Waitstill Sharp
 | This article or section is in a state of significant expansion or restructuring. You are welcome to assist in its construction by editing it as well. If this article or section has not been edited in several days, please remove this template. If you are the editor who added this template and you are actively editing, please be sure to replace this template with {{in use}} during the active editing session. Click on the link for template parameters to use.
This article was last edited by Smallchief (talk | contribs) 4 seconds ago. (Update timer) |
Waitstill Hastings Sharp | |
|---|---|
 Sharp in 1939 | |
| Born | Waitstill Hastings Sharp 1 May 1902 |
| Died | 25 February 1983 (aged 80) |
| Alma mater | Boston University (B.A., 1924)[3] Harvard Law (LL.B., 1926)[1][4] Harvard University (M.A., 1931)[1] |
| Occupation | Unitarian minister |
| Known for | humanitarian rescue work before and during World War II |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 2, including Martha Sharp Joukowsky[6] |
| Righteous Among the Nations |
|---|
 |
| By country |
Waitstill Hastings Sharp (1 May 1902– 25 February 1983) was a Unitarian minister who was involved in humanitarian and relief work in Czechoslovakia and Southern Europe during World War II.[7] In 2005, Sharp and his first wife Martha were named by Yad Vashem as Righteous among the Nations, the second and third of five Americans to receive this honor.
Early life
[edit]Sharp was born in Boston on May 1, 1902, son of Grace Hastings and naturalist, author, and professor Dallas Lore Sharp. Through his mother, he is a descendant of Thomas Hastings, who came from the East Anglia region of England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634.[citation needed]
Sharp graduated from Boston University with an undergraduate degree in Economics and English in 1924,[3][1] from Harvard Law School with an LL.B. in 1926,[8] and with an M.A. from Harvard University in 1931.[4]
On the 13th of June, 1928, he married Martha Ingham Dickie in Rye, New Hampshire,[9] the daughter of James Ingham and Alice Whalen, both immigrants from England who settled in Rhode Island. The ceremony was presided over by his father. A social worker involved with local internationalist and peace groups, Dickie remained his ministry partner throughout his outreach and rescue work in Europe during the Second World War.[citation needed]
In his third year of law school, Sharp got to know Eugene Shippen, National Director of Religious Education for the American Unitarian Association (AUA), and minister of Second Church in Boston, and later became part-time director of religious education at Second Church.
In 1933 he was ordained a Unitarian minister, and he became the pastor at a small church in Meadville, Pennsylvania.[4]"Sharp, Waitstill and Martha Sharp Cogan (1902–1984; 1905–1999)". Harvard Square Library. 28 July 2012. Retrieved 1 June 2017.</ref> In April 1936, he was appointed pastor at the Unitarian Church of Wellesley Hills in Wellesley, Massachusetts.[4]
Czechoslovakia
[edit]The accession to power of Adolph Hitler and the Nazi party in Germany in 1933 led to the flight of refugees, mostly communists or Jews, to Czechoslovakia. With the Munich Agreement (September 1938) which ceded to Germany the region of Czechoslovakia known as the Sudetenland, the flow of refugees increased. Kristalnacht, the anti-Jewish riots in Germany on 9-10 November 1938, further stimulated the flight of refugees, especially Jews.[10][11]
In November 1938 the American Unitarian Association (AUA) sent its Director of Social Relations Robert Dexter to Czechoslovakia on a fact-finding mission. He was accompanied by Richard Wood, a Quaker. The Unitarian movement was strong in Czechoslovakia and the AUA had a close relationship with the prominent Masaryk family. Dexter and Wood found a dire situation in Czechoslovakia. There were more than 200,000 refugees in the country: Jews, communists, and anti-Nazi refugees from the Sudetenland, Austria, and Germany. They were in immediate need of material assistance and also needed to emigrate from Czechoslovakia to escape the danger of persecution by Nazi Germany (which would occupy Czechoslovakia in March 1939). [12][13]
The Unitarians gathered $41,000 for a mission but had trouble finding a representative willing to go to Czechoslovakia. Waitstill Sharp agreed after 17 candidates had turned down the job. Leaving their two young children behind in the United States, Waitstill and his wife Martha arrived in Prague on 23 February 1939. [14][15] Initially the Sharps attempted to cooperate with the Czech government on rescue and relief projects for refugees, but the uncontested German invasion of Czechoslovakia on 15 March 1939 ended that effort. Afterwards, Waitstill focused on relief aid to refugees while his wife focused on securing emigration of refugees to other countries. Sharp augmented his budget by clever but probably illegal currency manipulations to get better exchange rates. He dispensed funds to other organizations to feed refugees and also spent money to accumulate food, anticipating shortages in the near future.[16]
Many foreign aid workers left Czechoslovakia shortly after the German take-over of 15 March. The Waitstills stayed and suffered, as did other foreigners in the country, from German harassment. On 13 April their office was searched and on 17 April the furniture in their office was thrown into the street. They changed locations but were closed down on 25 July. Waitstill left the country on 9 August; Martha a week later. World War II began on 1 September. [17]
France
[edit]In the following year, Waitstill and Martha traveled to southern Europe to continue a relief and rescue program for endangered refugees as representatives of the newly formed Unitarian Service Committee.[citation needed] While visiting southern France, Waitstill worked closely with the World YMCA to help Czech servicemen escape from Vichy France.[citation needed] He also forged a collaboration with Varian Fry to look after Fry's refugee clients in Lisbon.[citation needed] In this capacity, Martha and Waitstill personally escorted the novelist Lion Feuchtwanger from Marseille, France, on his journey to America.[18]
Personal life
[edit]The Sharps had two children, Waitstill Hastings Jr. born in November 1931 and Martha Sharp Joukowsky, born in September 1936. The couple separated after World War II, and were divorced in 1954. Waitstill remarried on June 24, 1957, in Chicago, Illinois to Monica Clark.[19] He died in Greenfield, Massachusetts on February 25, 1983.[20]
Legacy
[edit]An educational curriculum including the Sharps is featured at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.[21]
A documentary film, Defying the Nazis: The Sharps' War, recounting the experiences of Waitstill and Martha Sharp, was co-directed by Ken Burns and the couple's grandson, Artemis Joukowsky III, of Sherborn, Massachusetts.[22][23]
Honours and decorations
[edit]Yad Vashem
[edit]On 9 September 2005, Martha and Waitstill Sharp were named by Yad Vashem as Righteous among the Nations, the second and third Americans to receive this honor (the first being Varian Fry).[24]
Decorations
[edit]
Czechoslovakia: Officer of the Order of the White Lion (1946)[25]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d "Martha and Waitstill Sharp: A Timeline of their Lives", Two Who Dared, film website
- ^ Source Citation Number: 337-26-0571; Issue State: Illinois; Issue Date: Before 1951
- ^ a b Ancestry.com. U.S., School Yearbooks, 1880–2012 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, US: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.
