Interview of Helen Schwarz on her service in the 
U.S. Army Nurse Corps during WWI


Interviewer:	You are?

Helen Schwarz:	Helen B. Schwarz.

Interviewer:	And when you went into service you were Helen…

Helen Schwarz:	Schwarz.  Brennan.

Interviewer:	Helen Brennan.  

Helen Schwarz:	Yeah.

Interviewer:	From Chicago.

Helen Schwarz:	Right.  

Interviewer:	[00.17] You went into, uh, the army?

Helen Schwarz:	Mm-hm.  

Interviewer:	[00:20] Right from nursing training or did you work?

Helen Schwarz:	No, I was with the visiting nurses around Chicago.

Interviewer:	[00:27] And then what did you do?  When you went into service, where’d you go?

Helen Schwarz:	[Inaudible 00.30] Camp Gordon first and then overseas.

Interviewer:	[00:35] Where’s Camp Gordon?

Helen Schwarz:	Georgia.

Interviewer:	Georgia.  Oh, the same [inaudible 00:39].  [00:41] And where, how long did it take you to get overseas?

Helen Schwarz:	Oh, I don’t know, several months.  

Interviewer:	[00:46] How did you go?

Helen Schwarz:	[Inaudible 00:47].  How do we usually go?

Interviewer:	Went by boat?

Helen Schwarz:	By boat evidently.

Interviewer:	[00:54] Do you remember the name of it?

Helen Schwarz:	No.

Interviewer:	[00:56] Do you remember anything about the voyage?

Helen Schwarz:	Oh, it was uneventful I think.  

Interviewer:	No storms and no…

Helen Schwarz:	Oh, I think when we were first, first day or so we were out they thought they saw a ship, you know, another ship.

Interviewer:	[01:13] A submarine?

Helen Schwarz:	That’s what they thought.  Yeah.  I didn’t see it but they said they did.

Interviewer:	[01:17] How big a ship was it?

Helen Schwarz:	Oh, I can’t remember that.  That’s been a long time ago.

Interviewer:	Well that’s true.  Sometimes you, there are certain things you never forget.  

Helen Schwarz:	Just an ordinary ship.

Interviewer:	[01:27] What unit were you with?

Helen Schwarz:	[Inaudible 01:33] 14.  

Interviewer:	[01:36} How, do you remember how many other women there were approximately?  Big number?  Small number?

Helen Schwarz:	Small.  Medium I imagine.  

Interviewer:	[01:47] And then where did you go in Europe?

Helen Schwarz:	Um, that’s a good question.  

Interviewer:	[01:56] Did you go to France?

Helen Schwarz:	[Inaudible 01:57] France.  

Interviewer:	[02:00] Um, did you travel around or did you set up hospital and stayed put?

Helen Schwarz:	No, we had, it was a base hospital.  

Interviewer:	[02:09} Um, why did you go in service?

Helen Schwarz:	Patriotic reasons I guess and everybody else went in.

Interviewer:	[02:16] Are you glad you did?

Helen Schwarz:	Sure.  [Inaudible 02:18].

Interviewer:	[02:19] How long, uh, were you over there?

Helen Schwarz:	Oh, I don’t know.  Over a year.  

Interviewer:	Oh.  [02:26] Did you, uh, have recently injured people or did they come to you first?

Helen Schwarz:	Mostly they did.  Come to our hospital.

Interviewer:	[02:40] Do you remember any particular patients or incidents?

Helen Schwarz:	[Inaudible 02:44].

Interviewer:	[02:47] Where you paid?

Helen Schwarz:	Yeah.  I think we got $75 a month I think.

Interviewer:	$75 a month?

Helen Schwarz:	Yeah.  

Interviewer:	[02:56] You went in, uh, what time of the year?  I see it says 1918 you went in.

Helen Schwarz:	I don’t remember what time of the year.

Interviewer:	You don’t.  [03:08] What did you do specifically?

Helen Schwarz:	Just general nursing.

Interviewer:	General nursing.  [03:13] Where, how did you live?  Where did you live?

Helen Schwarz:	We had barracks.

Interviewer:	Oh, did you?  [03:17] Were you ever in tents?

Helen Schwarz:	Oh yeah. We were in tents too.  But we had barracks at the later part of the year.

Interviewer:	[03:23] Reasonably comfortable?

Helen Schwarz:	Yeah.  Didn’t think about being comfortable.

Interviewer:	[03:29] What, um, uniform did you wear?

Helen Schwarz:	Blue.

Interviewer:	Blue.  [03:34] Long skirt or short?

