KATHE KOLLWITZ – ARTIST AND SOCIAL ACTIVIST.

        

A walk through the Kathe Kollwitz Museum on the Neumarkt Passage in Cologne is a journey through the life of a woman, who used her art and talent to show her deep concern for the less fortunate. Her’s was a lifelong fight against social injustice. The large imposing self-portrait that greets one at the entrance is of an unsmiling woman, strong and determined to leave ‘footprints on the sands of Time.’ The museum is bright and airy. Spread over 1000 feet, it is the largest collection of her work, from charcoal drawings to etchings, lithography and sculptures in bronze.

Kathe Kollwitz (nee Schmidt) was born in Konigsberg, Russia on the 8^th of July, 1867. Her father Karl Schmidt  a social democrat, brought up his children to be sensitive to the plight of the poor and working class. Her maternal grandfather Julian Rupp a Lutheran priest, also exerted a positive influence on her vis-s-vis Religion and Socialism.

Kathe was given to fits of depression from an early age.She also frequently suffered from migraine and hallucinations. However, this did not detract from her artistic talents. At the age of 12, her father arranged for her to take lessons from a local copper engraver. She also made plaster casts and copied the work of famous artists. By the age of 16, she was already drawing pictures of peasants and working class people.

As women were not enrolled in colleges in Russia, Kathe attended a Women’s Arts College in Berlin. She was greatly influenced by the work of Max Klinger and paid special attention not only to his techniques but also to his social concerns. In Berlin, she developed a deep friendship with fellow artist Emma Jeep. Their friendship lasted for many years. As it was difficult to find models, Emma posed for her in the nude in the privacy of their rooms. Later,they both transferred to an Arts College in Munich where they completed their education.

Emma was unhappy with Kathe’s decision to get married. She felt marriage would stand in the way of Kathe’s progress in Arts. But Kathe was not one to be easily influenced. She married Dr. Karl Kollwitz a member of the SDP, who worked in the poorer section of Berlin. In his clinic she learnt more about the lives of ordinary people, especially women who came there with multiple complaints. At first, she was only attracted to proletarian life. But later, she was touched with compassion by their sad stories. It was here that she learnt to “extract the emotional content from every situation and reproduce it.”

Kathe’s cycle of work on “The Weavers” was inspired by a play by Gerhart Hauptmann describing the oppression of Siberian weavers in 1842, and their failed revolt against industrialization. In five years, she produced six works depicting poverty, death, conspiracy and street marches. These canvases brought her wide acclaim.

Her second cycle of work was on the Peasants’ War of 1525. This too was inspired by another play of Gerhardt Hauptmann. Her series of pictures described the violence and carnage that followed after the peasants’ revolt against feudal lords and church leaders.

From 1901 to 1904 Kathe studied sculpture in Paris. In 1907 she spent a year in Florence as part of the Villa Roman Prize she won. Here she was exposed to Medieval and Renaissance Art. Kathe decided early in her career that she had no feeling for colour and its subtle uses. In 1909, ahe began to experiment with sculpture.

Kathe went into deep depression after the death of her son Peter, in World War I 1914. Out of this grief was born the sculpture of her famous work “Grieving Parents,” which stands today in the Vladso German cemetery, as a memorial to her son.

In 1919, Kathe was the first woman to be elected to the Prussian Academy of Arts. It ensured a regular income, a studio and full Professorship at the Academy. But in spite of all her fame and achievements she was unimpressed by worldly possessions and lived in the poor quarter of Berlin.

Kathe’s self portraits are 84 in all. Some said they were ‘psychological milestones’ depicting her quest for self appraisal. Sadly there is not even a smile in any one of them. It makes her look stern, unfeeling and humourless. But she was extremely kind and unassuming. According to her interviewer Agnes Smedley, Kathe’s rule of life was ‘Love.’

