In Full Flight: A Story of Africa and Atonement

by John Heminway

The remarkable story of one woman's search for a new life in Africa in the wake of World War II--a life that sparked a heroic career, but also hid a secret past.

Dr. Anne Spoerry treated hundreds of thousands of people across rural Kenya over the span of fifty years. A member of the renowned Flying Doctors Service, the French-born Spoerry learned how to fly a plane at the age of forty-five and earned herself the cherished nickname, "Mama Daktari"--"Mother Doctor"--from the people of Kenya. Yet few knew what drove her from post-World War II Europe to Africa. Now, in the first comprehensive account of her life, Dr. Spoerry's revered selflessness gives way to a past marked by rebellion, submission, and personal decisions that earned her another nickname--this one sinister--working as a "doctor" in a Nazi concentration camp.
In Full Flight explores the question of whether it is possible to rewrite one's troubled past simply by doing good in the present. Informed by Spoerry's own journals, a trove of previously untapped files, and numerous interviews with those who knew her in Europe or Africa, John Heminway takes readers on a remarkable journey across a haunting African landscape and into a dramatic life punctuated by both courage and weakness and driven by a powerful need to atone.

Genres: Nonfiction, Africa, History, Biography, Memoir, Book Club, War

336 pages, Hardcover

First published February 13, 2018

Reviews

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Catching up on a few reviews I’ve missed writing! This was a Goodreads give away. I don’t typically read this genre but I quickly found myself excited and eager for this story. The writing was beautiful and heart felt. It brought color to the history of this courageous woman who was born decades ahead of her time!

[Wendy Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have mixed feelings about this book. First of all, I have to say that I really enjoyed it. The writer is talented and the book is well-researched and well-written. I am heavily biased toward books about Kenya; this is driven by pure sentimentality and homesickness (although it was only my home for a couple of years). I love reading about very specific places I have been and having the descriptions jog my own memories. There is no question the author did a great job, and I would recommend this book to anyone wanting a compulsively readable book.

HOWEVER, this is yet another story of yet another white settler. There is a deep theme of atonement throughout the book, but even then, most of the ingredients for white settler stories are here: Rich European/American girl/boy needs place to grow up? Check. Feels 'the pull of Africa' and purchases farm or other major tract of land? Check. Employs army of Kenyans? Check. Often found lounging on the patio marveling at birds and drinking G&Ts? Check. Jaunts to the coast for short breaks and back to Europe for longer ones? Check.

I point to these features not out of malice: I lived that life, and the people I spent my time with lived that life too. It is not only a lovely way to live in so many ways, but it is seductively easy to get in that groove and stay in it. Many, many people do exactly that.

Nonetheless, it is important (to me) to balance these stories of Kenya with the Kenyan voices we do not hear about as much, that do not attract the same profile, that reflect the full and extraordinary diversity of Kenya. And that is what I will do - seek out these other stories. I suspect they will make me feel the most homesick of all.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy cow...
I can't wait for this book to be released in February because it WILL be a book club selection. And we'd better plan a slumber party for the discussion because it'll take longer than 3 hours to chew this one satisfactorily.

The big question is this: if a person under unimaginable circumstances is fatally harmful to others who are helpless, but then spends the next 50 years saving and enriching lives of equally hopeless people, is it atonement? Does it balance out? Do horrifically bad choices in one chapter of life render the subsequent years of decency and humanitarian work null and void?

Brilliantly written, John Heminway not only knew Anne Spoerry personally, but also took years of interviews, research, reading journals, visiting places of significance to the story...her story is told in a voice that is not unkind, but doesn't make excuses. It's incredibly balanced and leaves the reader with no obvious conclusions. My husband got ahold of the ARC while I was finishing another, then hounded me until I finished THIS book so that we could discuss it. He's not a big reader, but finished this book in a day and a half. It is impossible to walk away from. And once read, it begs to be shared and discussed over a couple glasses of wine.

I think this is the best book I've read all year, and that's saying something because it's also the 100th book I read this year. It's not a nice story, but it's an amazing story. I'll be thinking of this for a long, long time...