Helen Schwarz:	Well they were long.  When I look at them now they look long.  [Chuckle]

Interviewer:	[03:40] Was it hot or…?

Helen Schwarz:	I don’t remember being particularly hot.  

Interviewer:	[03:45] Do you remember, were you near [inaudible 03:46]?

Helen Schwarz:	We were near Bordeaux.

Interviewer:	Oh.  [03:53] How do you think it compared with the later service?

Helen Schwarz:	I think the later service had it easier than we did.  

Interviewer:	[04:01] How many hours did you work a day?

Helen Schwarz:	We worked 7 to 7 at night.  I don’t know in the daytime I think we had 2 hours off in the afternoon or sometime off in the afternoon.  

Interviewer:	[04:11] Did you have 3 meals a day or 2 like some of us did?

Helen Schwarz:	I think we had 3.  I don’t remember having just 2.  

Interviewer:	[04:21] Did, how were you treated?  Uh, were they thrilled to see women?

Helen Schwarz:	I think so.  They were happy to see us.  

Interviewer:	[04:30] Were you well-treated by the military?

Helen Schwarz:	Yes.  

Interviewer:	[04:36] What did you, uh, hear about people who went to Siberia?

Helen Schwarz:	It was cold up there.

Interviewee:	[04:42] Would you rather have gone there?  Chuckle.

Helen Schwarz:	No.  [Laughter]

Interviewer:	[04:47] Was there any such thing as benefits afterwards when you got out like, uh, a GI Bill or anything?

Helen Schwarz:	No.

Interviewer:	[04:56] Did you meet your husband over there?

Helen Schwarz:	No, I met him over here.

Interviewer:	[05:00] After you came back?

Helen Schwarz:	No.  Before I went over there.

Interviewer:	Oh.  [05:02] Was he over there too?

Helen Schwarz:	Mm-hm.  [Inaudible 05:04] with me.

Interviewer:	[05:05] But did you see him?

Helen Schwarz:	Yeah.  He came to see me once.  [Chuckle]

Interviewer:	Was a thrill I expect.

Helen Schwarz:	Yeah.  

Interviewer:	[05:13] Were you, um, restricted or could you travel or?

Helen Schwarz:	We could travel [inaudible 05:20].

Interviewer:	[05:21] Where did you go?

Helen Schwarz:	[Inaudible 05:22] once.  Another girl and I went to Paris.  

Interviewer:	[05:26] How long were you gone?

Helen Schwarz:	[Inaudible 05:27].

Interviewer:	[05:27] What’d you do in Paris?

Helen Schwarz:	Looked around.  Had a great time.

Interviewer:	[05:33] Did you go to the [Folies 05:33]?

Helen Schwarz:	I’m sure we did.  

Interviewer:	Everybody does.

Helen Schwarz:	Yeah.  We did.  I remember that.

Interviewer:	[05:41] Any, um, particular incidents that you can recall?

Helen Schwarz:	No, I can’t recall.  [Laughter].  

Interviewer:	[05:57] Did you find it a big change from civilian life?

Helen Schwarz:	Yes.  

Interviewer:	[06:04] What was the hardest thing to accept?

Helen Schwarz:	Oh, I don’t know.  Being in at 10:00 at night I guess.  

	[Laughter]

Interviewer:	[06:13] Did you, uh, were you able to use military transportation or…?

Helen Schwarz:	Yes.  [Inaudible 06:19] anything we had we rode.  We had, I don’t know what’d we get, we got [inaudible 06:25].

Interviewer:	[06:26] Did you date some Frenchmen?

Helen Schwarz:	No.  

Interviewer:	[06:33] Or any others who were in the area?

Helen Schwarz:	I don’t, I’m sure we did but I can’t remember that.  No Frenchmen.  I know that.  

Interviewer:	[06:45] How did you, uh, get along with the, uh, the local people?  Could you understand each other?  Make each other, make yourself understood?

Helen Schwarz:	Yes, we got along fine with the people in Bordeaux.

Interviewer:	[06:58] Did you find some good places to eat?

Helen Schwarz:	Oh, I’m sure we did in Bordeaux.  

Interviewer:	[07:05] And when you, uh, how did you happen to come home?  Was the war over?

Helen Schwarz:	Yeah, we came home when the war was over.  We stayed over for a while.

Interviewer:	[07:14] Until your patients were all gone?

Helen Schwarz:	Yeah.  Then we came home.  

Interviewer:	[07:19} Who was your chief nurse?

Helen Schwarz:	I can’t remember.  

Interviewer:	[07:26] Have you seen some of your, uh, coworkers since?

Helen Schwarz:	I’m sure I have.

