Rhea Clyman (originally spelled Kleiman; July 4, 1904–1981) was a Polish-born

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

journalist who travelled the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

and reported about the

Holodomor The Holodomor ( uk, Голодомо́р, Holodomor, ; derived from uk, морити голодом, lit=to kill by starvation, translit=moryty holodom, label=none), also known as the Terror-Famine or the Great Famine, was a man-made famin ...

. She was famously expelled from the

in 1932.

Early life

Rhea Clyman was born on July 4, 1904, in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...

to a Jewish family. Her parents were Solomon and Anna Kleiman. In 1906 the family moved to Canada and settled in Toronto, Ontario. When Clyman was five or six, she was hit by a

streetcar A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport ...

and badly injured, requiring the amputation of one leg and many subsequent hospital visits. As her father had died, she left school early, working in a factory to help support her family.

Career

As a young woman, Clyman worked in New York and then moved to London. She worked as a researcher for ''New York Times'' reporter

Walter Duranty Walter Duranty (25 May 1884 – 3 October 1957) was an Anglo-American journalist who served as Moscow bureau chief of '' The New York Times'' for fourteen years (1922–1936) following the Bolshevik victory in the Russian Civil War (1918 ...

, and then took a job as a foreign correspondent for the London '' Daily Express''. In 1928, at 24, Clyman travelled to the USSR to report on Soviet reforms. However, she was exposed to the realities of the regime. She wrote for many newspapers, including the ''

Toronto Telegram ''The Toronto Evening Telegram'' was a conservative, broadsheet afternoon newspaper published in Toronto from 1876 to 1971. It had a reputation for supporting the Conservative Party at the federal and the provincial levels. The paper competed wi ...

'' and the London ''Daily Express''. She travelled to the far north labour camps and travelled south to

Soviet Georgia The Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic (Georgian SSR; ka, საქართველოს საბჭოთა სოციალისტური რესპუბლიკა, tr; russian: Грузинская Советская Соц� ...

by car with two women from

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,71 ...

. On the way, they encountered starving Ukrainian peasants in

Kharkiv Kharkiv ( uk, wikt:Харків, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine.Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million p ...

, Georgia, she was arrested on the charge of reporting false news about the USSR and soon deported. From 1933 to 1938, she worked in Nazi Germany, reporting for the London ''Daily Telegraph''. In 1938, she had to leave the country urgently because of growing reprisals against the Jews. The plane she was riding crashed while landing in Amsterdam; Clyman was injured but survived and recovered. From 1938 to 1941, she worked in Montreal as a correspondent for London ''Daily Express'', and then moved to New York, where she led a quiet life until she died in 1981. She never married or had children.

Memorials

Clyman was portrayed by actress

Beata Pozniak Beata or Beate is a female given name that occurs in several cultures and languages, including Italian, German, Polish, and Swedish, and which is derived from the Latin ''beatus'', meaning "blessed".''Behind the Name''"Given Name Beate" Retrie ...

in the 2019 feature film about Gareth Jones, '' Mr. Jones''. She is also the title character of the 2018 documentary ''Hunger for Truth: The Rhea Clyman Story''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clyman, Rhea 1904 births 1981 deaths Canadian newspaper journalists Polish emigrants to Canada Jewish Canadian journalists Canadian people of Polish-Jewish descent Journalists from Toronto Canadian emigrants to the United States 20th-century Canadian journalists Canadian women journalists Canadian amputees Canadian writers with disabilities 20th-century Canadian women writers