ANNE SPOERRY, East African Flying Doctor :
Anne Spoerry was born on 13 May 1918 in Cannes to a wealthy family with roots in Fischenthal and Maennendorf, in the canton of Zurich, Switzerland, and a father born in Mulhouse. It was a happy childhood for her, her brother François, and her two sisters.
Anne soon decided to go into medicine, entered the Faculty of Science in 1937, and shared a flat with her brother in Paris until the bad news from Munich.
It is in a villa called Pardigon, built by her father on the Bay of Cavalière (between St. Tropez and Toulon), that Anne's life changes at the end of the summer of 1939. A family friend, English and former pilot of the R.A.F in 14-18, runs from the beach: "It's war". A few months later François calls his sister in Paris; under the incredible German power he is 50 kilometres away from her and is preparing to cross the Loire: "It's over, beware, our country no longer exists". Anne feels very uneasy when, through the smoke that covers Paris, she sees the tricolour flag still flying over the Invalides. The French are running on the roads with their little cardboard suitcases.
Life goes on under the occupation and, while François goes down to Marseille to finish his architectural studies, Anne works in a hospital in Paris. With the help of her "ausweiz" and her bicycle she crossed the demarcation line in February 1941 at Montceau Les Mines to visit her parents in the free zone. Nine months later she tried again for the Christmas holidays but was caught and spent 15 days in prison in Chalon-sur-Saône.
In November 1942, Anne is in her fourth year of medical school and receives a message from François to travel south again. She crossed the line at St. Michel de Montaigne, near Bordeaux. Having spent Christmas in La Bastide and then travelled to Aix-en-Provence, where her father had bought the Hôtel de Cabres, she discovered that her brother was firmly involved in the resistance.
"We have a request from London. Can you open a new network in Paris ?"
Back home, Anne plunges into finding safe houses to hide people, obtaining false papers, making stamps and ration cards. And, of course, crossing the demarcation line again. She hides an Englishman, Roger, in her flat. Shortly afterwards, Marsac, the head of the network, falls. Anne manages to warn her brother who leaves for Annecy to warn Odette (later arrested and deported to Ravensbruk). The Germans invade Vichy France and, as movement is easier, Anne's father arrives in Paris, followed shortly afterwards by a message explaining François' arrest. The attempt to flee to Switzerland fails, because Anne finds the Gestapo at the hospital and is thrown into a Traction Avant. She spends nine months in Fresnes Prison, where she receives parcels and newspapers in German from her parents, but also from her brother who is in the same prison.
For the last twenty years Anne will not talk to you about this period of her life. It is humiliation followed by misfortune. "Here, take this book if you are interested, it was like this. For the ten years that I have been flying with her in East Africa, she has given me, here and there, a few details.
In January 1944, she was deported to Germany, with Ravensbruck as her final destination. Her brother was sent to Dachau and Neue Breme.
Anne survives being called up at 4 a.m. in the freezing cold and forced labour in factories. Block 26. Then Block 13. As a doctor, she helps her companions. She quickly loses her strength. In May, she left for her first "transport" to Zwodau. Anne has almost no strength left but she is still the group doctor. July: back to Ravensbruck where she is in Block 10, under Carmen Maury, taking care of tuberculosis cases.
24/12/44 : there is a Christmas tree, with garlands, in the middle of the camp...
Then the rumour comes... and there they are, in front of the doors. The Red Cross...
The nightmare is half over. She discovers that François, too, has made it.
The events of the last few years have forced Anne Spoerry to leave this ravaged Europe, and all the suffering it has brought.
Henri de Monfreid's stories are great to read. A friend of his father's (Anto Besse) is a merchant on the Red Sea. And that's it! It is the call of Africa. Ethiopia in particular. But Emperor Haile Selassie and his government do not look kindly on a single woman as a doctor. Anne bases herself in Yemen and becomes the women's doctor at the hospital in Aden. She tries to cross over to Ethiopia, so she agrees to accompany Somali pilgrims crossing for the "Haj".
Here you can get an idea of the strength of character of Anne who finds herself alone, a woman, just 30 years old, on a boat with 6000 Somali men who attack each other with knives for days. Anne sews these guys up... "It was hard work! But quite interesting !"
In 1949 she accepted an invitation and visited Kenya. Love at first sight. She moved to the British protectorate in 1950. Again there were difficulties because a woman alone was not the colonial authorities' idea of a post in the bush.
Anne bought a large farm in Ol Kalou, between Lake Naivasha and Thomson Falls. There she grows pyrethrum. Of course, medicine is always present in her small practice on the farm. Anne is a farmer - doctor.
Kenyan nationalism is on the rise and these are the "Mau Mau" years. Anne, with the 38 special revolver on her belt at all times, assists her neighbours and makes many night trips through the curfew in her Peugeot 203 to deal with all sorts of things.
In 1964, Kenya became independent and had to sell her farm. Anne is depressed, but hears the call of Jomo Kenyatta, the first president of the new Kenya, who invites the whites to stay. Anne buys a small 25-acre farm in Subukia, north of Nakuru.
Depression is not really Spoerry's style. Anne, at the age of 46, decides to learn to fly. In this new valley, an instructor comes regularly from Nairobi in a Piper Pacer and several white farmers join her to learn.