Being a socialist and a pacifist, she spoke against war. “There has been enough dying. Let there not be another war,” she said. She was an active member of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. But her anti-war posters and pamphlets against war, hunger, deprivation did not go well with those in power. In 1933, she was forced to resign her place in the Academy of Arts, and stripped of all privileges. Her work was removed from all the museums and art galleries. She was banned from exhibiting her work. Yet her pictures of ‘Mother and Child’ were used for Nazi propaganda without her permission.

Kathe now began to work from her own small studio. From 1930 onwards it seems that she was preoccupied with the subject of Death. Her eight pictures in this section are deeply disturbing and reflect the state of chronic grief in her mind.

In July 1936, both she and her husband were threatened by the Gestapo, who wanted to send them to a concentration camp. The couple decided to commit suicide rather than imprisonment. But the order had to be rescinded because of public outcry. Kathe was too famous to be ill treated.

After the death of her husband in1940, Kathe went through another episode of depression. In1943, her house was bombed and many of her drawings, prints and documents were destroyed. She moved to Nordhausen and then to Moritzburg near Dresden, where she spent her last days as the guest of Prince Ernst Heinrich of Saxony. She died on 22^nd April 1945 at the age of 78. Her tomb lies in Freidrichsfelde in Berlin.

NOOR INAYAT KHAN – INDIAN MUSLIM HEROINE OF WORLD WAR II

 A small plaque in the Memorial Hall at Dachau bears the name of the brave Indian Muslim woman Noor Inayat Khan, who was shot in the head at Dachau Concentration Camp on 13^th September 1944. The life of this brave young woman and her contribution to the Allied effort to defeat the Nazi regime is something admirable.

Noor was of Indian Sufi origin. She was born to Hazrat Inayat Khan, the great grandson of Tipu Sultan. He lived with his family in Europe, as a musician and teacher of Sufism. He married Ora Baker of Albuquerque, New Mexico, who was also a Sufi. During World War I, he moved his family to London and lived in Bloomsbury. But in 1920, the family was back in France and settled down in Suresnes near Paris.

Noor had an excellent education. She studied Child Psychology at Sorbonne and Music at the Paris Conservatory. When her father died in 1927, she had the responsibility of caring for her mother and siblings. She started writing poetry and short stories for children which were published regularly in children’s magazines and French radio. Her book of short stories for children titled “Twenty Jataka Stories” was published in London in 1939.

After the start of World War II when the Germans overran Paris in June 1940, the family had once again to flee to London.Even though she was a Sufi and a pacifist by nature, she along with her brother, decided to join the British in their war against the Nazis. In 1940, Noor enrolled in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force in the rank of Aircraft Woman, IInd Class. Later in 1941, she was recruited to the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in France.She received intensive training at the Special Operations Executive Schools and was posted in the Air Ministry as a wireless operator. Because of her fluency in French and her professional competence, she was transfered to the Directorate of Air Intelligence and sent to Nazi occupied France. Noor who called herself Nora Baker, worked in a group called the Physicians Network Radio Operators. It was a hazardous job and many of her colleagues were arrested by the Germans. Noor was given the choice of going back to Britain. But she opted to stay on in France and continued to remain the link between London and Paris. It was a dangerous mission, but she stoutly continued her wireless transmissions in spite of having to move from place to place. Tragically, Khan was betrayed by her own SOE officer Henri Dericourt, who was a double agent for the Abwehr.

On October 13^th, 1943, she was arrested and interrogated at S.D. headquarters. Noor would not give them any information about the nature of her work or about her colleagues. They named her ‘dangerous prisoner.’ She tried to escape twice during this period. Hans Kieffer the head of the Gestapo in Paris said she gave them false information and lied consistently. But the S.D. discovered one of her note books. Contrary to service regulations, Noor had kept a record of messages sent to SOE operations in code. But the enemy could decode enough of these, to be able to send messages to Britin in her name. London failed to investigate the anamolies in these messages and considered them authentic.

On November 25^th  1943, Noor once again tried to escape from S.D. headquarters with two of her colleagues by climbing on the roof. They were caught. Noor refused to sign a declaration promising not to attempt escape in the future.

