[New York, December 7. Image via Getty]

NEW YORK - DECEMBER 07: Clarke Simmons (R) and Aaron Chabin (L), both of New York and both veterans of Pearl Harbor, stand with tourist Olivia Bennett, 7, of York, Pennsylvania after they laid a wreath in the harbor during a ceremony December 7, 2009 on the USS Intrepid in New York City. Olivia's father is a war-history buff and brings his daughter to various military sites around the country, including the USS Intrepid, which is now a museum docked on Manhattan's West Side. Veterans groups around the country hold ceremonies every year in December on the day that President Franklin Roosevelt predicted would 'live in infamy' and prompted America's entry into World War II. (Photo by Chris Hondros/Getty Images)

Freydis Sharland was a 21-year-old spitfire pilot ferrying planes between factories and the front lines. Emma Smith was a barge worker, moving cargo, who went on to write a best-selling memoir about her work. Margaret Pawley was a spy decoding German messages in Italy.

All of them, profiled at greater length in this article, had remarkable, bittersweet experiences that would have been unthinkable outside of war-time. We've had the advantage of growing up with mothers and grandmothers whose experiences were shaped by the War. It's sobering to realize that it's a generation that is dying, and their remarkable stories with them. We're a culture that, even as it increasingly values the contributions of women - and seems to have an unwavering interest in dramatic representations of World War II - is less engaged by the individual story when it's not packaged in costumes or given the importance of a PBS caption. And while not everyone, certainly in America, has stories of comparable drama, everyone does have stories. Let's hear them.

WW2: The Role Of Women In The Second World War [Telegraph]

[London, September 1. Image via Getty]

LONDON, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 01: Evacuee Margaret Taylor displays her name label before a Commemorative Service at St Paul's Cathedral on September 1, 2009 in London, England. Operation Pied Piper evacuated 1.5 million people, mostly children, on the 1st September 1939 to save the population from German bombing during World War Two. The children were moved to rural areas where they stayed with local families. (Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

[Prague, September 1. Image via Getty]

A Young girl dressed in period costume poses in front of the historical train named ''Winton train'' at Prague's Main Railway Station on September 1, 2009, on the 70th anniversary of the start of World War II. The Winton train is named after Sir Nicholas Winton who rescued 669 mostly Jewish-Czech children from their doomed fate in the Nazi death camps, prior to the outbreak of World War II in an operation known as the Czech Kindertransport. AFP PHOTO/MICHAL CIZEK (Photo credit should read MICHAL CIZEK/AFP/Getty Images)

Since when does Clairol advertise using illustrations of enemy aircrafts in the midst of being destroyed? Can you imagine the brand trying to do this in 2009? The copy reads: "There is no room in America for anything but the best."

The war effort hinged on hairpins.

Also, to help win the war, they had to stop making perm rollers. Sacrifices!

"Scoldy Lox" brand: "Help win the war by preventing wastage of hair pins!" Please note her sailor collar.

"A war can teach a girl a lot of things… " Like making do without manicure stuff. "You and I will be giving up our 'home front' tools for the man on the battle front… and we'll be doing it cheerfully, gladly, without grumbling."

A world war cannot stop a girl from getting married. Wartime brides! "The service bride moves fast and packs light, and her beauty program must be geared accordingly… You must show her that an easy-to care for hairstyle requires a short feather cut and a lovely permanent wave."

Honestly, I absolutely adore this hairstyle. Curls! Off the face! And flowers! And check out that no-fuss bouquet.

Two words: Victory cuts! Short, neat curls are obviously a winning formula. (Click "full size" to enlarge.)

The "tucked under" shortie looks almost like an origami project.

All of the "selections for summer nights" are extremely elegant… and extremely precise! The war will not be won with bedhead!