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written story of atrocities. The author frames this as a redemption story, but I'm not so sure, reading between the lines, it seems like the subject remained a horrible person throughout her life, maybe a little influenced by her "mentor" in lying and manipulating people. She did what she wanted, because she wanted to, including her "good deeds" - which were not clearly so good for the recipients.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Full Flight, by John Heminway, tells the story of Anne Spoerry, the flying doctor of Africa. I knew nothing of Anne’s history so this was an interesting read for me. Anne is both admirable for all the work she did in Africa, but at the same time difficult to like due to her personality. Spoerry is definitely a woman on a mission to set things right in Africa, following her time in the Ravensbruck concentration camp. The number of lives she saves and care she provides across Kenya is staggering. The author’s dive into her time with Carmen Mory both seems to draw attention away from Spoerry as well as provide explanation for what could be the driving force behind her life choices. While told like a story, it does have a tendency to jump between time periods, leaving you to recall where the story left off in a different time period. Heminway clearly has a tremendous amount of respect for Spoerry and makes an effort of telling an unvarnished story of her life and leaving it to the reader to form their own opinions about her attempts at redemption.

[Anu Khosla · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story of Dr. Anne Spoerry is fascinating and painful, but the treatment fell disappointingly short. This book could have used some heavy editing, starting (but not ending) with the narrative structure. Over the course of the book the prose was often redundant and imprecise. The author also switched back and forth between timelines in a gratuitous and tedious way. I also found the colonial lens on the African sections of the story to be curious — the author chided Anne’s colonialist tendencies, but often used exoticizing language to describe Africa himself. He also often did that horrible thing of referring to the continent as a monolith. If you’re okay getting through drawn out and poorly written history it is a story worth reading about, but I can’t say much positive about the writing itself.

[Kay Dillard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book intrigued by the title alluding to two of my enduring interests: flying and Africa. Having now read John Heminway's treatment of the life of Anne Spoerry, doctor, member of the French Resistance, survivor of Ravensbruk, "healer of Africa," I am impressed with his account of this mysterious woman's demons and passions. A reporter who became her friend, Heminway does not hesitate to explore the depths of the dark secrets Spoerry took to her grave, all the while preserving his admiration of her energy and spirit. What will one do to survive? And, having survived, how will one go forward? This book leaves much to think about.

[Martha Fiorentini · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although, I found Anne Spoerry's 50 years of being a flying doctor interesting and impressive, I couldn't get past her activities during WWII when she was in the concentration camp.
So, this rating is really regarding the subject of the book rather than the author's style. He certainly pursued many lines of inquiry.
Reading about more European exploitation of people of color was also distressing. And this happened all over the world by diverse European powers and not unlike what we Americans did to the Indigenous people.

[M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting story and a good read!

[Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

Engaging, haunting biography of Anne Spoerry, a medically trained French national who, at the time of her death in 1999, had flown hundreds of thousands of miles across eastern Africa over a 50-year period; treated well over half a million patients; and inoculated hundreds of thousands of people. Revered by African natives to whom she provided care (the Kenyan people called her "Mama Daktari"--"Mother Doctor") Spoerry was imperious, stern and incredibly driven. She also was a spoiled colonialist with a soft side, living comfortably between flights in post-World War Two Africa, with respites in Europe.

Spoerry learned how to fly a plane at the age of forty-five and became an early, storied member of the renowned Flying Doctors Service. Yet she harbored many secrets as a result of her imprisonment -- a sometimes nightmarish, sometimes charitable stay -- in a German concentration camp during World War Two.

Anne Spoerry lived an incredible life, as a privileged youth, World War Two concentration camp survivor, fleeing war refugee, renowned medical healer, and contradiction-filled European colonialist land owner residing in east Africa. This book also is an examination of the question of whether one can atone for one’s past by performing good deeds in the present. It will leave you pondering that question and Spoerry’s life, for a very long time after reading the book.

[Sarah Durnell · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me awhile to get into this one but in the end I appreciated the complexities of Anne Spoerry. Haunted by her actions in a concentration camp, she started over in Africa and was able to save the lives and impact the underserved and poor

[Melanie Virtue · Rating 5 out of 5]

I lived in Kenya in the latter years of Anne Spoerry's life, and so was familiar with her larger-than-life persona as a tireless flying doctor. Hints of her dark past were always there too, but seemingly without concrete evidence.

As such I found this book extremely well researched and written. (and read by the author in the audio book version).

Its a story about a women who flees to Kenya to escape her past and reinvent herself there. And asks the question, how much atonement is enough? This book should be read by anyone who grapples with the meaning of good and evil.

For me it was unputdownable.

[H · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book explores the idea of atonement. At what point does good erase bad? When can you say you have done enough? Fascinating look into the life of a woman who did her best to answer this question.