Noor was the first enemy agent of SOE to be sent to Germany from France. For a while she was kept at Karlshrue, then transfered to the camp at Pforzhiem where she was handcuffed and in solitary confinement for 10 months. Labelled as ‘highly dangerous,’ the Gestapo could not break her. She gave no information about her work or her fellow operatives.

On 11thSeptember 1944, Noor whose code name was ‘Madelaine,’ was sent to Dachau with eight other female operatives. She was shot in the head on 13^th September 1944. Other prisoners testified that she was severely tortured before execution. Her body was then burned in the crematorium.

Noor died with the words ‘Liberte’ on her lips. She was just 30 years old, an Indian Muslim woman who showed exemplary moral and physical courage in one year of active service as a wireless operator. Britain awarded her the George Cross posthumously. France followed by honouring her with the French Croix de Guerre and Golden Star.
 Noor Inayat Khan's personal pistol M1907is on public display at the Imperial War Museum North in Manchester.

SOPHIE SCHOLL - THE'WHITE ROSE' ACTIVIST

  SOPHIE SCHOLL – THE ‘WHITE ROSE’ ACTIVIST.

About fifteen kilometers east of Regensberg is an architectural marvel called Walhalla. It sits on a high hill overlooking the Danube and is modelled on the Pantheon. In the mid-19^th century, King Ludwig I had this built as a Hall of Fame for distinguished Germans and people of German origin. It is home to 130 marble busts and 65 plaques commemorating famous Germans. On 22^nd February  2003, the bust of Sophie Scholl was the last to be installed in Walhalla. It was the 60^th anniversary of her execution by Hitler’s squads.

Sophie Scholl was born on 9^th May 1921 in a little village called Forchtenberg. She was brought up as a Lutheran, by parents who were God-fearing and believed in the essential dignity of every human being irrespective of race, colour or social status. Her father was opposed to Hitler’s dictatorship and was imprisoned for telling one of his colleagues that Hitler was ‘God’s Scourge.’

The home where Sophie was born and grew up in is now the Town Hall at Forchtenberg. A small bust of Sophie stands in one corner.

Though at the age of 12, Sophie joined The League of German Girls, she soon became disillusioned with its practices. In 1940, when she finished High Scool, she became a kindergarden teacher with the hope of avoiding National Labour Service. But she was forced to do a compulsory stint as Nursery teacher in the Auxiliary War Service. This brought about an aversion towards Nazi ideology and practices.

In May 1942, Sophie entered the University of Munich as a student of Biology and Philosophy. Her brother Hans also was studying Medicine at the University. Her boy friend Fritz Hartnagel was serving in the Army on the Eastern Front. From him she received news about the atrocities conducted on prisoners of war and Jews.

Sophie was greatly influenced by the essays and sermons of Cardinal John Neumann. In1942, her brother Hans along with like-minded students Willi Graf and Christopher Probst secretly began to write anit-Nazi pamphlets, urging people to resist Hitler’s ideology. To start with, Sophie was not included in this group as they feared for her life. Later, they felt that as a woman, she would not raise suspicion when she went on her secret forays to distribute pamphlets.

This was the beginning of the ‘White Rose’ movement, which advocated passive resistance to Hitler’s dictatorship. The members were against anti-Semitism. They read books by Thomas Mann, Paul Claudel and others which was prohibited reading. They smuggled food to those in concentration camps and cared for relatives of prisoners. But their most important activity was authoring six anti-Nazi leaflets and secretly distributing them among University students. Some leaflets were sent to undetectable locations for distribution. They used their own pocket money for paper, envelopes, stamps, and printed them out on their typewriters.

Unfortunately, during the distribution of the sixth leaflet, they were caught by one of Hitler’s spies and sentenced to death for treason at the People’s Court, by a cruel judge called Roland Freisler. That Sophie limped into the courttoom with a broken leg was proof of the torture she underwent in jail. At her trial and sentencing, Sophie based her defence on ‘The Theology of Conscience’ referred to by Cardinal Neumann.

