Tag: Andrée de Jongh

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“National History Day: Breaking Barriers in History”

I’ll bet most of you have never heard of National History Day. No, it’s not the same as the Congressional proclamations for National Donut Day, National Bobblehead Day, or even National Fruitcake Toss Day (these all fall in January so make sure you mark your calendars for next year).

National History Day (NHD) is a non-profit organization dedicated to offering year-long academic programs for middle- and high-school students (6th to 12th graders). The largest NHD program is the National History Day Contest which encourages students to conduct historical research, interpretation, and creative expression on a topic of their choice. Each year, a theme is chosen, and the students pick their topic based on the theme, which is then presented as either a paper, exhibit, performance, documentary, or website. Think of this like the Science Fair projects but only on history (I received an “Honorable Mention” on mine). The student will enter their project at the local and affiliate levels, with the top projects advancing to the National Contest. NHD teaches critical thinking, writing, and research skills and boosts the students’ performance across all subjects. Past winners include Guy Fieri, Food Network’s television personality.

Young contestant in the National History Day Contest. Photo by anonymous (date unknown). National History Day: www.nhd.org
Young contestant in the National History Day Contest. Photo by anonymous (date unknown). National History Day: www.nhd.org
Young contestant working on his exhibit for the NHD Contest. Photo by anonymous (date unknown). National History Day: www.nhd.org
Young contestant working on his exhibit for the NHD Contest. Photo by anonymous (date unknown). National History Day: www.nhd.org
Guy Fieri, Food Network personality. Photo by anonymous (date unknown). Courtesy of the Food Network.
Guy Fieri, Food Network personality. Photo by anonymous (date unknown). Courtesy of the Food Network.

Did You Know?

Did you know that the greatest compliment I have been given in regard to writing the walking tour books was from one of my members in the Southeast Business Forums which I founded and ran in Nashville?

This gentleman had a daughter in high school who hated history. She refused to open or read any book having to do with history (you can imagine what that did to her GPA). He bought one of my French Revolution books, handed it to her, and said, “Just flip through this.”

He told me that she sat down with the book and read it from cover to cover in one sitting. When his daughter was finished, she came to him and requested that he buy the other books for her to read. The end result, or so he told me, was that his daughter developed a love for history, started bringing home A’s in her history class, and was considering becoming a history major in college.

That’s what keeps me going.

The theme for the 2019-2020 National History Day Contest is “Breaking Barriers in History.”

So, how do I know about NHD, its current theme, and the fact that some television celebrity who likes hot food is a past winner? I received an e-mail from Tristan H. asking me if I would agree to be interviewed in conjunction with the project she is working on for the 2020 National History Day Contest. Tristan informed me that her project was going to highlight the exploits of the female spies in the Special Operations Executive (SOE) during World War II. Tristan is in the 7th-grade in Southern California and frankly, after receiving four or five e-mails from her, I don’t think I’ve ever run across a 7th-grader who writes as well as Tristan.

I suggested she put together a list of questions and e-mail them to me. I would respond and then, if she wanted to follow-up with a discussion over the phone, I would make myself available.

The purpose of this blog is to make you all aware of the NHD as well as share Tristan’s questions (and my answers) with you.

 Tristan’s Questions

How did the women acting as spies break gender barriers at the time?

Probably the biggest barrier they broke was by being assigned to what I would consider the “front-line.” Although their assignments were non-combat related (i.e., typically as radio operators), if they were caught, the penalty would certainly have been terrible torture (Odette Sansom is a good example) and in many cases, execution at the hands of the Gestapo, SS, or the Milice (e.g., Violette Szabo). However, some women did participate in actual combat against the Germans (read Nancy Wake’s story, The White Mouse here). All qualified SOE agents, men and women, were trained in hand-to-hand combat as well as how to handle weapons and sabotage materials. So, this tells me that women agents were expected to be ready for combat if it came their way (Women Agents of the SOE, read here). Read More “National History Day: Breaking Barriers in History”

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My Father’s Paris

I’m excited to have author Jane S. Gabin as our guest blogger today! Jane recently wrote and published her newest book, The Paris Photo, after finding unexplained pictures among her late father’s papers. A native of New York City, Jane earned her Master’s and PhD in English from the University of North Caroline at Chapel Hill. She is an accomplished teacher, educational counselor, lecturer, and most recently, conducting classes on World War II at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Duke University. Jane is a member of the Southern Association for College Admissions Counseling, the Victorian Society of New York, and several branches of Alliance Français. But the most important fact about Jane is that she shares one of our favorite Paris pastimes: sitting in the bistro with a glass of wine or beer and people watching.

S/Sgt. Alfred L. Gabin’s Paris As Told By His Daughter

In Paris, World War II seems like an almost recent event. There are reminders everywhere. You cannot walk a block without seeing a plaque or statue memorializing a person or event. Stops on the Métro remind you as well – Jacques Bonsergent, Colonel Fabien, Guy Môquet.

On this trip to Paris, though, I decide to concentrate on the part of the city my father – who was stationed there in 1944-45 – knew best: the area around Gare Montparnasse. His unit arrived shortly after the Liberation and set up a military postal office in the space under the road leading up to the Gare.

(Rue de l’Arrivee, Gare Montparnasse US Army postal station, 1944; photo by S/Sgt Alfred L. Gabin)

There, between the Rue de l’Arrivee and the Rue du Depart, they prepared incoming letters and parcels for the troops and censored the post. I know the men had free time because I saw from my dad’s photos that they explored the city, had drinks at the many cafes along the Boulevard Montparnasse, and went to horse races at the track in the Bois de Boulogne.

The Gare Montparnasse has been replaced by a new station, and where my father and many others worked is now an unadorned, monolithic 59-story office block offering an unparalleled view of the city. This compensates for its existence. Completed in 1973, the Tour Montparnasse rapidly inspired the passing of legislation limiting the height of any new building in Paris. But it does provide a good vantage point from which to view the area.

The combination of broad Haussmanian boulevards and short neighborhood streets meant that my father was surrounded by an area inviting him to explore. The wide Boulevard du Montparnasse stretched directly in front of where he worked, an important boundary; on the other side was the 6thArrondissement, with the Rue de Rennes running straight ahead down to the church of Saint-Germaine-des-Pres. The basic view has not changed in the intervening 75 years. Read More My Father’s Paris