Review: The Woman Who Fought An Empire by Gregory J Wallance

Synopsis:

Though she lived only to twenty-seven, Sarah Aaronsohn led a remarkable life. The Woman Who Fought an Empire tells the improbable but true odyssey of a bold young woman--the daughter of Romanian-born Jewish settlers in Palestine--who became the daring leader of a Middle East spy ring. 

Following the outbreak of World War I, Sarah learned that her brother Aaron had formed Nili, an anti-Turkish spy ring, to aid the British in their war against the Ottomans. Sarah, who had witnessed the atrocities of the Armenian genocide by the Turks, believed that only the defeat of the Ottoman Empire could save the Palestinian Jews from a similar fate. Sarah joined Nili, eventually rising to become the organization's leader. Operating behind enemy lines, she and her spies furnished vital information to British intelligence in Cairo about the Turkish military forces until she was caught and tortured by the Turks in the fall of 1917. To protect her secrets, Sarah got hold of a gun and shot herself. 

What we know about both military and espionage events in the Middle East during WWI I strongly suspect comes mainly from the stories of the exploits of Lawrence of Arabia and what became known as the Great Arab Revolt. This chapter in the history of Palestine I think has been largely overlooked in general, though no doubt is more familiar to purists - and I include myself in the former, which was why I was drawn to this book in the first place.

It is easy to turn the spotlight onto Sarah as " ... the concept that a spy ring might be led by a woman was still beyond the Turks' thinking ..". Indeed if we compare to the later exploits in France during WWII, though active members, most of the spy rings / resistance cells were managed / led by men. And her death itself, both tragic and heroic, certainly draws one to her like a moth to the flame - it was alleged that one Turkish officer said “She is worth a hundred men.”.

Wallance's use of letters from Sarah, her family, friends and inner circle to punctuate her story is important in giving the reader access to these lives and also into the thoughts of those who were on the spot. As eye-witness accounts, they are an invaluable component not only of Sarah's story but of that of the Nili spy ring itself. I can only thank the author for providing a much needed list of the main characters upfront and not as an appendix. So much easier to get a grasp of who was who and how they were related to each other as the story progresses.

Equally important in the storytelling is events post-WWI - and the local Jewish populations' thoughts on this period. I was quietly surprised that even up to the creation of the State of Israel in the 1940s, there was still no official recognition and that the spies themselves were regarded as "reckless and irresponsible by much of the Jewish community of Palestine". Even Srodes in his book writes that the achivements of Nili had been whitewashed out of history by those ".. who did not want to share credit with her .." for the events leading to the foundation of the Jewish State, and that with the deaths of those involved, "the family’s legacy was easily manipulated". Rehabiliation of the spy ring only came about in the late 1960s - 1970s (during the wars between the Yasser Arafat's PLO and Israel) when Israel was at its nadir and the need for the mythical leader of the Jewish resistance was at its strongest.

Meticulously researched, Wallance brings to life the events of the time, the lives of Sarah and her family, the exploits of the Nili spies, and, of course, of Sarah herself. In doing so, Wallance reveals to us the reader, the real human element. Sarah saw horrible things being done but instead of quietly looking the other way and keeping her head down, she stepped forward and made a difference.

Sarah, in one of her final letters, writes: " .. I have a large role in the work here, and if we have to endanger ourselves, my dear one, I think not of it. The work is dear and holy to me ...."

further reading

Spies in Palestine: Love, Betrayal, and the Heroic Life of Sarah Aaronsohn by James Srodes

A Spy for Freedom: The Story of Sarah Aaronsohn by Ida Cowen and Irene Gunther

Return of the Spies - Yemima Hovov