Should you dare to attempt and recreate some of these 'dos at home, instructions are provided. The text is really quite a treat: "Here is a banged feather bob that is sure to win the hearts of level-headed youngsters who know the secret of combining good looks and hard work, with no dire effect on either… The criss-crossed back is as gay as any young head could wish and it is formed so simply that it can easily be recombed. Sleek side wings are an effective foil for the fluffy bangs. For more frivolous moments, this style will lend itself particularly well to the addition of perky little bows or flower ornaments."

This is the Feather Halo, "just a little different from its feathery cousins."

Since our country is indeed at war, you must ask yourself: "Does Your Appearance Promote Morale?" (Click "full size" to enlarge.) Here's how this story begins: "You, a beautician in wartime, are telling your patrons that beauty is a duty today… and that good grooming gives confidence, increases efficiency and fosters a buoyant spirit. And right you are!" When it comes to your hair, check and see: "Is it smartly dressed… becoming… and short? Or does it straggle about your shoulders…?" Your bedraggled, snarled locks mean the terrorists have already won, people!

Earlier: Bangs, Curls, Swingers & Swirls: 1965 Modern Beauty Shop

[Manila, August 12. Image via Getty]

A Filipino woman, formerly forced by the Japanese Imperial Army to work as a 'comfort woman' during the Second World War, holds a placard during a protest in front of the Japanese embassy in Manila on August 12, 2009, to coincide with a global action calling for justice for all women victims of wartime sexual slavery. Former Filipina comfort women continue to demand that the Japanese government officially recognise as a war crime the systematic rape of women committed by its imperial army as they were forced to work in brothels during the Second World War. AFP PHOTO/TED ALJIBE (Photo credit should read TED ALJIBE/AFP/Getty Images)

[Mumbai, August 6. Image via Getty]

An Indian student, her face painted with peace messages, takes part in a rally to mark Hiroshima Day in Mumbai on August 6, 2009, to mourn victims of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. Peace rallies and memorial services the world over marked the world's first nuclear attack on Hiroshima- the moment 64 years ago when a single US bomb instantly killed more than 140,000 people and fatally injured tens of thousands of others with radiation or horrific burns. AFP PHOTO/Indranil MUKHERJEE (Photo credit should read INDRANIL MUKHERJEE/AFP/Getty Images)

The legacy of World War II was a painful one for much of France, and those women who'd become involved with German occupiers were treated with particular contempt. Those who'd fought the Germans bore resentment; those perhaps less proud of their own collaboration were eager to condemn them as scapegoats. Approximately 20,000 women's heads were publicly shaved as a proof of their perfidy - but this was less galling than the enduring proof provided by the children of these liasions.

As a result, as a piece in the Times tells us, many of these "children of the Huns" - it's estimated there were about 200,000 - were put in orphanages or given up at an early age for adoption. The motivations must have been varied; while such a child certainly made the mother's life harder, it's also true that growing up in the knowledge of their parenthood was not easy for the children, who faced mockery and shunning. But as a result, many of them, now in their 60s, have very little knowledge of their heritage, and are eager to discover it while there's still a chance that their fathers are alive. In recent years, a number of them have formed groups and obtained cooperation from the French and German governments in tracking down records. The French goverment has finally acknowledged this population, offering an oblique apology, while the German government has declared that they will be eligible for German citizenship.

That, however, depends on whether they can prove their paternity, and given the lack of records and the culture of secrecy - to say nothing of the fathers' probable ignorance of many of these offspring - concrete details are thin on the ground. While the New York Times profiles a few enfants de Boches eager to find out about their fathers, one can't help but wonder if some prefer to let the past lie, or have inherited a sense of shame about their antecedents. Some of those children who were adopted at an early age doubtless have no idea of their paternity, and as their mothers' generation dies off, the facts of their birth will become even murkier. We hope that those who wish them, get answers, and that their histories can at some point come to be seen as personal, rather than always overshadowed by cultural shame.

