilitators •

Always be well prepared.

• Promote transparency and ensure project aims and processes are clearly explained to those in attendance. • Ensure that attendance at the workshop is voluntary and there is informed consent. • Aim for a minimum of eight and a maximum of 20 participants. • Where applicable, aim to have a diversity of participation with representation from a broad range of traditions and geographical areas. • Aim to have a workshop space that is private, comfortable and large enough to accommodate the group. Ensure the room has disability access and has private breakaway rooms if required. • The drama facilitator needs to be able to read a group well and to have attentive and emphatic listening skills. Ideally the drama facilitator is neutral as he/she is there to generate a supportive and positive environment and ensure all are treated equal. Everyone is valued and empowered and all views are heard and explored, encouraging listening and a respect for difference. • Ensure full monitoring and evaluation of each workshop and aim to have a support structure and follow-up plan around the workshop. • Place an emphasis on openness, experimentation, risk taking, and creativity and commit to collaboration and empowerment. GROUP CONTRACT: The facilitator encourages the creation of an environment within the workshop where everyone feels safe and key principles of human rights are encouraged including fairness, respect for human dignity, difference, tolerance and equality. Every time you work with a new group, explain that you wish to identify guidelines for working together within the workshop in order to create a creative and safe space. This can be referred to as a ‘Group Contract’. Ask the group to suggest guidelines for working together and the facilitator writes these on the flipchart. Explain that everyone in the group


Peace: Peace refers to freedom from war and disturbance yet peace is not just an absence of war, it is about the freedom of nations and having access to basic needs and to human rights. Peace is about having a place to live where you have personal freedom, a sense of security and safety, and access to democracy and government accountability, to equality and human rights and to having your basic needs met such as food, shelter, housing, health, education and access to employment. Peace is when ‘people are able to resolve conflict without violence and can work together to improve the quality of their lives’ (www.international-alert.org). Peace is also a state of tranquility or inner calm that comes from having a sense of security and personal freedom. Peacebuilding: Peacebuilding is about finding ways to resolve conflict and to build peaceful relations and is a ‘process that establishes peace and prevents violence from continuing or re-emerging by addressing the root causes and the consequences of conflict’. To achieve this a range of methods can be used, such as: Building institutions; Community development; Socio-economic development; Social reconstruction; Reconciliation; Empowerment; Mechanisms to address the past (and) building effective governance ... reconciliation is a component of peace building and involves five interwoven and related strands: • Developing a shared vision of an interdependent and fair society • Acknowledging and dealing with the past • Building positive relationships • Significant cultural and attitudinal change • Substantial social, economic and political change Reference: Reconciliation, A Working Definition, Brandon Hamber and Grainne Kelly, Democratic Dialogue, September 2004 www. democraticdialogue.org Identity: A person’s identity is who a person is and what makes them who they are. A person has an individual identity and an identity based on the groups he or she belongs to. Parts of a person’s identity are fixed, other parts are fluid, they can change or alter.

needs to agree to the guideline before it is written on the flipchart. The Drama Facilitator can make recommendations such as: • Punctuality and respect for timekeeping – start and end on time • Talking one at a time and speaking without interruption • Genuinely listening to each other • Having respect for each other and for the drama facilitator including valuing different opinions and difference • Encouraging everyone to actively participate

Stereotyping: Labels or categories used to define or describe others, particularly those they perceive to be from a different grouping to themselves. Stereotyping applies generalized characteristics to a group. Although these can be positive or negative, stereotypes always have the potential to do harm because if they are accepted as ‘the truth’, they lead to sweeping assumptions about entire groups. Prejudice: A negative judgment against a group or people often stemming from stereotyping. Discrimination: Discrimination occurs when someone or a group of people act on their prejudices. Many countries now have legislation so that it is against the law to discriminate against a person in certain areas such as on the basis of gender, marital or family status, age, disability, race, sexual orientation or religious belief. Racism: Racism is based on a false belief that some groups of people are superior to others because they have a different skin colour, nationality, religion, ethnic or cultural background. A person may experience racism or ethnic discrimination because they have a different nationality, skin colour or culture or have a different religion. Racism is a criminal offence and it is also illegal to encourage other people to be racist. Racism has much in common with sexism, ageism, sectarianism or discrimination. It is preferable to facilitate the development of a common sense of working together to achieve the rights of all groups that suffer discrimination, rather than for example prioritising one area over another. Cultural diversity: Having people of different cultures, religions, nationalities, ethnic groups and backgrounds making up a community. Diversity refers to the fact that everyone is unique and different and cultural diversity promotes being respectful to other cultures besides your own and understanding that different ways of life and ways of thinking exist, and that it is a good thing that such diversity exists in the world. Equality: Equality is about social and political equality for everyone in society, with everyone being valued equally and able to participate in society. Everyone shall have fairness, equal opportunity and justice and shall not be discriminated against because of gender, ethnicity, nationality, religion, political belief, disability, sexual orientation, age, civil or family status or membership of the Travelling Community. Everyone, individuals or groups of individuals, are treated equally. Equality does not always mean treating everyone the same. Different supports maybe needed by different individuals and groups to achieve equality. Human Rights: The idea of ‘human rights’ implies that a person has a set of rights because she or he is a human being. While someone may have extra rights because he or she is a citizen of a particular country (the right to vote in that country, for instance) human rights apply to everyone irrespective of their country. Human rights are basic rights and freedoms that belong to every person in the world and are based on core principles of fairness, respect for human dignity, tolerance, equality, autonomy and the belief that everybody should be treated equally and with dignity – no matter what their circumstances. Equality and Human rights apply to everyone equally: men, women, older people, children, young adults, minority ethnic people, people with disabilities, migrants, gay, lesbian and transgender people, etc. Human Rights are protected and promoted through human right laws that aim to prevent violations of human rights and

through international treaties and conventions such as the European Convention on Human Rights which countries can sign up to. Gender: Refers to the socially-constructed roles, behaviours, activities and attributes that a given society associates with men and women. The term ‘gender’ differs to the closely-related term ‘sex’ which refers to the biological and physiological characteristics that define men and women. ‘Male’ and ‘female’ are sex categories, while ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ are gender categories. Aspects of sex will not vary substantially between different human societies, while aspects of gender may vary greatly. Gendered differences – those that society associates with men and women – have no necessary biological component, it is cultures that construct differences in gender and these differences are changeable over time. Some examples of sex characteristics: • Women menstruate while men do not; • Men have testicles while women do not; • Women have developed breasts that are usually capable of lactating, while men have not; • Men generally have more massive bones than women. Some examples of gender characteristics: • In the United States (and most other countries), women earn significantly less money than men for similar work; • In Saudi Arabia men are allowed to drive cars while women are not; • In most of the world, women do more housework than men. Gender Equality: Gender equality is achieved when women and men enjoy the same rights and opportunities across all sectors of society, including economic participation and decision-making, and when the different behaviours, aspirations and needs of women and men are equally valued and favoured. www.genderequality.ie Gender Mainstreaming is a globally accepted strategy for promoting gender equality. Mainstreaming is not an end in itself but a strategy, an approach, a means to achieve the goal of gender equality. Mainstreaming involves ensuring that gender perspectives and attention to the goal of gender equality are central to all activities - policy development, research, advocacy/ dialogue, legislation, resource allocation, and planning, implementation and monitoring of programmes and projects. www.un.org Gender-based Violence: Gender-based violence or violence against women is any harmful act perpetrated against a person’s will, and that is based on socially-ascribed (gender) differences between males and females. The definition should encompass, but not be limited to, acts of physical, sexual, and psychological violence in the family, community, or perpetrated or condoned by the State, wherever it occurs. Feminism: Feminism is about advocating for and achieving women’s rights based on the principle of equality ensuring there is social, political, economic and cultural equality for all. Feminism is about equality for men and women equally. Democracy: Democracy involves the active participation of the people, as citizens, in politics. It is a political system where the people elect political representatives and governments through free and fair elections. Democracy is meant to be a process where people can elect leaders and hold them accountable for their policies and time in office. In democractic countries the rule of law is meant to protect the human rights of all citizens equally. WOMEN WAR AND PEACE l 113

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Special Thanks to: Esther Warmberg, niece of Ettie Steinberg and her husband Asher; Caroline Danjou, daughter of Mary Elmes; Patrick Danjou, son of Mary Elmes; Jessie McGuire; Stuart Rosenblatt, Irish Jewish Genealogical Society; Edwin Alkin and Yvonne Altman O’Connor of the Irish Jewish Museum; Bernard Wilson, writer and researcher on the life of Mary Elmes; Lynn Jackson and Aideen Stapleton, Holocaust Education Trust Ireland; Don Davis, American Friends Service Committee Archives; Nadia Clare Smith, biographer of Dorothy Macardle; Colleen O’Reilly, Boston College; Tommy Graham, History Ireland, Shirley Graham, Inken Heldt, Marc McMenamin, documentary maker and historian; Pilar Tendillo Haro; Neus Català Pallejà, Niamh Clowry, Mary Lawlor, Front Line Defenders and Cllr Rebecca Moynihan, Deputy Lord Mayor of Dublin

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