VU Research Portal
Survivor, Agitator
Geerlings, A.J.M.
2020
document version
Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record
Link to publication in VU Research Portal
citation for published version (APA)
Geerlings, A. J. M. (2020). Survivor, Agitator: Rosey E. Pool and the Transatlantic Century.
General rights
Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain
• You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ?
Take down policy
If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim.
E-mail address:
vuresearchportal.ub@vu.nl
7
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 13
Historiography 14
Theoretical concepts and definitions 16
Sources 19
Digital tools 22
Chapter overview 24
CHAPTER 1: AMSTERDAM A ‘VAGUE JEWISH ANCESTRY.’
GROWING UP IN AMSTERDAM. 27
From Girls Scouts to the Socialist Youth 33
Among the ‘in-crowd’ of future socialist leaders 39
International comradery 42
Solidarity of a loner 48
CHAPTER 2: BERLIN
JEWISH, LESBIAN, REVOLUTIONARY SOCIALIST.
RADICALIZATION IN NAZI BERLIN. 51
Political radicalization 56
Anti-fascist activism across borders 58
A peak out of the closet 60
‘Who of us dares that!!’ 64
A Jewish woman in Nazi Berlin 66
Mass movements, individual decisions 69
CHAPTER 3: WESTERBORK
‘A LITTLE BIT OF LUCK AND A BIT OF PLUCK.’
ESCAPING THE HOLOCAUST. 73
The ‘race madness’ spreads 76
Observing Anne Frank 79
Forging papers and rescuing children 81
In the lion’s den 84
8
A not-so-great escape 89
A literature snob in hiding 98
REAL resistance and women’s work 103
CHAPTER 4: AMSTERDAM ‘WHO’D BE INTERESTED?’
OBESITY AND TRAUMA IN POST HOLOCAUST AMSTERDAM. 107
A ‘consciously living Jewess’ on the run from herself 112
A transatlantic Black-Jewish alliance 114
I, too, am America 116
A heavy burden 119
The thin line between passion and obsession 124
CHAPTER 5: LONDON
‘23A PARADISE,’ A BLACK ATLANTIC SALON.
STIMULATING AFRICAN AMERICAN POETRY FROM LONDON. 127
Black and Unknown Bards 134
‘Everyone knows Rosey’ 142
Spider in a Black Atlantic web 149
CHAPTER 6: HILVERSUM
THE ‘RACE QUESTION’ ON DUTCH TELEVISION.
OR: HOW TO LEARN DUTCH IN FIVE STEPS. 153
‘We were both out of our minds’ 157
Audrey Hepburn 162
An intimate dinner with W.E.B. Du Bois 164
High expectations 167
Black emancipation and white innocence 173
CHAPTER 7: THE DEEP SOUTH
‘ANNE FRANK’S TEACHER’ IN THE USA.
1959-1960 LECTURE TOUR (EXTENDED). 177
Up North 180
Going South 186
Media circus 195
CHAPTER 8: MISSISSIPPI
SHADOWS OF THE HOLOCAUST OVER MISSISSIPPI.
9
Ernst Borinski’s ‘stigma management’ 201
Creative writing as ‘group therapy’ 206
Mississippi or Nazi-occupied Europe? 210
‘She cannot stop now’ 212
Participating in CORE passive resistance classes 215
Confronting her own past 218
CHAPTER 9: ALABAMA
MULTIDIRECTIONAL SILENCES IN ROCKET CITY, USA.
TEACHING AT ALABAMA A&M COLLEGE. 221
‘Bootsie’ 223
Rembrandt and Claude McKay 226
Segregation and isolation 230
‘Nazi scientists’ in Alabama 232
Silences and gaps 235
CHAPTER 10: LAGOS & DAKAR BEING FRIENDS WITH LANGSTON.
A ‘VERY WHITE’ WOMAN AND THE END OF THE SIXTIES. 239
Lagos, Nigeria 244
Between A-list and blacklist 249
Dakar, Senegal 251
The curtain falls 255
CONCLUSIONS 259
Survivor, agitator 260
Contact zones and comfort zones 262
A profound impact on a local scale 263
A versatile stimulator 265
EPILOGUE PURSUING GHOSTS 269
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 272
ENDNOTES 277
SOURCES 345
Justification sources 345
Archives 348
10
Digitized sources 354
Periodicals 355
Bibliography 356
ABOUT ROSEY E. POOL 379
List of publications 379
Selection of poems 388
Her private library 394
ABBREVIATIONS 422
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 424
ENGLISH SUMMARY 430
NEDERLANDSE SAMENVATTING 432