Tracing Roots Fostered By War, Severed By Shame [NY Times]

[Colleville-sur-Mer, France; June 5. Image via Getty]

A child walks at the American cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer on June 5, 2009. Preparations are underway for the upcoming D-Day celebrations to mark the 65th anniversary of the June 6, 1944 allied landings in France, then occupied by Nazi Germany. US President Barack Obama is to lead commemorations attended by thousands of Americans on June 6 at the ceremony above Omaha Beach, where more than 9,000 US troops fought and died in June 1944. AFP PHOTO / MARCEL MOCHET (Photo credit should read MARCEL MOCHET/AFP/Getty Images)

["Ljubelj South", Slovenia; June 5. Image via Getty]

A woman explores on June 5, 2009 the chamber of former World War II nazi concentration camp 'Ljubelj south' where the names of all nazi concentration camps were engraved, some 100 kilometers from Ljubljana. Slovenian President Danilo Turk and his Austrian counterpart Heinz Fischer visited the tunnel and the entrance to the 'Ljubelj south' World War II nazi concentration camp at Slovenian side of the border with Austria. Between March 1943 to May 1945 Ljubelj south in Slovenia and Ljubelj north in Austria were a branch of notorious WWII Mauthausen nazi concentration camps, from which thousands of political internees, the majority of whom were French, were transported to Ljubelj from there. AFP PHOTO/ HRVOJE POLAN (Photo credit should read HRVOJE POLAN/AFP/Getty Images)

[Colleville-Montgommery, England; June 5. Image via Getty]

A British student attends a ceremony with British veterans on June 5, 2009 in Colleville-Montgommery during a commemoration for the upcoming D-Day celebrations to mark the 65th anniversary of the June 6, 1944 allied landings in France, then occupied by Nazi Germany. US President Barack Obama is to lead commemorations attended by thousands of Americans on June 6 at the ceremony above Omaha Beach, where more than 9,000 US troops fought and died in June 1944. AFP PHOTO MYCHELE DANIAU (Photo credit should read MYCHELE DANIAU/AFP/Getty Images)

[Manila, May 13. Image via Getty]

Local women who say they were used as sexual slaves by Japanese soldiers during World War II, commonly referred to as 'comfort women', hold a rally in front of the Malacanang Presidential Palace in Manila on May 13, 2009. Women's groups claimed the Philippine government continues to deny justice to female victims of foreign military sexual abuse, citing the abuses by Japanese soldiers in World War II and more recent cases of alleged rape involving visiting US soldiers, temportarily in the Philippines under the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA). AFP PHOTO / JAY DIRECTO (Photo credit should read JAY DIRECTO/AFP/Getty Images)

[Minsk, May 9. Image via Getty]

A Belarussian WWII veteran (2-R) dances with a group of young women in downtown Minsk on May 9, 2009 during Victory Day celebrations commemorating the end of WWII. Belarus was heavily involved in the war as its soldiers served in the Soviet Red Army and many battles were fought on its territory. AFP PHOTO / VIKTOR DRACHEV (Photo credit should read VIKTOR DRACHEV/AFP/Getty Images)

Although in the past twenty years the world has become increasingly aware of the many Korean women - between 150,000 and 200,000 - forced into slavery by Japanese soldiers during World War II, their fight for acknowledgment - let alone reparation - is far from over. As an L.A. Times piece makes clear, It's a complex issue, because for decades many of the women, who were generally abducted or tricked into prostitution, regarded their enslavement as such a shame that they never spoke of it and, in some cases, took it to their graves. As a result, it's hard to know exactly how many were subjected to such treatment, or how many survive; an attempt to locate survivors in the 1990s found only 234, of whom 93 are still living.

