They shall not pass
Martin Doyle
Time is running out.
We often realise the debts we owe to others long after the sacrifices have been made. Even then, we’re lucky if we appreciate all that was involved. And, of course, there are some unsung heroes who give just about everything (or, in truth, everything) a human being can give, and get no thanks, either in their own lifetimes, or after. Later generations are always late with the bouquets. I was a bit late, myself, a few days ago when I decided to make a last-minute dash down to Oriental Bay to attend the launch of a memorial display in honour of Nancy Wake. It’s a four-sided display column on the footpath.
But, really, it’s a pity Nancy Wake isn’t better known in Wellington. She was born here in Grass Street, Oriental Bay. Her parents gave her French, English and Maori genes. Life was tough. They moved to Sydney when she was two and her father ran off, leaving his wife and six kids to fend for themselves. She grew up a real battler, taught herself to be a journalist, and became a correspondent from France, where she married an industrialist. When the Nazis occupied France, she joined the Resistance and fought back tooth and nail. At one stage she commanded 7,000 resistance fighters and became, for good reason, the Gestapo’s most wanted person. Only at war’s end did she learn a terrible truth: that her arrested husband had died under torture, refusing to betray her whereabouts. She is the most honoured Allied servicewoman of the Second World War and is still clinging to life (aged 97) at an old people’s home in London.
Nancy Wake is one of thousands who fought bravely behind enemy lines during the War. Ordinary people in many European countries did all they could to resist the occupying forces. Many women shone out not just for their fighting but also for their leadership. An early example of this was the great Spanish freedom fighter Dolores Ibarruri. She rallied the brave in Madrid in July 1936 to resist the Fascists by famously shouting, at the end of a speech: “No pasarán!” (They shall not pass!) Sadly for Spain, the Fascists, with the help of the Nazi Luftwaffe and a “blind eye” from most other nations, did “pass” and General Franco ruled Spain all the way to 1975.
In many ways, we take a lot of our freedoms for granted in New Zealand. But even in our sleepy, modern times, the world still harbours military dictatorships: just think of Thailand, Burma, and, unbelievably, Fiji. We don’t really hear much from inside them most of the time, but it can’t be nice living under an iron fist and not being allowed to speak your mind or change the government when the mood takes the electorate.
That’s why Nancy Wake’s striking face on Oriental Bay is a kind of wake-up call. Let she not pass from our memories.
We often realise the debts we owe to others long after the sacrifices have been made. Even then, we’re lucky if we appreciate all that was involved. And, of course, there are some unsung heroes who give just about everything (or, in truth, everything) a human being can give, and get no thanks, either in their own lifetimes, or after. Later generations are always late with the bouquets. I was a bit late, myself, a few days ago when I decided to make a last-minute dash down to Oriental Bay to attend the launch of a memorial display in honour of Nancy Wake. It’s a four-sided display column on the footpath.
But, really, it’s a pity Nancy Wake isn’t better known in Wellington. She was born here in Grass Street, Oriental Bay. Her parents gave her French, English and Maori genes. Life was tough. They moved to Sydney when she was two and her father ran off, leaving his wife and six kids to fend for themselves. She grew up a real battler, taught herself to be a journalist, and became a correspondent from France, where she married an industrialist. When the Nazis occupied France, she joined the Resistance and fought back tooth and nail. At one stage she commanded 7,000 resistance fighters and became, for good reason, the Gestapo’s most wanted person. Only at war’s end did she learn a terrible truth: that her arrested husband had died under torture, refusing to betray her whereabouts. She is the most honoured Allied servicewoman of the Second World War and is still clinging to life (aged 97) at an old people’s home in London.
Nancy Wake is one of thousands who fought bravely behind enemy lines during the War. Ordinary people in many European countries did all they could to resist the occupying forces. Many women shone out not just for their fighting but also for their leadership. An early example of this was the great Spanish freedom fighter Dolores Ibarruri. She rallied the brave in Madrid in July 1936 to resist the Fascists by famously shouting, at the end of a speech: “No pasarán!” (They shall not pass!) Sadly for Spain, the Fascists, with the help of the Nazi Luftwaffe and a “blind eye” from most other nations, did “pass” and General Franco ruled Spain all the way to 1975.
In many ways, we take a lot of our freedoms for granted in New Zealand. But even in our sleepy, modern times, the world still harbours military dictatorships: just think of Thailand, Burma, and, unbelievably, Fiji. We don’t really hear much from inside them most of the time, but it can’t be nice living under an iron fist and not being allowed to speak your mind or change the government when the mood takes the electorate.
That’s why Nancy Wake’s striking face on Oriental Bay is a kind of wake-up call. Let she not pass from our memories.
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