Fierce Feministas: 2

The original fierce woman, my grandmother.   She literally walked across Germany during World War II with her husband, Walter, and two young children.  Part of the forced labor that worked in factories producing munitions. When one factory was bombed they were marched to another.  If you broke rank, you were shot.  When the Americans flew overheard, you were shot. They were, as one historian noted,"caught in the vise of history."  I researched this when I was producing a series on National Public Radio; Lost Voices (2002).  She wasn't a saint, but she was tough.  She kept rubber bands in a glass jar, saved buttons, plastic bags and would never throw out food.  Downstairs in her basement, she had a dozen boxes of detergent.  You never know.  The Nazis might come back.