[Ervin Vice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Close to the end, Anne Spoerry imparted the following words of advice to her adopted daughter Rosemary: “Don’t be afraid of anyone, and learn to argue”. One wonders if Spoerry wished she had followed that advice during her time at Ravensbruck. Then again, had she done so, all that followed - the years in Kenya saving lives - would not have come about, and what would have become of the generations of the sick and suffering who depended so much on her? This an enthralling and beautifully written story not just of one person’s lifelong act of redemption, but of the heights and depths of the human spirit. It’s also a fascinating story of Kenya and its people.

[Marijean · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could not put this book down. Whether you hated the main character or felt she had redeemed herself, it's a great read and exceptionally well written.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

"In Full Flight" profiles Dr. Anne Spoerry, 1918-1999, known as "Mama Daktari" in Kenya, where she served as a Flying Doctor, piloting her "Zulu Tango" to remote places, caring for thousands of people, vaccinating children, becoming the one person most responsible for eradicating smallpox in Kenya.
Author John Heminway, who got to know the French-born Spoerry well, portrays her as brusque, short-tempered, a woman of action more than words, a woman who sought to downplay or hide her many acts of charity.
She was also loathe to speak about her time in Ravensbruck, the Nazi concentration camp for women, where she was confined until liberation after being arrested for her participation in the French Resistance. Through hundreds of interviews, document searches and court records, Heminway finds dark secrets from Spoerry's time there, although not all of the dots get connected. The darkness centers around the time when she served alongside a prisoner named Carmen Mory in the prison's Block 10, where the mentally ill were held. Post-war, Mory was executed for war crimes as a result of her actions there. Spoerry is depicted as an "accomplice," and she may well have been. Post-war, she was banned from serving as a doctor in France and might have faced more of an accounting in Switzerland had she not been spirited away to Africa.
The subtitle, "A story of Africa and atonement" reflects Heminway's view that Spoerry served in Africa as a personal penance for her actions in Ravensbruck. It is only speculation, though reasonable speculation, that Spoerry saw it that way.
The amount of research that went into this work is impressive. The narrative is frustrating to read. It jumps around in a disorganized way, with dark hints about Spoerry's past frequently dropped before the point is reached. And when the point is reached, it's not quite as conclusive as one would hope.
It feels as if we're being invited to judge Spoerry, and I'd rather not. In real life, her judgment was largely left in the hands of the Eternal Judge, and I think it's better that it was.

[Sheri · Rating 3 out of 5]

To only know "Dr." Anne Spoerry after WWII would be very misleading. Anne grew up in a privileged family in France, but also spent time in Switzerland. Prior to WWII she had decided to study to become a doctor, but that was interrupted when WWII came to France. She assisted with the French resistance, but was arrested and eventually ended up in Ravensbruck.

Maybe it was out of fear of dying or an immense desire to survive at any cost, but a very dark side of Anne came to life. At her hands and those of her supposed lover Carmen Mory many women prisoners were abused, tortured, killed, or left to die.

After WWII and the liberation of the concentration camps Carmen Mory was tried and sentenced to death. Anne was tried once and remained free, but when additional information witnesses came to light where she would have more likely than not also been sentenced to death she was able to escape. As she came from a family with money they were able to provide her an escape from trial, to finish her medical schooling and eventual escape to Africa.

She remained in Africa with the exception of some brief trips home for the remainder of her life. Though she did much good for the people of Africa the reader has to decide what her true motives were. Was she trying to make peace with her past or was this "new" Anne really from her heart.

I enjoyed this book and would recommend it.

[Barb · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second book in a row I picked up not realizing it was a book about WWII. Hard to read about this ugly part of history. This is a true story about a woman who attempts to atone for the sins she committed in a German concentration camp by saving thousands of African lives over a 50 year career as an African bush doctor.

[Susan Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting look at Anne Spoerry, a French/Swiss “ flying” doctor in Africa for decades, but hid a troubling past in Ravensbruk, where testimony showed she betrayed fellow inmates with horrible treatment and even murder. (Library)

[Liralen · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Heminway first conceived the idea of writing a book about Anne Spoerry's life, he thought he knew the full story: she was a hero, full stop. A French-Swiss doctor who had been imprisoned in Ravensbrück for her work in the Resistance during WWII, she devoted decades to working as a flying doctor in Kenya, treating thousands upon thousands of patients in remote areas. That she was uncharacteristically closed-mouthed about her time in Ravensbrück Heminway put down to trauma.

But that wasn't, as it turned out, the full story.

