Good afternoon,

Today we look at women who fought tyranny with their voices and their love.

I was convinced I’d included this article before, although vigorous searching of my sent items indicates that I have not. Enjoy this article on the life, works and family of children’s author Judith Kerr. As the pullquote indicates, this is a bleaker read that you might imagine, so maybe have a tea or hug someone first.

Humour is central to Kerr's world, though it comes shadowed by an awareness that reality is often not funny at all. No sooner had Alfred Kerr left the country than he was sacked from his job and his books were publicly burned. He found himself without a home, an income or a language he could comfortably write in. Switzerland was unwilling to provoke Hitler's displeasure by harbouring refugees, so the family moved on to Paris where they survived on money raised by selling their books.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/nov/29/judith-kerr-tiger-came-tea

Perhaps you already know the story of the Rosenstraße protests in Berlin, in which women protested – and successfully freed – their husbands in detention centres in Nazi Germany. It’s not only reminder that our actions and our love can bring change, it’s also a reminder that we can do more by extending our love beyond the point we had previously thought possible; not only to include more people but also to include more action. Just like that poster used to say.

The women who had gathered by the hundreds at the gate of the improvised detention center began to call out together in a chorus, "Give us our husbands back." They held their protest day and night for a week, as the crowd grew larger day by day. On different occasions the armed guards between the women and the building imprisoning their loved ones barked a command: "Clear the street or we'll shoot!" This sent the women scrambling pell-mell into the alleys and courtyards in the area. But within minutes they began streaming out again, inexorably drawn to their loved ones. Again and again they were scattered, and again and again they advanced, massed together, and called for their husbands, who heard them and took hope.

http://voiceseducation.org/content/womens-rosenstra%C3%9Fe-protest-nazi-berlin

This recent Economist obituary of Trinh Thi Ngo, a broadcaster during the Vietnam war, caught my attention a couple of weeks ago, and in the last few days has been on my mind more vividly; this image of the tinny, crackly voice telling the truth to and never knowing who was going to accept or act on it:

“Are you confused? Nothing is more confused than to be ordered into a war to die or be maimed for life without the faintest idea of what’s going on. You know your government has abandoned you. They have ordered you to die. Don’t trust them. They lied to you.”

http://www.economist.com/news/obituary/21708668-trinh-thi-ngo-hanoi-hannah-broadcaster-voice-vietnam-was-87-obituary-hanoi-hannah

Keep loving, keep fighting,

Alex.