“Somebody afterall has to make a start. What we wrote and said is also believed by many others. They just don’t dare to express themselves as we did.”

Sophie and the members of the White Rose Resistance showed exceptional spiritual courage in the face of death. They were not afraid to verbalize their collective dissent against Hitler’s absolute dictatorship. Sophie recalled the words of her father when she was growing up. “What I want for you is to live in uprightness and freedom of spirit, no matter how difficult that proves to be.”

Ironically, the sixth leaflet was smuggled out to UK and used by the Allies. They dropped millions of copies over Germany under a new title, “The Manifesto of The Students of Munich.”

 Sophie was just 21 when she and other members, were beheaded at Stadelheim Prison in Munich on 22^nd February 1943. They are buried in the Perlacher Friedhof next to the prison. Her last words were ,”Such a fine day and I have to go. But what does my death matter if through us thousands of people are awakened and stirred into action!”

Many children born during that time were named after Sophie and her brother. The German Major Brigitte called her the greatest German woman of the 20^th century. Later, films and books were made, based on her life. The most comprehensive book released in 2009 was titled “Sophie Scholl –The Real Story of A Woman Who Defied Hitler.”

JOHANNA KINKEL-GERMAN MUSICIAN AND COMPOSER

                                  

On the Walk of Fame (Bonngasse) in Bonn, is the faded star of Johanna Kinkel, trampled upon by thousands of pedestrians every day. Most of them know nothing about this brilliant musician of the 19^th century, whose life unfortunately was not a song. Johanna was born on the 8^th of July 1810 in Bonn, to a couple of average means. Being aware of her love for music, they arranged for her to study the piano under Franz Anton Reis, the man who tutored Beethoven. Even as a teenager, she was an accompanist to other musicians and also a coach to younger students.

When Johanna married Johann Paul Mathieux a music bookseller from Cologne in 1832, little did she realise that her life would be a living hell through physical and emotional abuse. She left him six months later, but the trauma she had endured sent her into severe depression. Her divorce came through several years later.

However, through the support of her friends, she recovered enough to resume her musical career. Her meeting with Mendelsohnn in1836 was a morale booster. He recognized her talent and encouraged her to concentrate on music. She then moved to Berlin and continued her musical studies under Karl Bohmer and William Taubert. To support herself, she gave music tuitions to students.

As her musical prowess increased, she acquired a measure of popularity among musicians of her day and was welcomed into Literary circles. Her compositions were appreciated even by composers like Robert Schumann.

Johanna returned to Bonn in 1839 in connection with her divorce proceedings. Her popularity as a musician, writer and composer were recognized by society. She was the first German woman composer of her own choral group ‘Gesangverein.’

In 1842, Johanna married a Protestant theologian, lecturer and poet called Gottfried Kinkel. Together they formed the ‘Maikäferbund’ – a group of poets. It was active from1840-1848 until the Revolution started.

Gottfried dabbled in Politics. In 1848, during the revolutionary upheaval in Germany, he was imprisoned in Berlin and condemned to death for his political activities. But Johanna through her influential friends, had the sentence overturned to life imprisonment. However, Gottfried escaped from Spandau prison and sought asylum in London.

By now Johanna had borne Gottfried four children. In 1851, she moved to London with them, to join her husband. The Kinkel residence became the centre of the expat German community in London. But Gottfried was totally immersed in Politics and had no time for his family. Johanna was the sole breadwinner but also had to cope with household duties and the care of her children. She not only taught music but became an author of merit on musical subjects.She was also a composer and director of a choir. Her reviews were regularly published in newspapers.

Rumours began floating around about Gottfried’s infidelity. Perhaps this was what drove Johanna into depression again. On Novenmer 8^th 1858, her body was found in her garden, She had fallen from her third floor apartment window. Was it a suicide? Was she pushed by somebody else? The matter was never investigated. Her autobiographical novel ‘Hans Ibeles’  was published posthumously in London in1860. She was buried at Brookswood Cemetery in Woking. Engraved on her tombstone were three simple words which summed up her life - Freiheit, Liebe, Dichtung (Freedom, Love, Poetry.)

