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The next year, the Treaty of Versailles imposes harsh penalties on Germany after its defeat.
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Adolf Hitler becomes leader of the party, with a platform that called for the union of all German-speaking people, repudiation of the Treaty of Versailles, and the expulsion of German Jews from public life.
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Martha graduates from Hope High School and enters Pembroke College at Brown University. Waitstill graduates Phi Beta Kappa from Boston University and enters Harvard Law School.
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In Munich, Germany, Hitler and 3000 Nazi supports stage the “Beer Hall Putsch”, attempting to overthrow the Bavarian government. Hitler is sentenced to five years in prison, during which he writes his book Mein Kampf (“My Struggle”).
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Martha receives bachelor in philosophy from Pembroke; Waitstill his law degree from Harvard. Martha enters Northwestern University to study social work and is assigned to work at Hull House in Chicago. Waitstill is named head of the Department of Religious Education at the American Unitarian Association (AUA). He foregoes a career in law.
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Waitstill starts class work at Harvard Divinity School.
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Waitstill named minister of the Independent Congregational Church (Unitarian) of Meadville, PA at $2400 per year. He is ordained at the church on October 9th.
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Image: Bundesarchiv, Bild 137-049278 / Unknown / CC-BY-SA
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In the Munich Pact, British and French leaders agree that Germany can take the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia in exchange for a promise to end German territorial expansion in Europe.
American Unitarians, who have strong personal, religious, and historical ties to Czechoslovakia, are angry and fearful about this turn of events. -
Kristallnacht, or “the night of broken glass”: a series of attacks against Jews in Germany and Austria.
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Waitstill and Martha convene a meeting of their International Relations Club at Wellesley Hills. Topic: “The Rape of Czechoslovakia.”
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American Unitarian Association Vice President Everett Baker asks Waitstill and Martha to serve as Unitarian relief commissioners to Czechoslovakia.
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The Sharps, carrying about $6,000 in cash strapped to their bodies, plus a letter of introduction from U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull, sail for Europe
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After their arrival in Prague, Martha and Waitstill set up an office, meet officials, and begin their work to aid refugees.
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Einmarsch. The Nazis march into Prague. Martha and Waitstill burn their records in the Hotel Atlantic’s basement furnace. That night, Martha safely escorts “Mister X”, an unnamed refugee sought by the Nazis, to the British Embassy.
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Martha escorts a train carload of refugees across Germany to Vlissinggen, Holland, and onto the night boat to England.
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Martha arrives at their Prague offices to discover that the Germans have forcefully evicted American Relief. All their furniture is piled on the sidewalk in the snow. They resume work in a new space and continue their efforts.
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Martha is informed that she and Waitstill are about to be arrested by the Nazis. She tries to bring closure to their work and then quickly leaves Prague.
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The Sharps sail for New York from Cherbourg aboard the Queen Mary.
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The Sharps are two days at sea.
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American Unitarian Association President Frederick May Eliot announces in church that Waitstill and Martha are headed to France as the Unitarian Service Committee’s first commissioners.
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Waitstill in his farewell sermon to the congregation at Wellesley Hills urges FDR to declare war on Germany.
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The Sharps board a Pan Am Clipper airplane for Lisbon, Portugal at the recently-opened La Guardia terminal. Also aboard the seaplane is the mysterious “man from Nirosta,” who turns out to be a Nazi spy.
They arrive in Lisbon, where Malcolm Davis and many others advise that the greatest need in France is milk for the children. With the help of Ambassador Ame-LeRoy and his wife, Orlena Scoville and others, they assemble a six-ton boxcar load of Nestle milk and milk products to be shipped north. -
France and Germany sign Armistice agreement. France is divided into two regions, the German-controlled North and the nominally autonomous Vichy region in the South.
