Irish AFSC volunteer remembered
There have been calls for Mary Elmes to be commemorated in Cork
An Irish newspaper, The Southern Star, recently featured a letter calling on Cork City Council to remember a local woman who worked with the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) in the second world war.
The letter was written by Mary Sullivan of Cork and is about Mary Elmes, who worked in France with the AFSC during the war. She helped established hostels and safe houses for Jewish children, which led to her being imprisoned by the Gestapo.
Mary Elmes lived until 2002. She is the only Irish person to feature on the ‘Righteous Among Nations’ roll of Yad Vadshem, Israel’s official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. She was nominated for the roll by psychology professor Ronald Friend. He is now living in the United States and was one of the children Mary saved, along with his brother.