On the 8^th of July 2012 which was Johanna’s 202^nd birth anniversary, there were no celebrations in Bonn. Pedestrians rushed over her Star of Fame unaware on whose face they trod.

AIMEE SEMPLE McPHERSON - THE FLAMBOYANT EVANGELIST.

The Angelus Temple in Los Angeles just off the Echo Park Lane, looks like an Opera House or a Theatre, except that a cross sits atop its dome. It is the International Church of Four Square Gospel, and is believed to have 2 million members. The church welcomes sinners and saints, tattooed, pierced or dishevelled, embracing everybody with unconditional love.

The Temple was designed and built under the direction of Aimee Semple McPherson, a woman who caused a veritable tsunami in the placid waters of Christian conservatism of the early 20th century.

Aimee was born on 9th October 1890 in Ontario, to a missionary couple Robert James Semple and Beth Kennedy. When they moved to China on missionary work, her father succumbed to Typhoid. So Aimee and her mother returned to New York, where the latter found employment with the Salvation Army.

In 1912, Aimee married a salesman called Harold Steward McPherson. This beautiful, intelligent but headstrong woman became an evangelist in 1916, and moved to Los Angeles. Her methods of evangelism were totally different from the conventional preachers of her time, who pronounced ‘hell fire and damnation’ on all unbelievers.

Aimee turned religion into a fun thing that promised acceptance of all who were ‘weary and heavy laden.’ Though many did not agree with her theology, they surely admired her grit. She travelled cross country for revival meetings and even went abroad to Canada and Australia. Her automobile had the words “Full Gospel Car’’ on its sides and was fitted with a radio. However, her husband Harold was not impressed. He opposed her ministry and her frequent travels away from home. He divorced her in 1921, unable to deal with the stress of an absentee wife.

At the Angelus Temple which was considered the most beautiful sanctuary in the West, Aimee livened her services with a full orchestra and band. Apart from her preaching, Christian musicals, operas and drama were staged here. When the Temple was dedicated on January 1st, 1923, it had a seating capacity of 5000. Later, she opened a Bible School nearby and called it Light House of International Foursquare Evangelism.

As her popularity increased, so did criticism about her unconventional ways. She wore expensive stylish costumes, used tasteful makeup and was too beautiful for a preacher. People came to gaze at her beauty more than to listen to her sermons. Even her choristers and usherettes were dressed elegantly. Christian women were aghast at her shameless display of worldly adornment.

“You don’t have to look spiritual to be spiritual,” she countered, “Women, you don’t have to look ugly and plain to prove how spiritual you are.”

Her faith healing activities, speaking in tongues, singing and radio broadcasts brought crowds to her church. But inherent flaws in her character surfaced from time to time. She was used to having her own way in everything. People found her difficult to work with.

In 1926, Aimee went for a swim in the ocean and disappeared. Everybody thought she was dead. But a few weeks later, she surfaced in Mexico, claiming that she had been kidnapped for half a million dollars. During this period of her absence, a radio operator called Kenneth Ormiston who worked at the Temple, also disappeared. It didn’t take people long to realise that they must have shacked up together is some romantic hideaway. However, the Grand Jury investigation and charges of perjury against her were suddenly dropped. This incident brought about a permanent rift with her mother.

Aimee married again in 1931 to David Hutton, ten years her junior. The marriage was short lived. They divorced in 1933.

The Temple was caught up in legal disputes and financial problems for a few years. Aimee continued to preach and teach. By 1940, the difficult period was over.

Aimee died on September 27th, 1944, due to an overdose of sleeping tablets. Some thought it was suicide.

One wonders if this flamboyant evangelist was a hypocrite or a victim of the Media, which was not kindly disposed towards women in power. If she was a fake, how does one account for the popularity of the Temple even today, and its claim of two million members?

