Hoover Institution (Stanford, CA) — The Hoover Institution Library & Archives has acquired a collection of correspondence, photographs, printed material, and ephemera formerly belonging to Hildy Jarman, a talented Allied translator during World War II.
Born in Strasbourg, France, on November 6, 1910, Jarman was educated at the Sorbonne in Paris and the University of Bristol in England. She lived through the London Blitz during World War II and was selected to translate at the Nuremberg war trials. After teaching in England and Switzerland following the war, she eventually moved to Palo Alto, California, where she taught French and German at Castilleja School for 21 years and was known by students and staff as "Madame Jarman."
In 1980, she married U.S. Army Major General Ralph Corbett Smith, whose papers are also preserved at the Library & Archives. Smith, a rugged Nebraskan, was decorated for bravery in World War I and commanded an infantry division in combat in the Pacific during World War II. He became the oldest surviving general officer of the United States Army, passing away in 1998 at the age of 104. Jarman died in Santa Clara County on August 1, 1995, at the age of 84.
Jarman's papers mainly concern her time abroad, preceding her career at Castilleja, and include materials on the war crimes trials investigations. Noteworthy items include correspondence between Jarman and Smith with U.S. Army General Albert C. Wedemeyer, who served in Asia during World War II and whose papers are also held at Hoover.
The Jarman collection offers documentation of women's essential but often overlooked roles in the Nuremberg trials, where translators enabled international justice through their linguistic expertise. Her papers also outline connections to military leadership networks through correspondence with generals whose papers are held at Hoover, allowing scholars to examine World War II and postwar accounts from multiple perspectives.
Samira Bozorgi, a former archivist at the Hoover Institution Library & Archives and current associate librarian at Castilleja School, facilitated the acquisition of the material. She is pictured (left) with the collection, which was housed in a well-worn suitcase adorned with tags and markers from Jarman’s frequent travels abroad.
