Anna Szelagowska (née Paradowska) born Warsaw, Poland July 26, 1879 (d. 1962). Polish peace leader; banker; feminist. National Senator from Camp of National Unity, 1938. Chair of Polish WILPF; led Society of Friends of the League of Nations, 1920; on two committees of League of Nations, 1931. Presented thousands of Polish women’s petitions to World Disarmament Conference Geneva, 1932. (photo pl.wiki)
Velma Šarić born Vlasenica, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Yugoslavia April 8, 1979. Bosnian peacebuilder. Founding President, Post-Conflict Research Center, Sarajevo; founding editor, Balkan Diskurs, 2014.
“At the start of the genocide in Bosnia in 1992, I was 12 years old. I spent the next 3 years under siege and constant shelling until the end of the war in 1995. The experience of the war and its aftermath affected me so deeply that I decided to make it my mission to help my country recover from the legacies of war in any way that I could.” (Gareth Davies interview, May 27, 2015; photo Wikipedia)
Yekaterina “Katya” Samutsevich born Moscow, Russia August 9, 1982. Computer engineer; member of Pussy Riot collective. One of three Pussy Riot protesters arrested for “hooliganism” in anti-Putin demonstration at Moscow cathedral, 2011; detained seven months.
"It's a fight, it's an ongoing fight. . . Just because there was a court case doesn't mean that we're going to stop and shut our mouths. We have a lot of things to say. We're going to continue to work, continue to do what we do." (Leslie Stahl interview, Mar. 24, 2013; photo 99getsmart)
Edith Södergren born St. Petersburg, Russia April 4, 1892 (d. 1923). Finnish-Swedish poet.
On the end of World War I: “A magic spell came over us and left us with the feeling that anything was possible at any time. The future glowed within us and made us impatient; its seductive and terrifying crown would one day be ours. We were unknown and poor and lived in a remote corner of the world, and yet we felt like princes. Our treasure was wrapped in the hope that hovered over a devastated world like the hands of angels and pointed to a new humanity.” (to Hagar Olsson, in Birgitta Svanberg, With Responsibility For All of Humanity)
Opposed punitive treaty of Versailles: “Germany’s misfortune causes me such pain. Why does nobody in Finland protest against the peace terms? If I could write an appeal to help collect protest signatures I’d do it. . . That business with the Germans gives me no peace. I’ve written an article: Shall we look on in silence while a whole nation is hammered into chains?” (to Hagar Olsson, in Marlene Broemer, War and Revolution, p. 55; photo Wikipedia)
Katharina Schultze born Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany June 20, 1985. German Green Party leader; co-founded PEACE (Peace in Europe and Asia through Global Citizenship Education); promoted peace, cosmopolitan, pro-Europe, humane refugee policy.
“People no longer want fear, aggression, confrontation.” (Tages Anzeiger, Oct. 9, 2018; photo wikipedia)
Anna Šabatová born Brno, Czechoslovakia June 26, 1951. Peace activist. Arrested and sentenced to 25 months in prison for organizing leafleting of Parliamentary elections, 1971-73; founded VONS (Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Persecuted), 1978. Awarded UN Human Rights Prize for signing Charter 77 based on nonviolent protest, 1998.
"Today people know again that there are things worth suffering for, and that the things that are worth suffering for are what make life worth living." (Aug. 19, 2008, Radio Free Europe; photo rferl.org)
Ginetta Sagan (née Teresa Moroni) born San Colombano al Lambro, Milan, Italy June 1, 1925 (d. 2000). Human rights advocate and peace activist. Following the death of her anti-fascist activist parents, joined Giustizia e Liberta (“Justice and Liberty”), underground Italian resistance movement, 1943. Imprisoned and tortured by Mussolini's Black Brigade, 1945. Aided survivors of Nagasaki bombing, 1961. Led campaign against Greek military junta, 1967. Played instrumental role in growth of Amnesty International USA; founded first West Coast chapter, Palo Alto, 1969, and 75 more local chapters, 1971-74. Co-founded Amnesty Urgent Action Network, 1971; co-founded Amnesty's Campaign for Abolition of Torture, 1973. Investigated Vietnamese reeducation camp prisoners, 1979. Established Aurora Foundation on human rights violations in Poland and Vietnam, 1981. Aided Polish Solidarity Movement, 1981-88.
"Silence in the face of injustice is complicity with the oppressor." (photo intlawgrrls.com)
Jelena Šantić (née Jovanović) born Belgrade, Serbia, Yugoslavia July 18, 1944 (d. 2000). Prima ballerina and pacifist. Co-founded Group 484, welcoming Croat refugees. Berlin's Santic Peace Park dedicated to her memory, 2003. Received Pax Christi International Award, 1996.
“Humanitarian activism is the other side of me. My life has always been an intersection of intuition and rationality, stability and instability, peace and upheaval. Then, at one moment I felt a strong desire to help people who suffered because of the war. My humanitarian trait in a way relates to art. They both connect different worlds.” (Grupa, p. 484; photo audioifotoarchif)
Bosilijka Schedlich born Split, Yugoslavia April 12, 1948. Croatian-German post-conflict healer. Founded Southeast European Cultural Center to help thousands to recover from trauma of Balkan war, Berlin, 1991; Nobel Prize nominee, 2005.