Because Spoerry did all of those things: she worked in the Resistance; she survived a concentration camp; she treated an untold number of patients and saved an untold number of lies. And she also, in Ravensbrück, fell in with a privileged prisoner, gained power and privilege of her own and used it to terrible effect. Spoerry managed to largely bury this past in Kenya—to reinvent herself—but it wasn't a secret, per se; she'd been tried for war crimes in Europe and semi-unofficially banned from France for her role in the atrocities at Ravensbrück.

So In Full Flight becomes in part a tribute to Spoerry's accomplishments and in part a quandary: what to do with the life of somebody who did things that most of us can barely dream of—on both ends of the moral scale? Is it possible to atone for terrible acts, and if so, is that what Spoerry was doing in Kenya?

Heminway holds back details of Spoerry's time in Ravensbrück until midway through the book, perhaps to avoid prejudicing the reader too much against her. (It's hard to come back from accusations of torture and murder.) But he doesn't try to brush over those details, or to blame them all on Carmen Mory, who influenced Spoerry during her time at Ravensbrück; rather, he seeks to understand how one person can be capable of doing both such great and such terrible things.

Heminway ultimately concludes—in what I think is the weakness of the book—that Spoerry's work in Kenya did serve as her atonement, that she did indeed find redemption. I would argue that the truth is far more complicated: that redemption might or might not have been possible, but that Heminway is not in a position to say whether or not it was achieved (nor am I), because he comes to it as an outsider. Far more interesting are the unanswerable questions of what is forgivable when one is desperate and how many of us would crack under the same pressure and did Spoerry even have redemption in mind, and if not, does that matter and how do we decide whether good outweighs bad.

Spoerry never told her story—not the full one. She ran from her past and then buried it as deep as she could, raging at anyone who innocently questioned her silence on her time at Ravensbrück. It's impossible to know, exactly how she remembered her role in later years and how she viewed her work in Kenya in relation to it. Guilt, shame, fear of exposure? Something else? In the months before her death, she began and then abandoned a manuscript about the camp, leading one to wonder how honest she might have wished to be. Heminway sought out some of her Ravensbrück contemporaries, who decades later struggled to reconcile Spoerry's reformed image with the woman they had known in Germany, and maybe that push-pull is as accurate a portrait as is possible.

[Angie Reisetter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heminway's book gave me the remarkable experience of rooting for the subject of a biography even as the author berates her. There are balanced biographies of complicated people, and there are way too simple biographies written by fans of their subjects. But Heminway clearly feels deeply betrayed, in a very personal way, by the secret that Anne Spoerry managed to keep from him and most of the rest of the world. He describes himself as her friend -- a characterization that is almost laughable as he describes this intensely private woman and her selective relationships -- and his mistaken assumption through decades that she was hiding suffering rather than wrongdoing at a concentration camp during WWII. Most of the book is not, in fact, about her 50 years in Kenya, flying her plane to remote villages and medically treating the sick and wounded. It is mostly a detailed account of the extensive research he did to uncover the truth of her role in Ravensbrück, the background, the context. He gives an almost impossibly detailed account of 3 months of her life there under the influence of another prisoner, with whom she appeared to be infatuated. The times he does describe in Kenya consist mostly of him following her around, listening to her stories (a "distraction", in his evaluation, and he does not share many of these stories she told with us), inevitably leading up to his bringing the concentration camp up and her clamming up. By the last interview he describes with her, following the pattern to a tee, I rolled my eyes at him.

So what are we to make of this remarkable book, which did not at all convince me of the author's point of view? The book begins and ends with Anne's funeral, at which many people of very different backgrounds hail her. He focuses on her declining health, her horrifying missteps in WWII, her uselessness running with the country club set in her early days in Kenya. He's out to take her down, and despite all his efforts, I found her delightful. I had not heard of Anne Spoerry before, and she was not a saint, but a complicated human being who decided not to show some aspects of her personality to journalists (she seems bent on appearing hard and professional to him) and to others in her life.

I think one problem with my experience of this book is that Heminway was so very familiar with Spoerry's outsized heroic reputation in Kenya that he sought to provide a counterweight to it. But I was unfamiliar with her before reading the book, and am not aware of the entire context he's pushing back against, so the effort came off as a bit ridiculous to me, as if I were watching a one-sided boxing match.

I'm sure this book will engender quite a bit of discussion. I do wish it was written with a bit more even hand, by someone who was not so inexplicably personally invested. I recommend it on the sheer power of the story and subject matter.

I got a copy to review from First to Read.

