Writing Your Book with
Erin Summers Norman - 30/09/2024
I’m SO excited to announce that I’ll be doing a live zoom chat on Sept 30 with the amazing Keeping It Sacred community (everyone is welcome!!!)
Please join us! I’ll be sharing about the importance of writing our own stories and how integral that is to my personal life and upcoming book, Samizdat. Plus LOTS more!
See this link for further details. Please remember to register for the event online so you will get your zoom invite! I’ll pop the link to the latest KITS newsletter in the comments for your perusal. Hope to see you there!
#history #authorssupportingauthors #authorevent #memoirwriting #research #philosophy #SocialHistory #resistance #educationmatters #womensrights #humanrights #FamilyStories #CommunityLibrary #booklover #judaism #keepingitsacred #writing
The Indomitable Virginia Hall, World War Two’s Greatest Spy - A Zoom Talk
“A woman of no importance” and also the Nazi’s Number One Most Wanted Spy!
Join a fascinating discussion on the Indomitable Virginia Hall, with Erin Summers Norman.​
**Please note this is a FREE EVENT - Confirm Your Place via Eventbrite above - donations welcome (see links below) and all monies will go into creating future free history content**
When information became illegal, the art of spycraft reached dizzying heights. The espionage and resistance movements that sprang up all over occupied Europe during WWII were full of remarkable, heroic, flawed people. Amongst these figures it is impossible to ignore the mind blowing work done by one woman, simultaneously dismissed as “a woman of no importance” and also the Nazi’s Number One Most Wanted Spy.
Virginia Hall’s life was full of real actions and real consequences, yet they are of the kind that myths are made of. Studying the life of Virginia Hall is a bracing experience. Each mountain she climbs we think must inevitably be the last yet then she goes and does it again bigger and better. Her determination to fight fascism and discrimination stands proud as a sharp reminder to each of us that we are capable of far more than we ourselves - or others - may ever dream of.
As a disabled woman Virginia was initially denied an official role in fighting the Nazis. Unwilling to be stopped, Virginia inserted herself into the front lines of the war and made herself indispensable to the Allies. She lived and spied in occupied France, slipping from one identity to another with ease and assisting in saving countless lives. With the Nazis just one step behind her, facing torture and execution if caught, Virginia escaped France by crossing the Pyrenees mountains on foot. Oh and she did all of that with a wooden leg.
As soon as Virginia reached safety in London she joined the SOE under Churchill’s directive to “set Europe ablaze”. Virginia returned to France with one purpose: to arm and train the Maquis with the aid of London. After the war Virginia worked with William “Wild Bill” Donovan to create the OSS - best known today as the precursor to the American CIA.
Despite her outstanding field accomplishments, in peacetime Virginia faced the same discrimination she had experienced before the outbreak of war. Like so many others whose lives are defined by war, Virginia struggled to find her place in peacetime. She lived with depression and alcohol addiction for the rest of her life. It is doubtful that she ever fully felt her own awe inspiring impact.
Please join me for a talk on the life of Virginia Hall, with time afterwards for discussion. A suggested reading list will be given to everyone attending so you can learn more about Virginia Hall and the Resistance movement during WWII if you would like to do so.
Corrie ten Boom: A look at radical love and resistance - A Zoom Talk
by Erin Summers Norman
Corrie ten Boom (1892-1983) was a Dutch watchmaker and beloved daughter, sister and aunt, from a close knit and devout Christian family. For many years the ten Boom family lived a nearly idyllic life in Haarlem, The Netherlands, marked by the precision of the intricate clocks and watches maintained by Corrie’s father, Casper ten Boom. Everything changed when in 1940 the Nazis invaded and occupied the Netherlands. Faced with a brutal and ugly reality, Corrie had to navigate her own well established ideas of right and wrong.
Corrie and her sister, Betsy, both then in their 50’s, along with their father, in his 80’s, jumped eagerly into the growing underground resistance work against the Nazis. They used “the Beje”, their beloved home with its unique architectural features, to create a hidden room to shelter Jews. As the war dragged on and conditions became worse, the family drew upon their faith, as well as their unending love and patience for each other.
In 1944, after a tip off from a Nazi informant, the Beje was raided, and Corrie and her family were arrested. Corrie and Betsy were eventually sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp. Sadly Betsy did not survive. When Corrie returned to the Netherlands after the war she founded a home for people who were recovering from the concentration camps. She went on to write “The Hiding Place” telling her family’s story and toured the world speaking on the power of forgiveness and of acting against oppression.
Please join me on July 31 for a multimedia presentation and group discussion on the life of Corrie ten Boom. Together we will attempt to understand life in the Beje, as well as the faith and fortitude that sustained the ten Boom family.
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TICKET PRICING: Tickets reduced from £3.00 to make the event more affordable. Your £1.00 ticket buys you one of 100 available spots to participate in an hour and half long, multi-media presentation and group discussion. You will also be given a further reading & watching list and a link of the recorded zoom event itself.
Thank you for your support! I am very excited and looking forward to seeing you then!
