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The Lives and Legacies of Waitstill and Martha Sharp

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The Lives and Legacies of Waitstill and Martha Sharp ELIZABETH SUNEBY writer PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF SHARP FAMILY ARCHIVES maybe it’s an omen that in the fall of 2016—a time forever marred by a divisive U.S. presidential election, a worldwide refugee crisis, xenophobia, and ethnic tensio n—more than three million people were introduced to two virtually unknown heroes who selflessly risked their lives and precious family time with their young children to save Jewish children and dis sidents from the inconceivable brutality of Hitler’s Nazi regime. THE LIVES AND LEGACIES OF WAITSTILL AND MARTHA SHARP On September 20, 2016, 310 PBS stations premiered the documentary film Defying the Nazis: The Sharps’ War featuring Waitstill and Martha Sharp, the minister of the Wellesley Hills Unitarian Church and his social worker wife, who bravely fought Nazi oppression head-on as part of an underground resistance. The Sharps had lived in Massachusetts for only two years when they answered the call from Everett Baker, the Vice-President of the American Unitarian Association, to lead the 7 1 Church’s first international emergency relief mission. They traveled to Europe on the eve of 0 2 g n i r World War II in 1939 to help Jews and anti-Nazi dissidents escape Czechoslovakia and then p s | France. Trading their quiet suburban life for a perilous existence as covert agents, they left e n i z a g their three-year-old daughter and six-year-old son in the care of parishioners in order to a M n o t s e W y e l s e l l e W 98 spring 2017 | WellesleyWeston Magazine “What I owe the Sharps is my life in America. My life itself.” — Catherine Chvany • Professor Emerita MIT • rescued by the Sharps as a child 99 Building a More Just and Fair Society Joukowsky had created an earlier version of the cur - rent film, screened as a work in progress, and shared it with Burns. Despite Burns’ more than full plate of proj - ects and steady stream of requests from filmmakers, he agreed to help Joukowsky make his film better. Burns explains why: “Many people approach me to collaborate on films. Usually I must decline for the simple reason that I’m involved in too many projects of my own. Yet what I saw turned out to be an extraordinary diamond in the rough. I’m interested only in stories that talk to us . save other people’s children. Their daughter, Martha Content, lived Who are we? is the driving question in all the work I do. And here was on the campus of the Dana Hall School in Wellesley with the head of a story that answered that basic question in a dramatic, compelling, the school, Helen Temple Cook. Expecting to be gone for months, the and unexpected way.” Burns brought in actor Tom Hanks as the voice Sharps’ mission lasted almost two years . of Waitstill and Marina Goldman as the voice of Martha. The movie about the Sharps is co-directed by renowned filmmaker It wasn’t until Joukowsky was a freshman in high school that he Ken Burns and Artemis Joukowsky III, the grandson of Waitstill and learned about his grandparents’ bravery. Given a homework assign - Martha Sharp. Through the use of the couple’s personal correspon - ment to interview a family member about an act of moral courage, dence and journal entries, archival footage, and interviews with Joukowsky turned to his mother for an idea. She casually suggested that Holocaust historians and survivors—including the now-adult chil - he speak to his 71-year-old grandmother who lived close by and had dren the Sharps had saved—the film brings to life the atrocity of six “done some cool things in World War II.” During that fateful conversa - million killed. tion, captured on his cassette tape recorder, Joukowsky heard riveting “What is it in a human being that gives up something that is comfortable and safe and familiar for something that is not only uncomfortable but dangerous and life 7 threatening ?