#womensauxiliary

[fictionaddictionnf]

Jenni our contact volunteer from the Women’s Auxiliary at the G.N.G.H. was in picking up our overflow book donation. All funds raised by the Auxiliary goes towards hospital equipment in our community. #gngh #womensauxiliary #hospital #niagarafalls #ontario #ontariocanada (at Fiction Addiction Books & Games)

[sablesouls]

In September of 1939, when France declared war on Germany in response to Germany’s invasion of Poland, Baker was recruited by the Deuxième Bureau —the French military intelligence agency; she spent World War II obtaining information for the bureau as an “honorable correspondent.” When the war began, Baker left for Les Milandes, the French country estate she had bought in 1936. But even there she was in danger. Baker moved to Morocco four years later. In North Africa she experienced health problems that kept her from performing. In 1942, her health renewed, she went on a tour of the region, performing for French, British, and American soldiers. From there, she toured the Middle East, where she did benefit performances for the resistance. For her efforts on behalf of France, Baker was made a sublieutenant in the Women’s Auxiliary of the French Air Force. Paris was liberated in August of 1944, and Baker returned to France. In 1946, she was awarded the Rosette de la Resistance and was made a chevalier of the Legion of Honor. The following year Baker married Jo Bouillon, a French orchestra leader. The two spent the years immediately following the war restoring Les Milandes. “When the work was all finished,” Rose wrote in Jazz Cleopatra, “there would be two hotels, three restaurants, a miniature golf course, a wax museum of scenes from . . . Baker’s life, stables, a patisserie, a foie gras factory, a gas station, and a post office.” Baker expected proceeds from tourism to help fund Les Milandes; the rest of the money would come from her performances. She went to the United States again in 1948 but was no more of a success then than she had been in 1936. This time, however, she decided to take a stronger stand on racism: She began to insist on a nondiscrimination clause in her contracts—and on integrated audiences at her performances. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) declared May 20, 1951, Josephine Baker Day in honor of her efforts to fight racism. #josephinebaker #sablesouls #france #paris #germany #activist #naacp #womensauxiliary