Fortunately for Vera Brittain, Hitler also had it in for pacifists. News that she was in the National Socialist’s infamous “Black Book” of prominent citizens to be immediately detained on the event of a successful German occupation provided her a lot of cover.
It is important to remember that Brittain came by her pacifism honestly, witnessing the horrors of the WWI. As a V.A.D. nurse, Brittain will see her generation decimated by war, including all those nearest to her in James Kent’s adaptation of her enduring memoir, “Testament of Youth,” which opens this Friday in New York.
With name like hers, Vera Brittain sounds like the perfect spokesperson for King and Country propaganda. Instead she would become a tireless campaigner for pacifism, feminism, and the failed League of Nations.
However, Brittain started on the same page as her contemporaries. In fact, it was she who interceded on behalf of her brother Edward to convince their father to allow his enlistment. She will soon bitterly regret it, but at the time she thought she had to return the favor. After all, Edward had helped convince Mr. Brittain to allow her to study at Oxford, at a time when it was considered rather counter-productive for a socially presentable young woman.
