Born in 1912. Died in 2011. Within those almost 99 years lies a story of a woman who fought greatly against the Nazis in World War II, risking her life to end the violence around her.
This woman was named Nancy Wake.
Nancy was born in New Zealand and raised in Australia. Her father left her family (mother and siblings) to go back to New Zealand shortly after Nancy had become settled in North Sydney. For the first portion of her life, she lived quite normally, but she ran away when she was 16 to work as a nurse. Later, using some money that her aunt had given her, she traveled to New York and London to train herself as a journalist. Working in Vienna one day, she witnessed Nazis beating Jewish men and women in the streets, which was what lit the fire in her heart to put an effort into changing things.
Throughout the time of World War II, Nancy became a courier of the French Resistance, joined escape networks, joined the SOE (Special Operations Executive), brought weapons to her group and led attacks on German installations. The Gestapo gave her the codename White Mouse, because she was always able to elude capture. Once, she was captured and interrogated for 4 days, but they did not know it was the White Mouse, and eventually released her. She was considered the Gestapo’s most wanted person, with a five million franc reward placed on her head.
One story I remember very clearly was when she was in an undercover raid, she was spotted by an SS sentry, who went to raise the alarm and ruin the mission. Before he could reach the alarm, she killed him with her bare hands. One quick judo-chop was all it took (which she learned at SOE).
I would go into more details about these experiences, but I must do some more research in order to fully understand what it was she did during that time. Also, why would I want to explain everything about my eminent so soon in the project?
Alright, so now it’s my second time around doing the eminent person project. This year I’m really excited and I’m not anxious like I was last year. I suppose experience is a friendly face when it comes to projects (or just Talons in general). Now, Nancy (this year) and Malala (last year) are very different from each other, so I can’t really improve based on content because they are in different categories. However there are some aspects of my presentation I would like to improve from last year. This year I am going to make my learning center BIG. Now, I’m not sure how I’m going to do this quite yet, but I want to make some sort of scene where I can act out. This will be a great improvement from my boring poster board I had last year (Hey, it was grade 9. I didn’t know how big a deal Night of the Notables was).
Definitely one thing I’m going to be learning a lot about is World War II. To be honest, I don’t know very much about it, other than the basic facts. I hope that it gives me more understanding and insight into history.
Time to hit the books and learn about this amazing woman!
8 Comments
waleed
Wow! Beautiful introduction, draws the reader right in. I’m really looking forward to your “big” learning centre too. How did you come across this eminent woman? Why are you interested in learning about World War II and the Nazis? A personal connection perhaps?
vanessaf
Thanks Waleed!
Nancy isn’t a well known person, so it was by sheer luck that I found out about her. Knowing this project was coming up, all summer I had been bookmarking online posts about eminent women. Then, at the end of the summer, I went through all the posts, read a little about each person, and chose Nancy. Her name was listed under a “Did you know?” list of great women.
I’m interested in learning about World War II for a variety of reasons. It is talked about so much, yet I only currently know the basics of what happened. I want to be able to understand and empathize more with the effects it has had on the world.
katherine
I LOVE this post, so detailed and it really gives you a good grasp of the character. How old was she when she started getting into Jewish rights? Why do you think your character this year is better then last years?
vanessaf
Thanks Katherine! I don’t know the exact age she was (still must do lots of research), but I believe she really started taking notice in her 20’s. I don’t think my person this year is better than last years, but they both have very interesting parts of their lives. Both of them fought/fight for things that are important to me, and they both power through hardships.
anney
Hi Vanessa!
It sounds like this is going to be a very interesting project on someone who is relatively unknown, should be very cool! The acting out idea for your learning centre, if it is going to be during the war, there will be many different unique or small detail touches you could add, like sounds and the setting will be very interesting as well. I am very interested in the two major world wars, and just history in general, so your topic sounds very interesting to me. There are many amazing individual and amazing stories from the wars, and you’ve certainly come across one of them. What made you so passionate about doing specifically Nancy Wake, or what are some of the connections that drew you to her? Good luck and I very much look forward to hearing, seeing and learning about this amazing woman!
vanessaf
Thanks Anne!
I chose Nancy specifically because she made such a lasting impression on everyone. She was known as a legend in her field. The Gestapo’s most wanted person, always able to avoid capture. I was drawn to her because I’d never really heard a point of view quite like hers.
kevin
Nice introduction, makes me want to know more about your eminent person! I like your ideas for your learning center and can’t wait to see it on night of the notables. How are you similar/different with your eminent person? What lead her to run away from her home?
vanessaf
Thanks Kevin!
Let’s see…. We’re similar in the way that we are both white women. We’re different in the ways of the time she lived, the size of our families, pretty much all the individual decisions that she had to make because she grew up in such a different time. I’m not entirely sure what lead her to run away quite yet (once again, still doing my research), but when I find out I’ll mention it in another post.