LADY OTTOLINE MORRELL – UNCONVENTIONAL VICTORIAN DEBUTANTE

Bloomsbury in central London has always been associated with authors, writers and thinkers.
44, Bedford Square which today houses the Office of the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus, was once the beautiful home of Lady Ottoline Morrell and her husband Philip. It was the meeting place of the Bloomsbury group of English writers, philosophers and artists. Aldous Huxley, D.H. Lawrence, T.S. Eliot and many more, enjoyed her patronage and hospitality long before they rose to fame. She stimulated their creativity and even gave them financial help. In her coterie were painters like Augustus John the gypsy with a long mane and beard, and gold rings in his ears, as well as philosophers like Bertrand Russell who was thought to be her lover.

Ottoline was born in 1873, to General Arthur Cavendish-Bentinck and Lady Bolsover. She was the cousin of the Queen Mother, and acquired the title of ‘Lady’ because her half brother William succeeded to the Dukedom of Portland in 1879, and moved into the prestigious Welbeck Abbey in Nottinghamshire, where she grew up.

Ottoline was well educated, first at St. Andrews and then in Oxford. She loved Literature and Art, and was considered religious in spite of her unconventional life style. Not for her the galling restrictions of Victorian life. Her persona was a strange combination of aristocratic manners, deep religious faith, extreme shyness and eccentric sartorial preferences. She was a romantic at heart, and her first affair was with Axel Munthe, old enough to be her father. She turned down his proposal of marriage because he was an atheist.

Though she was a clever decorator and landscape designer, her pioneering work was never given the recognition it was due. Even the two volumes of memoirs which she wrote were published only after her death, and were watered down by fussy editing. Instead, she gained a questionable reputation through her proximity to the Bloomsbury group.

In 1906, her passion for Art and Liberal politics brought her in contact with the M.P. Philip Morrell, whom she married. Theirs was an ‘open marriage’ – a scandalous social aberration in the Victorian era. Each had their share of extramarital affairs. She was generous enough to support some of his illegitimate children. Ottoline bore Philip twins of which the boy died in infancy, but the girl Julia grew to adulthood.

The Bloomsbury group included several struggling intellectual eccentrics. Unlike the Victorian world with its strict social conduct, sexual restraints and low tolerance of crime, their attitudes to feminism, personal relationships, individual pleasure and liberal politics resembled the hedonism of the Hippies of later years. They threw convention to the winds and spurned what they called ‘bourgeois habits.’ G. E .Moore one of the writers said, “One’s prime objects in life are love, the creation and enjoyment of aesthetic experience and pursuit of knowledge.”

Ottoline though not of their inner circle, fell in with their views. She felt completely at home in their company, unfettered and free to indulge her sensual desires. Henry James said of her, “She is like a gorgeous heraldic creature – a Gryphon perhaps or a Dragon Volant.”
Among her list of lovers were Bertrand Russell, Augustus John, Henry Lamb, the Art historian Roger Fry and even a young mason who came to work on her Oxfordshire estate.

But the tragic part of her life was that most of these authors and poets took advantage of her friendship and generosity, and lampooned her in their novels. D.H. Lawrence based “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” on her, and Aldous Huxley portrayed her as a ridiculous character in his novel “Yellow Chrome.” She never forgave them for doing this.

Ottoline and her husband acquired a country house in Garsington near Oxford. The house was in total disrepair, but was renovated with a landscaped Italian-style garden and an ornamental swimming pool. During World War I it became a haven for pacifists and conscientious objectors like Duncan Grant and Lytton Strachey, who hid here to avoid prosecution. Siegfried Sassoon, who was recuperating from an injury, went AWL (Absence without leave) as a protest against the war.

