War correspondents are an integral part of the way in which global conflicts are captured and communicated to vested interests around the world. They report first-hand information on what is happening on the front lines and choose to accept the potential dangers that accompany their work. Journalists trying to get their stories were kidnapped, held hostage and killed. While historically, most journalists in these positions have been men, women like Martha Gaylehorn prove that the only real prerequisite for a job (other than the ability to write) is a willingness to risk everything you have.
By the age of 19, Martha Gellhorn had dropped out of all-female BrynMore College in Pennsylvania to start working in journalism. Her first book will appear in the political review magazine New Republic. By 1930, her goal was to become a foreign journalist. She went to France and spent several years at the Joint Press Bureau, traveling around Europe and covering Vogue fashion. Her first novel, Mad Pursuit, was published in 1934. Allegedly, there is a general lack of interest in fiction, and criticism mainly focuses on her lack of experience in writing novels.
In any case, Gailhorn's contribution to the field of nonfiction would be even greater. In Chongqing, China, 1941, she poses with the Chinese general Yu Hanmou (Wikimedia Commons)
Upon returning to the United States, she will work with then-First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. For a time, she herself was a resident of the White House, working as a field investigator at President Roosevelt's Federal Emergency Relief Agency during the day and helping the first lady work in the columns of the Women's House at night. Her collaboration with Roosevelt's FERA — she worked with photographer Dorothea Lange — was unprecedented at the time because they were allowed to investigate and report on topics that are not normally women's.
In 1936, Gailhorn first met the writer Ernest Hemingway, and when she was hired by Collier Weekly to cover the Spanish Civil War, the two traveled to Spain together. Before marrying in 1940, they lived and traveled intermittently for four years. While Hemingway admired her drive, there was an argument and competition between them, and he often expressed disgust at her tendency to dangerous situations. It was this trait that ultimately made her the only woman on Normandy Landing Day in Normandy.
Although in 1944 there were a handful of women working as journalists and photographers throughout Europe, they were forbidden to follow the army on the front lines. Gellhorn was unhappy with this unnecessary precaution and even wrote to the military authorities to express her dissatisfaction:
"It is necessary for me to report on this war. I don't feel the need to beg for the right to be the eyes of the millions of people in America who desperately need to see but can't see for themselves. ”
The night before the ship sailed to Normandy, Gailhorn's papers allowed her to board a hospital ship in order to interview the nurses. Once on board, she weighed her ability to witness the invasion with her own eyes. If caught, she is likely to be sent back to the United States and lose any foreign press cards she has. After accepting the possible outcome, she decided to hide in a bathroom on the boat as they set off for France.
Anyone who has ever been at sea knows that it is not a pleasant hiding place (US Army)
After troops landed, chaos and violence subsided, GellHorn sneaked ashore as a stretcher porter and medical personnel. She was the only woman there that day. The next group of women, who were members of the American Women's Army, arrived in Normandy another 38 days later. Witnessing the resulting death and destruction, and while collecting the wounded, she began to deal with the surroundings she later wrote for Collier:
"On that crowded, dangerous shore, everyone is busy. The pebbles were the size of apples and the feet deep, and we stumbled upon a huge road shovel that was digging out the road. We carefully walked between the narrow white tape lines marked with the path of mine clearance, towards a tent marked with the Red Cross... Everyone thought the beach smelled and was happy to find a time to get out of here. ”
She will also continue to be one of the first journalists for the Allied liberation of Dachau, capturing mass graves of skeletons with words.
Gehrhorn was one of the first journalists to tell the rest of the world about the atrocities seen in liberation camps (Wikimedia Commons)
"They're ageless, they don't have faces; they all look similar, and if you're lucky, you'll never see anything."
While many tend to associate her with Hemingway in a profound and meaningful way that often obscures her own story, their turbulent relationship is probably one of the least interesting things to do in any of them. Gehrhorn gained a groundbreaking journalistic legacy throughout her life, working until her 80s, covering coverage of the 1989 U.S. invasion of Panama. During this time, her health began to face challenges, and her last reporting job was in 1995, when she took a trip to Brazil to educate people about the poverty the country faced. This last job was particularly onerous for her, her eyesight severely impaired by cataracts, and she could not even read the drafts she typed.
1941, New York City Storks Club of Gailhorn and Hemingway. (John A. F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum)
Just three years later, in February 1998, Martha Gellhorn committed suicide by taking cyanide capsules due to vision loss and the spread of ovarian cancer to her liver. The following year, the Martha Gelhorn Journalism Award was established, which is awarded annually to journalists who write "about events that permeate an established version and tell unpleasant truths that expose institutional propaganda or 'official nonsense,' as Martha Gelhorn puts it. ”
She lived her life as much as she could, as much as she could in her own way. Living a life dedicated to sharing experiences and events that may not be known is a noble cause.