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

Canadian Canadians () 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 their being ''C ...

journalist who travelled the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and reported about the

Holodomor The Holodomor, also known as the Ukrainian Famine, was a mass famine in Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Ukraine from 1932 to 1933 that killed millions of Ukrainians. The Holodomor was part of the wider Soviet famine of 1930–193 ...

. 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. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

to a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

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 (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some include s ...

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 (1917–1 ...

, and then took a job as a foreign correspondent for the London ''

Daily Express The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first ...

''. 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 wit ...

'' and the London ''Daily Express''. She travelled to the far north labour camps and travelled south to Soviet Georgia by car with two women from

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

. On the way, they encountered starving Ukrainian peasants in

Kharkiv Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.

. When Clyman arrived in

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი, ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), ( ka, ტფილისი, tr ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia ( ...

, 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 or Portuguese surname 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'' ...

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 amputees Canadian writers with disabilities 20th-century Canadian women writers 20th-century Canadian women journalists Exiles from the Soviet Union