Judy Barden
Judy Barden[1] (1911-1996) was a journalist born in London, United Kingdom. She worked as a war correspondent during World War II, starting in 1941 for the New York Sun bureau in England, and later writing for the North American Newspaper Alliance.[2][3] Barden arrived in France in 1943 by going along with the first hand-picked Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) troops into Europe, and later she followed the allied Seventh Army through parts of Germany. At the end of the war, she was with the allied Third Army and went to Berlin in October 1945.
Together with Dixie Tighe, Barden lobbied for permission to cover the 1944 invasion of Normandy by parachute jumping with airborne troops.[4] This opportunity had been offered to male war correspondents, most of whom declined. Barden and Tighe were turned down, being told that the jolt of the opening parachute could damage their reproductive organs.
Following Germany's defeat, Barden wrote multiple articles warning that the occupying troops' morals were at risk from sexual advances from beautiful, sexually available, German women, although she acknowledged that the German women were living under circumstances of almost unimaginable deprivation at the time.[5][6][7][8]
Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson honored war correspondents, including Barden, at an event in Washington, on November 23, 1946.[2]
On October 9, 1948 in Berlin, Barden married David M. Nichol (Chicago Daily News), an American journalist who had worked as a war correspondent in some of the same European locations. She used a variety of names during her lifetime, including Judy Fossey Barden, Constance Marjorie Nichol, and Constance M. Nichol[1].
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1
The U.S. social security administration shows the following names used by Judy Barden over time:
- in Oct 1967: Name listed as JUDY FOSSEY BARDEN
- in Nov 1976: Name listed as CONSTANCE MARJORIE NICHOL
- in Oct 1996: Name listed as CONSTANCE M NICHOL
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Task of Occupation Declared in Peril – Patterson at Dinner Honoring War Correspondents Says More Appropriations Are Needed, The New York Times, 1946-11-23, p. 28. Retrieved on 2020-11-26.
- ↑ Dateline: GERMANY from the "Information Bulletin", a newsletter from 1950 held in the Univ. of Wisconsin library. Page 26 has a photograph of Judy Barden and her husband David M. Nichol.
- ↑ Natasha Simpson. The "Woman's Angle" and Beyond: Allied Women War Reporters during the Second World War, University of Victoria, 2020-04-01, pp. 18, 73. Retrieved on 2020-11-24. “However, when American women reporters Betty Gaskill and Dixie Tighe and Briton Judy Barden requested to go, Eisenhower’s press aide informed them that 'the sharp jolt of the exploding parachute canopy’ could damage their Template:’Template:’delicate female apparatus,Template:’Template:’ causing vaginal bleeding.'”
- ↑ Sabine Lee (2011). "A Forgotten Legacy of the Second World War: GI children in post-war Britain and Germany". Contemporary European History 20 (2): 157–181. DOI:10.1017/S096077731100004X. Retrieved on 2020-11-26. Research Blogging. “Journalist Judy Barden portrayed German women as sexual predators. With low-cut necklines and even lower morals, they were willing to trade 'candy bars and cigarettes for their souls.'”
- ↑ Ann Elizabeth Pfau (2008). Miss Yourlovin: GIs, Gender and Domesticity During World War II. Columbia University Press. Retrieved on 2020-11-26. “Acknowledging the effects of fear and hunger, Barden nevertheless insisted that under similar circumstances American and British women would have behaved differently.”
- ↑ Judy Barden. "The Good (Looking) Germans", Newsweek magazine, 1945-05-28.
- ↑ Judy Barden. Candy Bar Romance — Women of Germany, This Is Germany. A Report on Post War Germany by 21 Newspaper Correspondents. Retrieved on 2020-11-26.