March 8th is International Women’s Day, an event that
is celebrated in some parts of the World and virtually unknown in
others. We would like to mark the occasion by pointing to a small sample
of stories in the Europeana 1914-1918 collection. The format of the
‘stories’ varies – some are long, detailed, and richly illustrated while
others are brief and may consist of only one image and a line or two of
text. What they have in common though is that they all tell us
something about women’s life during the time of the First World War. All
the material is shared by members of the public who have added them to
the archive either online or at a collection event. To see these
stories, and many, many more, visit the http://europeana1914-1918.eu/ website.
Maria Mohr. Lost so much.
Maria Mohr (nee Steiner) was born in Silesia
in 1888. In 1911 she married the actor and director Ludwig Mohr from
Bohemia and thus became a citizen of the Habsburg monarchy. Shortly
after the birth and death of their son, Ludwig Mohr was drafted to the
army. He was killed in Drenovac, Serbia in October 1914. Maria worked as
a Red Cross nurse in the war hospital Grinzing, Vienna from 1916.
Between May 1918 to September 1919 she managed a girl’s home for the
Army with about 50-60 girls. She got engaged to an officer in 1918, but
he died and was buried in Levico.
Maria returned to Silesia in 1919, after the war. Through her work in
the hospital she had contracted tuberculosis, and she spent some time
in a clinic recovering. She then lived with her father, kept house for
him and worked as an accountant. After the Second World War, when
Silesia became Polish, Maria fled to Emsland to the family of her niece
Elfriede, where she lived until her death in 1954.
To read the whole story (in German) and see all the accompanying images and documents, go to the Europeana 1914-1918 site: http://www.europeana1914-1918.eu/en/contributions/13965 Contributed by Erika Brieske CC BY-SA.
Women’s correspondence with secret codes
Sally McIntosh has shared a story relating to her great, great aunt:
"Whilst the men were away fighting a number of my great, great
aunt’s friends, who were all young women between 18 and 25 years of age,
corresponded with one another by postcard, many of which show
contemporary cartoons. They sent them for birthdays and to cheer one
another up as well as to discuss every day life. The messages they wrote
on the postcards were very basic and said very little, but I understand
they developed a code to share messages, for example about news they
had from soldiers overseas, or about other matters they did not want
either the postman or the censor to see".
To read the whole story, and see more cards, go to http://www.europeana1914-1918.eu/en/contributions/4317 Contributed by Sally McIntosh CC BY-SA.
Hulda Framers – grieving fiancée
This picture shows Hulda Framers. Around her
neck is a chain on which she carries an engagement ring and an iron
cross, presumably those of her fallen fiancée.
Shared by Andreas Bruehl under a CC BY-SA licence. http://www.europeana1914-1918.eu/en/contributions/12730