Ottoline was wrongly accused as being a ‘lion huntress’ – a person who asked famous people to her house because they were well known. This was the unkindest cut of all, as many of her guests were unknown at that point of time, and most of them were impoverished. Those who scrounged on her generosity thought the Morrells were very wealthy. But in 1927, the Manor House had to be sold, and they moved into a modest cottage in Gower Street, London. In 1928, the poor lady was diagnosed with cancer, and her lower jaw and teeth had to be removed.

The Bloomsbury set which had regrouped after the war, continued to enjoy her hospitality. Her life and personality inspired many writers. She struts through the pages of Graham Greene’s novel “In a Battlefield,” as Lady Caroline Bury, or as Hermione Roddick in Lawrence’s “Woman in Love,” or as Mrs. Bidlake in Huxley’s “Point Counterpoint.”

Ottoline died in 1938. Henry Green the novelist eulogized her in a letter to her husband, recalling ‘her love for all things true and beautiful which she had more than anyone. No one can know the immeasurable good she did.’

EVA LOMBARD – PIONEER MEDICAL MISSIONARY.

On the west coast of India and hugging the Arabian Sea, is the temple town of Udupi famous for the Krishna Temple and the eight mutts – a seminary for Brahmin boys.

Into this stronghold of Brahmin orthodoxy, stepped Eva Lombard a young Swiss doctor, diminutive in stature but with a strong spirit and an incredible capacity for work.

Maternal and Infant mortality was very high in these parts as doctors were few, and female doctors were unheard of. Though opposition to missionaries was strong, the town welcomed the missionary doctor. On 15th June 1923, Eva Lombard opened the Basel Mission Hospital in Udupi. It was just a 6-bedded cottage hospital that promised to minister to the needs of women from all sections of society. Most of the work was domiciliary. The brave young doctor travelled to the homes of patients on foot or by bullock cart or boat. A car came many years later. Deliveries were conducted in outhouses or cattle sheds as women were considered unclean for forty days after child birth.

Everyone who mattered turned up for the inauguration. Important men with gilt-edged turbans or colourful headgear drove up in jutkas. They appreciated the fact that at last, medical help would be available to the women and children of the area.

Eva Lombard

Eva Lombard was born in Geneva in1890. Her father a Bank Manager gave up his job to become an evangelist. Her mother worked among women prisoners. From the age of fourteen, Eva was sure that she wanted to pursue a career in Medicine. She graduated from the University of Geneva in 1918, and worked for a couple of years in Basel and Geneva. But her burden was for India, and though she had no inking of her actual place of work, she set out like Abraham ‘not knowing wither.’

In 1921, Eva travelled to Mysore, and spent a year at the Mission Hospital there, getting acquainted with various tropical diseases and learning the local customs and language.

1923 brought her to Udupi. Under her care and guidance, the hospital grew over the years into a multi-specialty hospital with 200 beds, and a nursing school. But this was a Herculean task as money was always in short supply, and most of the patients were too poor to pay or could only pay a pittance. Though the town representatives had promised to contribute towards running costs, they were merely empty promises. The hospital had to rely on subsidies from the Basel Mission in Switzerland.

After World War II and when India became independent, things became tougher. Sometimes there was no money to buy medicines or pay the local staff. It made the good doctor more dependent on God.

TB patients were a sadly neglected lot. So in 1952 a sanatorium was built where patients were cared for with much love and dedication. Outreach work was started simultaneously with the opening of the hospital.

This remarkable woman devoted the best years of her life to service of the poor. They were her friends. Women and children were her special concern, but prayer was her forte. She worked hard and expected the same from her colleagues.

Eva Lombard retired in 1954 and handed over charge to an Indian doctor. She returned to Switzerland in 1957. She lived frugally and in her last years, moved into a Home for the Aged where she lived till her death in 1978. Dr. T. M .A. Pai the founder of Manipal Hospital, who was her good friend, said of her, “There is a spark of divinity in her. Let us have many such people. It does not matter which country they come from. They are angels holding the torch of hope and happiness. Dr. Lombard’s contribution to the healing art has been signal.”

In her was the will to render service. This is what steered her into a life of love, compassion and dedication.