- ^ a b c d Di Figlia, Ghanda. "Martha Sharp Cogan (1905–1999) and Waitstill Sharp (1902–1983): Unitarian Service Committee Pioneers". Harvard Square Library. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
- ^ "Martha and Waitstill Sharp Collection, ca. 1905–2005", United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- ^ Ancestry.com. U.S. Public Records Index, 1950–1993, Volume 1 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, US: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.
- ^ Nick Anderson (19 September 2016). "They risked their lives to rescue scores of people from the Nazis. Few knew their story until now". The Washington Post. Washington, D.C. ISSN 0190-8286. OCLC 1330888409.
- ^ Harvard Alumni Association (1926). "LL.B. '26 Waitstill H. Sharp". Harvard Alumni Bulletin. Vol. 29, no. 1. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University. p. 32.
- ^ Ancestry.com. New Hampshire, Marriage and Divorce Records, 1659–1947 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, US: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.
- ^ Brade, Laura E. (2017). "Networks of Escape: Jewish Flight from the Bohemian Lands, 1938-1941". Carolina Digital Depository. University of North Carolina. p. 33. Retrieved 10 October 2024.
- ^ "German Jewish Refugees, 1933-1939". Holocaust Encyclopedia. United States National Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved 10 October 2024.
- ^ Brade, Laura E. (2023). "What the Authorities of the Land Wish Done" (PDF). Soudobe Dejiny: 767-768. doi:10.51134/sod.2023.054.
- ^ Brade, Laura E.; Holmes, Rose (2017). "Troublesome Sainthood: Nicholas Winton and the Contested History of Child Rescue in Prague, 1938-1940". History and Memory. 29 (1): 31. doi:10.2979/histmemo.29.0003 (inactive 18 October 2024). Retrieved 10 October 2024.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of October 2024 (link) - ^ Bolton-Fasman, Judy. "Defying the Nazis with Heroism and Courage". Jewish Boston. Retrieved 15 October 2024.
- ^ "Sharp, Waitstill and Martha Sharp Cogan (1902-1984l 1905-1999)". Harvard Square Library. Retrieved 15 October 2024.
- ^ Brade 2023, pp. 774–779.
- ^ Harvard Square.
- ^ Subak, Susan Elisabeth (2010). Rescue and Flight: American Relief Workers who Defied the Nazis. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0803230170. Retrieved 21 September 2016.[page needed]
- ^ Ancestry.com. Cook County, Illinois Marriage Index, 1930–1960 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, US: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008.
- ^ Number: 337-26-0571; Issue State: Illinois; Issue Date: Before 1951
- ^ "Martha and Waitstill Sharp". Holocaust Encyclopedia. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
- ^ "Education".
- ^ Jaworowski, Ken (8 September 2016). "Review: 'Defying the Nazis': An American Couple on a Rescue Mission". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
- ^ Yad Vashem Staff (13 June 2006). "Waitstill and Martha Sharp". Yad Vashem [The Righteous Among The Nations, yadvashem.org ]. Jerusalem: The World Holocaust Remembrance Center. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
- ^ "Československý řád Bílého lva" (PDF) (in Czech). Retrieved 20 November 2023.
Further reading
[edit]- Marino, Andy (2000). A Quiet American: The Secret War of Varian Fry. New York: St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 9780312267674. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
- Kahn, Joseph P. (12 December 2005). "Deeds Earn Place Among the Righteous". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
- Lantos, Tom; et al. (22 January 2007). "Paying Tribute To Reverend Waitstill Sharp And Martha Sharp For Their Heroic Efforts To Save Jews During The Holocaust [comments made with respect to a resolution in the House of Representatives]". Capitol Words. 153 (12): h801–h805. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 52) paying tribute to Reverend Waitstill Sharp and Martha Sharp for their recognition by the Yad Vashem Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority as Righteous Among the Nations for their heroic efforts to save Jews during the Holocaust. [Rep. Tom Lantos]
- Subak, Susan Elisabeth (2010). Rescue and Flight: American Relief Workers who Defied the Nazis. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0803230170. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