… The minister and his wife, they figured out how to write in code. 1 0 2 g n i r p They figured out smuggling of human lives. They figured out how to get past s | e n i z Nazi guards. This is not stuff they teach you in divinity school.” a g a M n o — Ken Burns • filmmaker t s e W y e l s e l l e W 100 tales, including Mummy Mummy dodging Gestapo agents at night and Grandpa Sharp travel - life-long commitment to carry on his grand - ing to European capitals to launder money. Not what he had expected. Joukowsky turned that parents’ humanitarian legacy. interview into a paper he titled, “A Matter of Faith,” for which he earned an “A”—the only A Waitstill and Martha Sharp never consid - he says he received in high school. That auspicious history assignment sparked Joukowsky’s ered their service in World War II extraordi - nary, but those who knew about their exploits did. In fact in 2006, the two posthumously received the “Righteous Among the Nations” honor from the state of Israel, bestowed upon non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermina - tion by the Nazis. The Sharps are two of only five Americans recognized with this distinc - tion given to more than 26,000 people from countries around the world. On Wednesday, October 5, 2016, in the very same church and in the very same room where Waitstill Sharp delivered his weekly sermons, the Unitarian Universalist Society 7 1 welcomed the local community—including 0 2 g n i r members of Wellesley’s Temple Beth p s | Elohim—to watch the just-released docu - e n i z a g mentary and hear from esteemed panelists: a M n o Artemis Joukowsky III; Catherine Chvany, t s e W y e l s e l l e W 102 Building a More Just and Fair Society “What the Sharps demonstrated by example was their fundamental belief that this moral imperativ e— to confront evil wherever it appea r— holds true for the individual as well as society. I can’t think of a more important message for me to carry from their generation to mine and beyond.” — Artemis Joukowsky III • grandson of the Sharps rescued as a child by the Sharps and Professor Emerita of Russian at MIT; and Unitarian Universalist Service Committee President and CEO, Tom Andrews. The three answered questions posed by the moderator, the Society’s Director of Religious Education Mick Hirsch, and from the audience. The panelists each spoke about the moral imperative to stand up against inhumanity. While they acknowledged that few of us will act on a global scale as the Sharps did, Chvany recounted a story to illustrate that even small acts of compassion have a pro - found impact: “Sixty years after my little sis - ter and I came to the United States as refugees, she still talks about the kindness of the women of the Red Cross who welcomed us to America with hot chocolate on the s p cold docks of New York harbor.” r i n g 2 When it came time for the audience to ask 0 1 7 | questions, a congregant of Temple Beth W e l l e Elohim approached the microphone. She s l e y W e thanked Joukowsky and the Unitarian com - s t o n M a g a z i n 103 e Building a More Just and Fair Society “I was beyond the pale of civilization. I owed no ethics to anyone if I could save imperiled lives.” — Waitstill Sharp “When many people become concerned and act together at the same time, a series of miracles can happen.” — Martha Sharp munity for their commitment to social justice, enabling Jews of her generation to live and carry on their religious tradition. Next, a woman who identified herself as a congregant of Wellesley Hills Unitarian Universalist Church since 1940 inquired, “Why is it that I never heard about our minister and his wife’s story before the movie?” Joukowsky was quick to reply, “I joined this church back in 1990 and not one member knew about my grandparents, either.” From the pulpit and the pews alike, people in attendance ques - tioned why the Sharps and the Unitarian leadership hadn’t spoken 7 1 publically about the minister and his wife’s selfless work to combat 0 2 g n i r evil. Surely, the reasons are complex. First, Unitarians are not known to p s | be self-promoters, and in keeping with their tradition, the faithful e n i z a g Sharps did not draw attention to themselves. In fact, the humble duo a M n o told their grandson that they considered their work as something that t s e W y e l s e l l e W 104 needed to be done and that anyone else in their place would have done, too. The Sharps probably avoided speaking about Nazi Europe because, as is the case with many Holocaust survivors, no words ade - quately describe the horror they witnessed first-hand. Clearly, it was inappropriate to expose their young children to descriptions of the worst of humanity. Many of the people the Sharps worked with had died, and while they had saved many lives, their intimate understanding of the millions left behind to perish likely haunted them. The Sharps’ divergent reactions to their traumatic experiences in Europe contributed to family tension and their decision to divorce in 1954, a personal matter likely they and the Unitarian leaders preferred not to discuss publically.
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