[Sally · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book about Anne Spoerry, a French woman who spent most of her life providing medical care to small villages and remote areas in Africa, was a pretty tough read for me. The book is well researched, perhaps a bit dense and slow going in parts, but with a life story as complicated as Anne Spoerry’s the author has done his work in dotting his i’s and crossing his t’s.

Spoerry started providing medical care in Kenya in the late 1940’s, early 1950’s after leaving Europe. She grew her practice, traveling to remote areas and eventually, in her mid-40’s, learned to fly and joined the Flying Doctor Service to travel to underserved areas. By all accounts she was well respected among her peers and called “Mother Doctor” by her patients. She actively raised funds and personally gave money to support medical services to remote areas. The author even shares that Spoerry supported members of her staff in paying for education for their children.

However, Spoerry’s story is complicated, her path to Africa may have been more an escape and her work perhaps an act of atonement. In France Spoerry was captured by the Nazi’s while she and her older brother were active in the resistance and she was held in a concentration camp until the near end of the war. In the camp Spoerry aligned herself with a woman who was later executed for war crimes, murder among them, and it appears Spoerry was complicent in these acts. It seems clear, based on the evidence the author gathered, that if Spoerry had not left Europe she would have been tried for war crimes.

As Anne Spoerry’s story unfolded it became harder to feel the same sense of awe for the young woman who adventured on her own to a new continent, the middle-aged woman who learned to fly a single engine plane, the older woman who quietly gave money to others - this woman had a long, rich, interesting and well-lived life and through it all carried an enormous secret.

This was a very interesting book that left me with so many questions. Was she trying to atone for her cruel acts? Was she living so boldly because she felt she had little to lose? How did she keep her secret so long?

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book about a french woman during WWII who started out well with the French resistance at the beginning of the war. When she was caught and shipped to the Ravensbruck concentration camp camp under the influence of another woman who held captive, physically, mentally and emotionally. She disgraced herself in this camp with her poor treatment of the other prisoners. When this woman was transferred out she switched housing groups she ministered much to the prisoners of the camp. Her service here was what saved her from the gallows as many remembered her service and helped to negate her earlier defection. When she returned to France she finished her studies to be a doctor and immediately left for the middle east. After a few years she landed in Kenya where she spent the next 50 years providing medical service to the people of the country and in the surrounding area. She learned to fly and was know as the Flying Daktari (doctor). As the title of the book suggests she worked non-stop in order to find atonement for what she did in Ravensbruck. When she died in 1999 at the age of 80 her funeral was attended by thousands of Africans, some who traveled for days to get there. There are still some that continue to look for her plane and can't imagine she is gone. It is hard for one to find atonement for the things she did at Ravensbruck but she tried hard. It would have been better if she sought forgiveness and atonement through the Lord Jesus Christ but He was not in her cross-hairs and she attempted to find it on her own. This is a good book to read on vacation or a trip and can be read in a few days.

[Yenta Knows · Rating 4 out of 5]

A page turner that is sure to generate plenty of spirited discussion at the Hadassah book club.

The key question, which the author does not address explicitly, is this: did Anne Spoerry's many years of good works in Africa sufficiently atone for her heinous actions in a concentration camp?

Philosophers and religious figures and others have tried to answer this type of question. I wish the author had summarized some of those answers and given us some guidance on how to make that calculation.

One part of the calculation would be to estimate just how much good she did. How good of a doctor was she? She never did complete medical school or a residency or become licensed. The author reports other doctors praising her diagnostic abilities, but what about the observation that she used her operating knife as a screwdriver?

It seemed to me that this violation was a sort of penny ante rebellion. A rebellion that could kill her trusting patient. I understand that in a resource-poor environment you make do, but the author presents this as her standard procedure. Surely she could afford a proper screwdriver as well as a scalpel.

Another bit of data that weighs against Anne was that she continued to fly her plane long after she was a danger to others and her self. This argues that her motivation was self aggrandizement.

