World War Wednesdays: The Scoop of the Century: Clare Hollingworth

Clare Hollingwood in 1932

     I'm sad to report that we've lost another of history's most important people, and even sadder to admit that I hadn't heard of her before today. After reading her incredible story in the obituaries being posted online, I thought it important to make her name known to anyone who, like me, had not yet come across it.

     Her name was Clare Hollingwood and she was born on 10 October, 1911 to middle-class parents in an English village where her father ran a boot factory that was founded by her grandfather. Interested in politics, she studied Croatian at Zagreb University, international relations in Switzerland, and Slavonic studies in London. Following that, she worked as a secretary and then at a British newspaper's refugee charity in Poland while writing occasional articles about the tense political situation in Europe. Her work must have been exceptional, because friends convinced her to focus on journalism rather than politics.

     While working in Poland, Clare arranged for the evacuation of more than 3,500 political and Jewish refugees to Britain, which earned her the the nickname "the Scarlet Pimpernel" in the British press. According to her biography, written by her nephew, she had a natural talent for dealing with reluctant officials, incomplete information, and managing complicated logistics. After having saved thousands of lives by regularly circumventing British immigration bureaucracy, her time with the agency came to an abrupt halt in July 1939. While the exact reason is not clear, her nephew believes that Britain felt she had opened the doors to potentially dangerous immigrant spies and enemies of the state in her efforts to save the lives of people being persecuted by the Third Reich. Within a month of returning to Britain, she secured a new job as a war correspondent for the Telegraph and quickly returned to Poland, this time staying with a diplomat friend from the Foreign Office in Katowice, at the German-Polish border. [Interestingly, this is the same town where my good friend and Holocaust survivor lived, and she also was a witness to the earliest events in Germany's invasion of Poland.]

Hollingworth (left) with the Consul General's car she borrowed to cross the Germany-Poland border in 1939, South China Morning Post

     With the knowledge that war could erupt at any minute, Clare took advantage of the influence of a diplomatic flag on 30 August, 1939, when she borrowed her host's car and "motored off alone into Nazi Germany" to stock up on wine and aspirin. Driving back along the border, a fabric partition separating the two countries flapped briefly in the wind, revealing "scores, if not hundreds of tanks... thus I saw the battle deployment." (she later reflected on the event in her autobiography)

     After making that horrible discovery, she immediately understood its implications: "I guessed that the German Command was preparing to strike to the north of Katowice and its fortified lines and this, in fact, was exactly how they launched their invasion in the south." At that point, however, Poland was thought to still be in negotiations with Germany. 

     Three days later, on 1 September, 1939, Clare was awoken at 5 A.M. by the sound of tanks rolling past her window. She quickly called her editor, as well as the British and Polish Foreign Offices, each of whom responded with disbelief given that they believed the negotiations to still be ongoing. Frustrated with the response from the British Embassy, she actually dangled the phone out the window so that the official could hear the terrifying rumble for himself. "Listen!" she implored. "Can't you hear it?" After hanging up the phone with him, she called the Telegraph's Warsaw correspondent, who then dictated her story to London. When the story of Germany's invasion of Poland was finally filed, Clare's name was not included on the byline as was common practice for newspapers in those days. Here's what the original looked like:

The Telegraph

     At twenty-seven years old and as a rookie reporter, Clare Hollingwood truly had the scoop of the century. Amazingly, her remarkable life and career only continued from there: as the Nazis moved into Poland, she scrambled to escape their advance, often sleeping in cars, and eventually made it to Romania. Following that she spent much of her life on the front line of numerous major conflicts, including those in the Middle East, North Africa, and Vietnam, for British newspapers. During her remarkable career, she established herself as a fearless, talented, and respected journalist and won numerous awards for her work. She died on 10 January, 2017 at the age of 105 in Hong Kong, where she had been stationed as one of a few Western journalists sent to China in the 1970s. 
     Many thanks to TIME, CTV News, and the Telegraph for information and images. Further reading on this story can be enjoyed at: http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/journalist-who-broke-news-of-second-world-war-clare-hollingworth-dies-at-105-1.3234936 and http://time.com/4520940/clare-hollingworth-war-correspondent-birthday-hong-kong/
     
     I hope you found this story to be as incredible and inspiring as I did. Women like Clare are proof that it is not just the men who get to make history, and that heroes come in all forms.
     Thanks for reading,
     Delany (@DLeitchHistory on Twitter)

World War Wednesdays: The Invasion of Poland, 1 September, 1939

     Yesterday marked 76 years since the German invasion of Poland in 1939. As we know now in hindsight, that day was the spark that set in motion the events of the Second World War. Millions of people watched helplessly as the world seemed to spiral out of control in the chaos of a single day. For me, this anniversary now holds a more personal connection, though I can still never come close to imagining what was happening in Poland 76 years ago.

     According to Adolf Hitler, the conquest of Poland would mean an increase in Lebensraum (living space) to the "racially superior" German people, who would colonize the territory and enslave the inferior Slavic people. This policy had already been carried out against Austria with its annexation in 1938 and the occupation of the Sudetenland and Czechoslovakia in 1939, and Hitler hoped that the Polish conquest would be met with similar tolerance from the world powers.

     In order to limit the possibility that the USSR would provide aid to Poland, Germany signed a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union on 23 August, 1939 with a secret clause that would have Poland divided between them. The invasion was postponed when Britain signed a new treaty promising protection for Poland in the event of attack, so to forestall British intervention Hitler used propaganda to allege persecution of German-speakers in eastern Poland. Polish troops began to be called up in fear of imminent attack, but they were persuaded by France and Britain to postpone mobilization in a final attempt to stop the war.

German troops parade through Warsaw after the invasion of Poland 

     On 1 September, some 1.5 million German troops invaded Poland along its border with German-controlled territory. The Polish army, which had hastily mobilized one million men, staged a valiant offensive campaign, but was no match for the sophisticated German "Blitzkrieg" strategy. On 3 September, war was declared on Germany by Britain, Australia, India, New Zealand, and France, and by 17 September all hope was lost for Poland. Its government and military leaders fled the occupied country the next day.

     I consider myself extremely lucky to have a dear friend who can tell me exactly what 1 September, 1939 was like as a young Polish citizen (from Silesia in the west, bordering Germany). The day was sunny and hot, with not a cloud in the sky. When they saw the first planes, everyone thought that the Polish air force must be doing a training exercise. It wasn't until they got closer that they realized the planes were from the German Luftwaffe, and then people began running from their houses shouting that they were being attacked and war had begun.

   
     It is amazing to me to hear these stories in the context of what had been a perfectly normal and happy life up until that moment. I recently came across this picture, which really solidifies how sudden the events were on that day. These chairs were laid out on 1 September, 1939 for a wedding. When the Germans invaded, the wedding was abandoned, with the chairs still set up. Eventually, trees grew up through them, adding to the eeriness of the scene. They are repainted every year as a monument to the lives forever changed that day.

     As with all aspects of the Second World War, the significant events can be broken down and analyzed from the perspective and experiences of individuals whose lives were changed because of them. This is what allows people to better connect with what really happened, and to understand it on a human level. This is my focus for my historical studies, my writing for these posts, and my everyday life!
     Thanks for reading,

  Delany Leitch