Hedy Epstein (1924-2016) used her second chance at life to speak up against the injustices she saw in the world as a civil rights activist.
Hedy Epstein (1924-2016) used her second chance at life to speak up against the injustices she saw in the world as a civil rights activist.
Women’s contributions to peacekeeping efforts are often overlooked, but no more. This month on Womanica we're highlighting women who have spearheaded peacekeeping initiatives all over the world — from India to South Africa to the United States. We cover women like Doria Shafik who led Egypt’s female liberation movement, as well as Coretta Scott King who was a fierce advocate for equality for Black Americans and a leader in the Civil Rights Movement. Tune in to hear the stories of women who were integral to creating peace in their communities.
History classes can get a bad rap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn’t help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should.
Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more. Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures.
Womanica was created by Liz Kaplan and Jenny Kaplan, executive produced by Jenny Kaplan, and produced by Liz Smith, Grace Lynch, Maddy Foley, Brittany Martinez, Edie Allard, Lindsey Kratochwill, Adesuwa Agbonile, Carmen Borca-Carrillo, Taylor Williamson, Ale Tejeda, Sara Schleede, Abbey Delk, and Alex Jhamb Burns. Special thanks to Shira Atkins.
Original theme music composed by Miles Moran.
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Hello! I’m Meltem Burak. I’m the host and producer of the podcast, Sesta. We aim to harness the power of arts and culture to foster conversation and build peace in Cyprus. I’ll be your guest host for this month of Womanica.
This month, we’re highlighting Peacebuilders: In times of conflict, these women have stepped in, bringing their creativity and insight to help facilitate peace across the globe.
Today we’re talking about a woman who used her second chance at life to speak up against the injustices she saw in the world. Unable to idly stand by, she threw her support behind communities resisting persecution.
Let’s talk about Hedy Epstein.
Hedwig Wachenheimer was born on August 15, 1924, in Freiburg, Germany to a Jewish family. Her parents, Ella and Hugo, raised her in Kippenheim, Germany alongside many family members.
When Hedy was 8 years old, Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany. Although she was young, Hedy knew his rise to power had changed her life forever.
Anti-semitism ran rampant in schools. Synagogues were burned, and Jewish-owned businesses, like the one Hedy’s father owned, were boycotted. The Wachenheimers faced worsening threats every day, but strict emigration policies made it impossible to leave the country.
Germany, Hedy’s home, had turned hostile. One day, she returned home to find her house ransacked. The police had sent her father to a forced labor camp.
After his return, Hugo and Ella knew there was no future for their only child in Germany. They took the only precaution left to them. They put Hedy on a Kindertransport, a refugee initiative that brought approximately 10,000 children from across central Europe to safety in Britain.
Hedy was just 14, and heartbroken. But with their sacrifice, her parents hoped to give her another chance at life.
And they were right. While Hedy waited in London, her parents were moved from concentration camp to concentration camp. They died in Auschwitz. In early September of 1942, Hedy received a final postcard from her parents. It read: “Traveling to the east ... Sending you a final goodbye." She never saw them again.
Hedy lived in London with a foster family until the war ended. In 1945, she returned to Germany as a translator and researcher for the Allied War Crimes Tribunal. Her work brought her to the front lines of the Nuremberg Doctors Trial, which tried German physicians who had used concentration camp inmates as subjects for medical experiments.
In 1948, Hedy immigrated to the United States. She got a job at the New York Association for New Americans, which helped bring Holocaust survivors to the U.S. There, she had a pivotal experience. On her first day, Hedy asked her African American colleague to get lunch with her. When she said no, Hedy chalked it up to it being too short notice. But when the woman continued to reject Hedy’s invitations, Hedy confronted her and asked why she wouldn’t eat with her. When the woman explained that racism and segregation meant she and Hedy couldn’t eat at the same restaurant, Hedy was incredulous.
After this moment, Hedy committed her life to fighting for civil rights and social justice in her new home. Her parents’ sacrifices and her own life experiences inspired her guiding principle: one does not persecute other people.
Hedy moved with her husband, physicist Arnold Epstein, to St. Louis, Missouri. There, she threw herself headfirst into full-time activism. Her work spanned causes– and, across the globe.
She worked her way up from volunteer to executive director of Freedom of Residence, an organization working to end housing discrimination in the city. She protested the Vietnam war and the U.S. bombing of Cambodia. She was also vocal in condemning Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land and founded multiple local St. Louis chapters of groups advocating freedom for Palestinians.
Hedy believed in nonviolent demonstrations, but she never stood on the sidelines. She traveled to the Israeli Occupied West Bank on several occasions, even arriving via freedom flotilla (flow-TILL-uh), which sent several boats from all over the world to the Gaza strip in an attempt to break Israel’s naval blockade
Hedy also traveled all over the world sharing her own Holocaust experience and speaking on the Israel-Palestine conflict. She educated generations of listeners on how to work against hatred and bias. Each talk ended with three requests: “Remember the past, don’t hate, don’t be a bystander.”
When Michael Brown was fatally shot by a police officer in 2014, Hedy was an early participant in the Black Lives Matter movement. She knew the injustice she’d seen leveled at communities in her lifetime was alive and well, not only in Ferguson, but across the United States.
In one last act of resistance, Hedy participated in the peaceful protests following Michael Brown’s death. When the police demanded the protesters leave, Hedy was one of nine who refused. Three days after her 90th birthday, Hedy was arrested for failure to disperse.
After decades of fighting injustice, Hedy Epstein died on May 26, 2016.
Her 2014 remarks on the “Democracy Now!” radio show remind us that we all have to do our part. She said: “I can’t solve every problem — I probably can’t solve any problem, but I have to do whatever it is possible for me to do. I just cannot stand idly by, because if I did — anyone that stands idly by becomes complicit in what is going on.”
All month, we’re talking about peacebuilders. For more information, find us on Facebook and Instagram @womanicapodcast.
Special thanks to co-creators Jenny and Liz Kaplan, for having me as a guest host.
Talk to you tomorrow!