Followed by the Gestapo. Standing in line at 4 a.m. to burn documents. Exchanging money on the black market. Along with others of their Unitarian faith, helping more than 2,000 Jews, Social Democrats and other anti-Nazi activists escape from war-torn Europe.
Thats the story of Waitstill and Martha Sharp, which is told in a new documentary called Two Who Dared: The Sharps War, which will make its Colorado debut Friday at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Durango. Dr. Charlie Clements, co-executive producer of the documentary, will introduce the film.
Theyre not very well known, said Clements, who was involved with the film through his work as executive director of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, which works on social-justice issues with churches worldwide. He currently is executive director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Kennedy School at Harvard University. But, in 2006, they had the extraordinary honor of being named Righteous Among the Nations at Yad Vashem, the highest honor that can be accorded by Israel to non-Jews.
The Sharps are among only three Americans who have been thus honored.
The research and filming took about 10 years, beginning when their grandson Artemis Joukowsky III felt his grandparents story should be told.
It was an extraordinary detective effort, Clements said. He found a thank-you card in a file from a group of people Martha rescued in a dangerous train trip across Germany, and we turned the list of names over to a British private investigator. He found three of them who were still living, although one refused to speak because she had never revealed her Jewish ancestry after arriving in England during the war.
In a complex and fascinating approach, using archival footage, the Sharps memoirs, documents found in their records and interviews with a number of survivors the Sharps helped, including from Martha Sharps final rescue of a group of 27 children from southern France, the documentary portrays Nazi-controlled Europe through the Sharps eyes and the perspective of still-living people whom they helped escape when they were children.
After 17 Unitarian ministers turned down a request to go to Prague to provide assistance to refugees from Germany and the Sudetenland who had fled to Czechslovakia, the Sharps accepted.
They left behind two small children as they headed to Europe, arriving in the Czech city in February 1939.
The Germans invaded three weeks later, and the Sharps were active in the refugee underground until August, when they were warned the Gestapo was coming for them. After a few months back in the U.S., and against their first inclination, the Sharps returned to Europe, this time to southern France and Portugal.
They went to help people in need,Clements said. They knew more than 100,000 refugees were spending the winter in tents. The first time they went, they were rather naive. But the second time, they knew exactly what they were facing because they had seen the Nazis in action.
While the documentary presents a vivid picture of the horrors faced by those on the Nazi hit list, Clements hopes viewers take away another message.
Our main hope is that people will realize they can each make a difference, he said.
abutler@durangoherald.com
If you go
The Colorado premiere of Two Who Dared, the story of Waitstill and Martha Sharp and their work helping people escape Nazi-controlled Europe, will take place at 6 p.m. Friday at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Durango, 419 San Juan Drive, near Needham Elementary School.
Admission is free. Dr. Charlie Clements, the films co-executive producer, will introduce the film and lead a discussion afterward.
Clements also will speak about the Sharps during the UU Fellowships Sunday service at 10 a.m. April 21.
