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THE MARY ELMES PRIZE Anna Hayes MARY ELMES Anna Hayes Villiers Secondary School, North Circular Road, Limerick. Mary Elmes Prize- History Response. Mary Elmes 1908-2002 Mary Elmes (born Marie Elisabeth Jean Elmes) was born on May 5th 1908 in the quiet town of Ballintemple, Cork, Ireland. She came from an accomplished family that afforded her the opportunity to study French at Trinity College Dublin. Her compulsion to serve others could possibly be pointed to her parentage; her father was a pharmacist and her mother, a campaigner for a woman’s right to vote. From an early age she learned to put others first and her early activities were the beginnings of a life of a “heroine” who would dedicate herself to saving others. Mary Elmes represents the type of person that 2020 social media outlets are repeatedly calling for, a person who, at every fortuity, prioritised aiding others over any sign of self-gain. This essay will memorialise Mary Elmes in a way she would deserve, after her passing in 2002 (aged 93). It will reiterate the beauty of her work and show that people like Mary Elmes are still as imperative today as they were during the Holocaust. Her work is extensive but not complete. Only those that recognise the substance of such work can act on it. Mary Elmes’ obsession with helping others blossomed from the family she grew up in. When she was seven years old, she spent her time producing “knitted socks for soldiers on the front line” in World War I in a giving way that is exceptional for children of such an age. As previously stated, her Mother was an early yet valid, form of an activist who provided Mary with the progressive idea that a woman was equal to a man. Like many things in Mary’s life, her relationship with conflict began young. While attending Rochelle Primary School in Blackrock Co Cork, there was a “rigid curtain of censorship” over the political divides that traced the 20th century at the time. Experiences of such continued when Mary flocked to help the soldiers who had been “torpedoed” off of a German U-boat and stranded on a beach in her home town. Mary would later tell her children “… the heartrending scenes she saw on the quayside that day stayed with her for life”. In defiance of her only experiences with international repercussions, Mary would go on to travel to France and return with literary fluency in a language that was not her own. Her academic ability that was credited to her “unusual intelligence” would be marked with “a gold medal for academic excellence” from her school. The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) began on July 27th 1936, and was a devastating example of how broken beliefs lead to fractured ideals of importance; 500,000 people lost their lives. Mary Elmes arrived in Spain almost as soon as this bubbling travesty was to take effect. Assigned to a feeding post in Almeria, she would go on to gain experience that would stand to her through life. Here Mary’s work became her obsession, so much so that when her father unexpectedly died. She would not leave home for the funeral because a replacement for her position could not be found with such short notice. Such was her determination to help others, that all personal matters came last. Children’s hospitals popped up from wherever Mary Elmes went and when it came to getting the Spanish refuges over the border into France, Mary followed. Now in France (+year) she would set up, “workshops, canteens, schools and hospitals” all of which directly benefited those in greatest need. Her remarkable ability to constantly give more, deserves to be held in the highest regard. Perhaps the most notable thing surrounding this woman’s story is the fact that it is not based on one example of heroism. Mary Elmes did no singular act of selflessness. She was named “Righteous Among the Nations” in 2013 for her work during World War II. World War II began on September 1st 1939 and saw the oppression of Jewish people in a way no community in history had ever experienced before. Jewish men, women and children were murdered in mass gas chambers that haunt the history books of today. Jewish people living in Germany from 1939-1945 were stripped of their dignity, identity and hope. All were to wear a star of David on their shirt that might as well have been a caution sign to all others reciting “stay away”, “don’t serve” or “don’t acknowledge”. When it came to rounding up the Jewish people for extermination, numbers replaced names and death replaced life. Where our “heroine” Mary Elmes slots into this narrative is in her depiction of being “the Irish Oskar Schindler”. Mary Elmes, now back in Rivesaltes, France after the Spanish civil War would prove this title true. Jewish people were marshalled into this town for deportation to the concentration camps that coated Germany at the time. Charlotte Berger Greneche was 4 years old when her mother was taken to her death. Her 5th birthday was the marker being waited on to send Charlotte to join her in Auschwitz. By this measurement, she could even have been considered lucky among her peers as later the deportation age was to be reduced to 2. In August 1942, Mary Elmes began rescuing Jewish children from their deplorable positions, Charlotte Berger-Greneche included. She rescued 6 children and placed them into the boot of her car. From here she brought them into the safety of the homes that she had previously built during the Spanish Civil War. These “safe houses” offered a sanctuary of relief from the unfathomable reality faced by all Jewish children during the given climate. Within minimum days, Mary Elmes had “spirited away” 9 Jewish children from their doomed reality. Spanning the 3 months from August to October 1942, Mary Elmes rescued 427 children wating deportation in the Rivesaltes camps. Her work only stopped when it was forced to, as Gestapo workers became conscious of her actions. Mary Elmes’ reward, at the time, for her extraordinary work was an implemented 6 months in prison which she recited to be merely one of the many “inconveniences” that everybody was experiencing at the time. For this, Mary Elmes was posthumously honoured with Righteous Among the Nations, a reward representative of a life overflowing with good deeds and empathy. Righteous Among the Nations is an award given by the State of Israel to non-Jewish people who saved others during the Holocaust. It is a beautiful was to immortalize Mary Elmes. That being said, I believe that the only meaningful way to honour Mary Elmes and her work is to pay it forward today. In 2020, we have faced numerous challenges unlike any other year. In an upsetting way, this year has brought a lot of buried emotions to the surface for many people. No matter what way you look at it, cases of oppression not unlike that of which Mary Elmes was witness to, trace 2020; the following are some examples. Years of injustices and discrimination towards The Black Community were thrusted into the eye of the media after the death of George Floyd on May 25th 2020. In the U.S it is estimated that members of the Black Community receive a sentence that is 19.1% longer than that of a white person who is convicted of the same crime. In the past decade, the global refugee population has more than doubled, with millions of displaced people living in unsafe and unsanitary conditions. Ireland adopts these unsafe living ideals, 8,737 people living in Ireland are homeless. It is estimated that 1 in 4 women have experienced rape or attempted rape in their life and 80% of women do not receive any medical attention afterwards. In Africa, women spend 40 billion hours a year collecting water and 33,000 girls become child brides every day and at today’s rate, it will take 108 years to close the gender pay gap. In Africa, 30% of children experience growth disorders due to chronic malnutrition and a 5th of the total African population is considered malnourished. Children are at the fore front of this modern failure, 59 million underage children in Africa do not attend school, 1 in 5 are forced into child labour and one in 11 children die in suburban Africa before their 5th birthday. Despite this Africa has a rapidly growing population on a continent where 11/20 war related incidents took place in 2013. Mary Elmes was a fighter against injustices in her lifetime and the best place for us to start making change is to look at the injustices in ours. These facts represent only a fraction of the proportion of injustices that flood the human race now. It is reasonable to feel overwhelmed by this given the mass of these issues and the pain that they inflict to so many. It can be assumed that this feeling was ever-present through Mary Elmes’ life. She spent copious amounts of time challenging the many injustices that faced her and those around her. Not feeling intimidated by all that is so very wrong in our world is a challenge in itself. However, if Mary Elmes could do it during the darkest period in all of human history, then any failed attempt on behalf of humanity to do the same now, is a detriment to her legacy. Social media has renounced the need for young people to make a change in 2020 more so than other year due to the injustices that have come to the fore.
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