Interviewer:	[07:33] Remember Gertrude [Beard 07:34] in Chicago?

Helen Schwarz:	Yeah.  

Interviewer:	[07:36] Do you still hear from her?

Helen Schwarz:	[Inaudible 07:37] No.  [Inaudible 07:40] go recently.  When we go to Montana I see girls who were with us.

Interviewer:	Oh good.  [07:45] Was in your unit?

Helen Schwarz:	My unit.  A girl from Mercy Hospital in Chicago.  

Interviewer:	[07:51] What was her name?

Helen Schwarz:	Good question.  I thought of it when I was thinking but I forgot now.  

Interviewer:	When it comes to you again, tell us.  [08:02] Have you, uh, talked about the times you were together over there?  Does she remember a lot too?

Helen Schwarz:	Oh yes.  Oda Kepple was her name.

Interviewer:	Oda Kepple?

Helen Schwarz:	O-D-A, Kepple, K-E-P-P-L-E.  When I go to Montana I see her.  She lives in Montana.

Interviewer:	[08:18] Does she belong to, uh, the Overseas League?

Helen Schwarz:	I don’t, I don’t know [inaudible 08:22].

Interviewer:	[08:23] Have you talked to her about it?

Helen Schwarz:	No, I forgot.  Maybe I did.  I don’t remember.  

Interviewer:	Maybe, [08:28] Are you going out this summer?

Helen Schwarz:	Mm-hm.  Maybe then I’ll see her.  

Interviewer:	So, then you came, [08:34] How did you come home?

Helen Schwarz:	How did we come home?  By ship I’m sure.

Interviewer:	[08:40] Did you come together as a unit or…?

Helen Schwarz:	No, I don’t think so.  I think we came home individually.  

Interviewer:	[08:50] And how long after you were home before you got out?

Helen Schwarz:	That’s a good question too.  A couple months maybe.  

Interviewer:	[08:58] Did you work in the states at a, any army base or?

Helen Schwarz:	Yeah.  [Inaudible 09:95] Atlanta, Georgia and Florida.

Interviewer:	Oh, did you?  [09:08] Did you come back to Camp Gordon?

Helen Schwarz:	No.  I don’t know where we came back to.  I went from Camp Gordon.

Interviewer:	Right.  [09:16] Did you come into New York or Boston?

Helen Schwarz:	I’m sure we came into New York.  

Interviewer:	[09:21] Did you, uh, weren’t you in Pennsylvania?  Somewhere along the line.

Helen Schwarz:	Oh sure.  I graduated in Pennsylvania.

Interviewer:	Oh, that was where you took your nurses training and then you went to Chicago.  And then you went in the service.

Helen Schwarz:	[Inaudible 09:35].

Interviewer:	And then you came out of service and you went back to Chicago?

Helen Schwarz:	Mm-hm.  

Interviewer:	[09:43] How long before you were married?

Helen Schwarz:	I don’t remember.  I don’t know.  [Laughter]

Interviewer:	[09:48] Were you married in Chicago I expect?

Helen Schwarz:	No.

Interviewer:	No.

Helen Schwarz:	Philadelphia.  

Interviewer:	[09:55] Did you work then?

Helen Schwarz:	Mm-hm.

Interviewer:	[09:58] Were you in or out of the service then?

Helen Schwarz:	Out.  This is a long time ago.  My God.  I don’t even remember…

Interviewer:	I think you’re doing very well.  

Helen Schwarz:	Yeah, but I may not be accurate.

Interviewer:	[10:10] Anything else that you can tell us?  [Inaudible 10:15]

Helen Schwarz:	I lived through it all.  

Interviewer:	[10:27] Did you talk or have you ever seen any of your patients?  The ones that you, do you remember?

Helen Schwarz:	I don’t think so.  

Interviewer:	[10:34] Were they badly hurt?

Helen Schwarz:	Some of them.  [Inaudible 10:38] mixed group.  

Interviewer:	[10:40] Did you have many that, uh, were mental or couldn’t cope with it?

Helen Schwarz:	Most of them did very well.  

Interviewer:	Well we thank you very much.

Helen Schwarz:	You’re welcome.  I don’t think I added anything but I was glad to tell you everything I knew.  

Interviewer:	[11:00] What type of hospital did you have with your patients, for your patients?

Helen Schwarz:	We didn’t have any certain type.  It was just all sorts.

Interviewer:	Men?

Helen Schwarz:	Men sure.  All sorts of cases.  

Interviewer:	[11:09] No but were you in tents?

Helen Schwarz:	Oh no.  Sometimes we were.  We were at times but we were in barracks mostly.  


/la