"The trauma of war fills all our cells with fear; healing allows a return to peace, to trust, as a human being." (quote and photo World People's Blog)
Rose Schneiderman born Saven, Russian Poland April 6, 1882 (d. 1979). Labor organizer and social reformer; Socialist and feminist; led labor delegation to Versailles Conference 1919; organized first international trade union women's meeting, D.C.; led "Uprising of 20,000" 1909; established International Ladies Garment Union 1913, International Congress of Working Women.
"What the woman who labors wants is the right to live, not simply exist. . . The worker must have bread, but she must have roses, too." (1912, Cleveland; photo amazingwomeninhistory.com)
Inge Scholl born Forchtenberg, Bavaria, Germany August 11, 1917 (d. 1998). Member of White Rose nonviolent resistance to Hitler; arrested but released; postwar leader opposing Pershing nuclear missiles; arrested for protest at Mutlangen 1985.
"The meaning and goal of passive resistance is to topple National Socialism, and in this struggle we must not recoil from our course, any action, whatever its nature." (White Rose leaflet, 1943; photo Spartacus Educational)
Sophie Scholl born Forchtenberg, Bavaria May 9, 1921 (executed 1943). Leader of White Rose nonviolent resistance to Hitler.
"I did the best that I could do for my nation. I therefore do not regret my conduct and will bear the consequences that result from my conduct." (Final statement to Nazi court when asked about supporting the troops on the Eastern front; Aretz portrait for 20 pf. stamp, Wikipedia)
Rosika Schwimmer born Budapest September 11, 1877 (d. 1948). Hungarian internationalist and pacifist, feminist and suffragist editor, lecturer; first woman diplomat 1918; founded pacifist Hungarian Feminist Assn. 1904; WILPF founding member 1915; led Women’s Peace Party 1914; cofounder Campaign for World Government 1937; World Peace Prize 1937; nominated for Nobel Prize 1947.
"I am an uncompromising pacifist. . . I have no sense of nationalism, only a cosmic consciousness of belonging to the human family." (cited by prosecution in Supreme Court's denial of US citizenship, US v. Schwimmer, 1929; photo Wikipedia)
Irena Sendler (née Krzyżanowska) born Otwock, Poland February 15, 1910 (d. 2008). Catholic humanitarian social worker whose efforts helped save 2,500 Jewish children. Arrested in 1943, tortured and sentenced to death, but escaped. Honored by Yad Vashem as member of Polish Righteous Among the Nations, 1965.
Giuliana Sgrena born Masera, Piedmont, Italy December 20, 1948. Italian war correspondent in Algeria, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan; pacifist opposed Iraq War; kidnapped Baghdad 2005; released, but shot and wounded by US soldiers; Stuttgart Peace Prize 2005.
“For my whole life, I have fought and written on behalf of the weakest." (BBC, March 5, 2005; photo Wikipedia)
Oksana Shachko born Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine January 31, 1987. Ukrainian artist. Co-founded FEMEN, 2008; took part in first topless protest, Kiev, 2009; arrested in Simferpol, Crimea for topless protest.
"STOP PUTIN'S WAR" (2014; photo imgacarde.com)
Alexandra Shevchenko born Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine April 24, 1986. Co-founded FEMEN ("Feminism’s shock troops"), 2008. Arrested five times for bare-breasted protests in Ukraine, Belarus, France, Italy, Germany. Confronted Vladimir Putin and Angela Merkel, Hamburg, 2013; arrested for topless protest, Crimea, 2014.
"It was non-violent women protesting against the most dangerous dictator in the world." (The Guardian, April 12, 2013)
Mollie Steimer born Dunaevtsky, Russia November 21, 1897 (d. 1980). Anarchist; opposed US involvement in World War I; sentenced to 15 years imprisonment; deported, 1921, by Russia and Vichy.
"While one nation defies another—in most cases considers the others as competitive—we, the workers of the world, shall stretch out our hands towards each other with brotherly love." (Oct. 1918, P. Avrich in Lucy Parsons Project; photo c. 1918 Wiki pd)
Rose Pastor Stokes born Augustów, Poland July 18, 1879 (d. 1933). American Socialist labor organizer, poet and journalist; opposed World War I; sentenced to 10 years in prison for opposition to draft.
"I am for the people, while the government is for the profiteers." (March 20, 1919 letter to Kansas City Star; photo Jewish Woman's Archive)
Bertha von Suttner (née Kinsky) born Prague June 9, 1843 (d. 1914). Author of antiwar Lay Down Your Arms, 1889; first woman to win Nobel Peace Prize, 1905. Founded Austrian Peace Society, 1891; leader at first Hague Peace Conference, 1899.
"Lay down your arms. Say it to many, to many." (last words; photo nobelprize.org)
Women in Peace
is dedicated to highlighting the achievements of extraordinary, peacemaking women from around the world.