You can tell that I did not much admire Anne. You are right. But the thousands who mourned her passing would dismiss my concerns as the nitpicking of a privileged westerner.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a hard book for me to read--and so I read it in clumps, rather than straight through. I am not a stranger to hard books dealing with the horrors that humans afflict on one another, but I couldn't take this book all in one sitting. This book deals with very complex ideas: good vs evil, atonement through good deeds and actions, personal survival vs societal justice, justice vs mercy etc., etc.. It's very heavy stuff. And we can all think we know how we will react and respond in a given situation, but until we are actually there, it's only personal speculation. So while I believe pretty strongly I would never do what Anne did, I really can't say for sure, so who am I to judge her. Part of my difficulty is that I don't like Anne much as an person. She is not a "warm fuzzy" in anyway and I she's just not someone I would really like to be friends or even involved with. I felt most of her life was self-serving, and her "my way or the highway" attitude really grated. Truth and integrity are important to me, and Anne isn't a poster child for either. Of course, that is countered by the thousands of lives she no doubt saved and the good she did for many in need. Just a hard, hard read. It is certainly an interesting and a book worth reading. But, for me, after reading of all the good deeds she accomplished after her war experiences, I am still left feeling a little hollow.

[Carolyn Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

On February 2nd 1999, when Dr. Anne Spoerry died in Nairobi, Kenya, there was nationwide mourning. Known as Mama Daktari, Anne had lived in Kenya for 50 years and flown for Flying Doctors for 30 in which time she had, according to conservative estimates calculated by the organization's co-founder, singlehandedly performed the work of a hospital - flying her own plane, setting her own schedule and caring for no fewer than 1.2 million patients.
John Heminway, himself an admirer of Dr. Spoerry, set out to write the biography of a remarkable woman: born in France in 1918 to wealthy parents, determined to become a medical doctor, a member of the French Resistance, betrayed and sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp, after the war a selfless and dedicated doctor. But in doing so he discovered that her passion to serve the people of Kenya was fueled by a need to atone for unspeakable acts committed by her during her time in the camp, which she steadfastly refused to talk about.
John Heminway is an award-winning author and his investigative thoroughness of this remarkable story makes for a fascinating read.

[Holly Barker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This extraordinary nonfiction story reads like a thriller, moving back and forth between Dr Anne Spoerry's life in Africa and her earlier years in Europe. We are first told about her feats or heroism in Africa, bringing medical care to people over nearly 50 years who would otherwise likely have had none. Then, we learn of her background in Europe and what occurred while she was imprisoned in Ravenbruck concentration camp, suggesting the possibility of her Africa years as representing redemption and penance. This book is so well crafted, I was riveted to the page, wanting to know what had happened to get Anne to the life I'd already learned she had. It brings up many questions and levels of understanding about people, including the complexity of human beings and the possibility of being pushed into actions out of desperation. This book clearly shows that none of us is just one thing and judging others by one aspect loses the greater story. I am left unsettled by this book but thought it was fantastic.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a remarkable biography of Dr. Anne Spoerry who was revered for her devotion to the health of rural Kenyans from 1950 until shortly before her death in 1998. She learned to fly at the age of 45 in 1963 and joined The Flying Doctor Service treating tens of thousands of patients in the most remote parts of Kenya. However, very few were aware of the secret that forced her into exile in East Africa less than two years after her release from Ravensbrük concentration camp by the Swedish Red Cross in 1946 and one year after she was arrested and charged in Switzerland for crimes against humanity. It is impossible to condone or forgive the horrible acts she committed while in Ravensbrük, but the book forces us to ask ourselves what we would have done under the same circumstances. And then I can’t help but admit that she may have done more good for the public health of East Africa than any other single person. Is that sufficient atonement for the sins of her war years? I don’t know. It’s a fascinating moral dilemma and makes for a great read.

[John Benson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This biography of Anne Spoerry, a pilot and doctor with the East African Flying Doctor Service for more than 50 years begins with her triumphant funeral in 1999 but then circles back to an earlier life that she always tried to keep secret. John Heminway felt that he knew her fairly well in her later years as he interviewed her about her work as a Flying Doctor for several articles, but when he would try probe about her World War II years in Occupied France and being a prisoner at the Ravensbruck Concentration Camp for Women, she would totally clam up. He found that while at the camp as a prisoner, she partially served as a doctor and she along with another prisoner tortured and even killed other prisoners. She was lauded for her work in remote communities through out Kenya in her years flying but this was a totally different woman. Heminway explores his own friendship with her, the good and bad of her years in Kenya, and what she actually hid about her European past. It is quite a fascinating story and leads one to question which of these people was the real her.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, what a story! Heminway does an ace job setting out the life of his friend, Dr. Anne Spoerry, heroine of the African Flying Doctors for fifty years -and oh, by the way, a convicted war criminal who murdered hundreds of women in Ravensbruck concentration camp during WW2. Judge for yourself - did Spoerry run away and escape punishment? Or did she impose her own harsh sentence?
I like what Teddy Roosevelt says on the subject, quoted in the book:
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions."