Clare Hollingworth, reporter who broke news about start of World War II, dies at 105
In early 1939, peace activist Clare Hollingworth arrived on the Polish-German border to aid Jews and other refugees fleeing from the Sudetenland, newly annexed by Nazi Germany. On a brief return to her native England, 27-year-old Hollingworth who once professed to enjoy being in a war was hired as a part-time correspondent in Katowice, Poland, for the London Daily Telegraph.
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Ms. Hollingworth, who died Jan. 10 at 105, had driven into Germany to get a better sense of the impending danger. Without divulging the reason, she asked to borrow a diplomatic vehicle from her ex-lover, the British consul in Katowice, knowing the Union Jack on its hood would get her across the heavily restricted border.
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So when I got back I said, Thank you for lending me your car. And he said, Where did you go, old girl? So I said, I went into Germany. He said, Stop being funny. And I said, Whats more, I got a very good story: The tanks are already lined up for invasion of Poland. He went upstairs and sent a top secret message to the Foreign Office.
Ms. Hollingworth called the Telegraph correspondent in Warsaw, and he filed a front-page story published on Aug. 29, 1939, under the headline 1,000 tanks massed on Polish border. Ten divisions reported ready for swift stroke. Three days later, she awoke to the sounds of German planes and Panzer tanks invading Poland. After notifying her editors, she called the British Embassy in Warsaw and declared, Its begun.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/clare-hollingworth-reporter-who-broke-news-about-start-of-world-war-ii-dies-at-105/2017/01/10/6aa9ca72-d73f-11e6-b8b2-cb5164beba6b_story.html?utm_term=.8e19bad9b063