Now in their eighties and nineties, eight of these "comfort women" live together in an idiosyncratic retirement community on the outskirts of Seoul, established as non-profit about fifteen years ago. Funded by philanthropists and Buddhist organizations, the House of Sharing, in addition to a museum of "Japanese Military Sexual Slavery," features "a full-time chef and nurse and volunteer caregivers. There are regular art classes, exercise sessions and trips to the doctor." This is a heartening nod to the respect accorded older generations; it's hard, although nice, to imagine a comparable facility here. House of Sharing also a lot of activism, since the residents, whatever their differences, are joined in a need for closure. The women and their sympathizers picket the Japanese Embassy weekly, seeking both reparations and a formal apology from the Japanese government - who, in 1993, acknowledged but did not answer for the Imperial army's practice - and pushing for more support from South Korea. Some have traveled as far as Washington to testify before congress, which has called for Japan to apologize (complex given the U.S.'s own history of sexual exploitation in Korea - albeit not one involving official recognition or forced recruitment.)

Time, as both activists and the victims themselves are aware, is running out. Ideally, reparation can be made while a maximum number of these women are still alive, and, almost as important, enough awareness can be brought to the issue in Korea that the history is destigmatized and more feel emboldened to come forward. Like any issue of sexual assault, it's a deeply complex one, and the desire to respect privacy and individual comfort wars with a very real need to see justice done. Because there are still conservative factions in Japan who deny evidence of these war crimes, it's more crucial than usual that victims come forward - and do so before it's too late, and there really is no living evidence of the kind of crime that's all too often forgotten.

.South Korea's Wartime Sex Slaves: Hoping For Closure At The End Of Their Lives [LA Times]

Earlier: South Korea, U.S. Military Accused Of Encouraging Prostitution

[Washington, D.C., April 21. Image via Getty]

A woman lights a candle under the names of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi concentration camp as people read the names of Jewish Holocaust victims at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington on April 21, 2009 to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day, which falls on the anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto uprising in 1943. Some six million Jews were killed by Nazi Germany during WWII. AFP PHOTO/Nicholas KAMM (Photo credit should read NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)

Although she saved almost twice as many people from the atrocities of the Holocaust as Oskar Schindler, - no slouch in the heroism department himself - Irena Sendler was until recently completely unknown. As a social worker in Poland, Sendler smuggled 2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw ghetto, and although she was tortured for three months - with Gestapo officers crushing her legs in a vice and smashing her bones with hammers - she refused to divulge their whereabouts. Having buried their names in jars, after the war Sendler used the information to help the children track down surviving relatives.

Under Communism, Sendler was persecuted and imprisoned for her affiliation with the "capitalist and bourgeois" exile government, and even with the anti-Nazi resistance groups, who were regarded as reactionary; later, as a result, her children were denied the right to study at Polish universities. In 1965, she was recognized by Israel as Righteous Among the Nations, but Sendler's story did not come to larger attention until 1999, when three Kansas ninth-graders, began researching her for a history project. Although Sendler remained modest until her death last year- giving much credit for her heroism to her compatriots in Zegota, the Polish Council to Aid the Jews - she was honored by the Pope in 2003, granted Order of the White Eagle, Poland's highest civilian decoration, and in 2007 inspired a movement to award the 97-year-old the Nobel Prize (it went to Al Gore.)

This Sunday, CBS will premiere The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler, starring Anna Paquin. While we can't help feeling such a woman deserves a feature film, we're eager to see it. Here's Paquin talking about the role on the Tavis Smiley Show on Wednesday:



'Irena Sendler': A Heroine for the Ages [Washington Post]

The Courageous Heart Of Irena Sendler [Variety]
Nobel Prize Is Sought for Polish Heroine [NY Sun]

Over time however, a deep friendship developed between the shy, aging artist and the young girl, reinvigorating his career and changing the direction of Vierny's life. In the 1940s, when Vierny was arrested for aiding several artists and intellectuals to flee the Nazis, her old friend Maillol hired a lawyer and sent her to stay with his friend Henri Matisse. She became a muse for Matisse, as well, and he encouraged her to pursue her interest in collecting art. Unlike many such relationships, Vierny was never romantically involved with her mentors, but their affection was profound: Vierny created the Musee Maillol, and at 89 still lives above it, amongst her portraits. [NPR]