Rhea Clyman
Rhea Clyman(originally spelledKleiman;[1]July 4, 1904 – 1981) was a Polish-bornCanadianjournalist[2]who travelled theUSSRand reported about theHolodomor.She was famously expelled from theUSSRin 1932.[3]
Early life
[edit]Rhea Clyman was born on July 4, 1904, inPolandto a Jewish family. Her parents were Solomon and Anna Kleiman. In 1906 the family moved to Canada and settled in Toronto, Ontario.[1]When Clyman was five or six, she was hit by astreetcarand badly injured, requiring the amputation of one leg and many subsequent hospital visits.[4][5]As her father had died, she left school early, working in a factory to help support her family.[citation needed]
Career
[edit]As a young woman, Clyman worked in New York and then moved to London.[5]She worked as a researcher forNew York TimesreporterWalter Duranty,[6]and then took a job as a foreign correspondent for the LondonDaily Express.[1]
In 1928, at 24, Clyman travelled to the USSR to report on Soviet reforms. However, she was exposed to the realities of the regime. She wrote for many newspapers, including theToronto Telegramand the LondonDaily Express.[7][8]She travelled to the far north labour camps and travelled south toSoviet Georgiaby car with two women fromAtlanta.On the way, they encountered starving Ukrainian peasants inKharkiv.When Clyman arrived inTbilisi,Georgia, she was arrested on the charge of reporting false news about the USSR and soon deported.[9]
From 1933 to 1938, she worked in Nazi Germany, reporting for the LondonDaily Telegraph.[5]In 1938, she had to leave the country urgently because of growing reprisals against the Jews. The plane she was riding crashed while landing in Amsterdam; Clyman was injured but survived and recovered.[4]
From 1938 to 1941, she worked in Montreal as a correspondent for LondonDaily Express,[5]and then moved to New York, where she led a quiet life until she died in 1981.[7][5]She never married or had children.
Memorials
[edit]Clyman was portrayed by actressBeata Pozniakin the 2019 feature film aboutGareth Jones,Mr. Jones.
She is also the title character of the 2018 documentaryHunger for Truth: The Rhea Clyman Story.
References
[edit]- ^abcMoslem, Omar (November 30, 2019)."Meet the Jewish Canadian reporter who interviewed Nazi leaders and blazed a trail for women journalists".Toronto Star.RetrievedJanuary 30,2021.
- ^"New Chapters in the Ukrainian-Jewish Relationship Explored at Canada's Limmud FSU (Part 1) – Rhea Clyman - UJE - Ukrainian Jewish Encounter".UJE - Ukrainian Jewish Encounter.April 19, 2017.RetrievedNovember 26,2017.
- ^Applebaum, Anne(2017).Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine.Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.ISBN9780385538862.Retrieved28 December2017.
- ^abMasis, Julie (June 18, 2017)."How a female Jewish journalist alerted the world to Ukraine's silent starvation".The Times of Israel.RetrievedJanuary 30,2021.
- ^abcdeMcmaster, Geoff (November 22, 2019)."Historian reveals story of Canadian journalist who chronicled horrors of Holodomor".Folio.RetrievedJanuary 30,2021.
- ^Bonner, Brian (June 28, 2018)."'Hunger for Truth: The Rhea Clyman Story' tells how brave Canadian journalist wrote about Holodomor ".Kyiv Post.RetrievedJanuary 30,2021.
- ^abGladstone, Bill (December 29, 2015)."Writer witnessed the horrors of prewar Soviet Union".The Canadian Jewish News.RetrievedNovember 26,2017.
- ^Castle, Colin (2014).Rufus: The Life of the Canadian Journalist Who Interviewed Hitler.BookBaby.ISBN9781926991382.Retrieved28 December2017.
- ^Prokopenko, Maria (25 May 2017)."Unstoppable hunger for truth".The Day.Retrieved28 December2017.
- 1904 births
- 1981 deaths
- Canadian newspaper journalists
- Polish emigrants to Canada
- Jewish Canadian journalists
- Canadian people of Polish-Jewish descent
- Journalists from Toronto
- Canadian emigrants to the United States
- 20th-century Canadian journalists
- Canadian women journalists
- Canadian amputees
- Canadian writers with disabilities
- 20th-century Canadian women writers