Alice Herz

Alice Herz (1882 – March 16, 1965) was the first activist in the United States known to have immolated themselves in protest of the escalating Vietnam War, following the example of Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức who immolated himself in protest to the oppression of Buddhists under the South Vietnamese government. A longtime peace activist, she attempted self-immolation on March 16, 1965, in Detroit, Michigan, at the age of 82. A man and his two boys were driving by and saw her burning and put out the flames. She died of her wounds ten days later. According to Taylor Branch's "At Canaan's Edge" (2006), it was President Lyndon Baines Johnson's address to Congress in support of a Voting Rights Act that led her to believe the moment was propitious to protest the Vietnam War. The war continued for another ten years following her death.

A German of Jewish ancestry, Herz was a widow who left Germany with her daughter, Helga, in 1933, saying that she anticipated the arrival of Nazism long before it started. Alice and Helga Herz were living in France when Germany invaded in 1940. After spending time in an internment camp near the Spanish border, Alice and Helga eventually came to the United States in 1942. They settled in Detroit, where Helga became a librarian at the Detroit Public Library and Alice worked for some time as an adjunct instructor of German at Wayne State University. The pair petitioned for, but were denied, U.S. citizenship due to their refusal to vow to defend the nation by arms. Helga Herz later reapplied and was granted citizenship in 1954.

Herz wrote a last testament, which she distributed to several friends and fellow activists before her death. The testament specifically refers to her decision to follow the protest methods of the Buddhist Vietnamese monks and nuns, whose acts of self-immolation had received worldwide attention. Confiding to a friend before her death, Herz remarked that she had used all of the accepted protest methods available to activists--including marching, protesting, and writing countless articles and letters--and she wondered what else she could do. Evidently, Herz decided to make self-immolation her final act of protest. Japanese author and philosopher Shingo Shibata established the Alice Herz Peace Fund shortly after her death.

References

* Buckley, Thomas. "Man, 22, Immolates Himself In Antiwar Protest at U.N." New York Times 10 Nov. 1965
* Jones, David R. "Woman, 82, Sets Herself Afire In Street as Protest on Vietnam." New York Times 18 March 1965
* [http://www.dummies.com/WileyCDA/DummiesArticle/Speaking-Out-Against-the-Vietnam-War.id-3213.html Speaking Out Against the Vietnam War]
* Personal interview with Helga Herz, June 2008

See also

# Thích Quảng Đức (her model)
# Norman Morrison (her colleague)
# George Winne Jr. (her colleague)
# Florence Beaumont (her colleague)
# Roger Allen LaPorte (her colleague)
# Kathy Change (her follower)
# Elizabeth Shin (her follower)
# Malachi Ritscher (her follower)

External links

* [http://www.angelfire.com/nb/protest/amer.html Alice Herz, Roger LaPorte, George Winne]