Trude W. Lash

Trude W. Lash (deceased February 5, 2004) "born Gertrude Wenzel, was a scholar, political activist, and intimate friend to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. She was born in June 1908 in Freiburg, Germany. She studied journalism and attended the University of Heidelberg, supporting herself by teaching kindergarten. She obtained her PhD in philosophy at the University of Freiburg in 1930. She studied abroad in the United States, teaching philosophy and German literature at Hunter College in New York while doing research at Columbia University. She soon became active in the International Student Service (ISS), a left-leaning student group...

" Trude Lash, born Gertrude Wenzel, was a scholar, political activist, and intimate friend to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. She was born in June 1908 in Freiburg, Germany. She studied journalism and attended the University of Heidelberg, supporting herself by teaching kindergarten. She obtained her PhD in philosophy at the University of Freiburg in 1930. She studied abroad in the United States, teaching philosophy and German literature at Hunter College in New York while doing research at Columbia University. She soon became active in the International Student Service (ISS), a left-leaning student group.

When she returned to Germany, she began working as a journalist for an anti-Nazi newspaper. She was a vehement critic of the Nazi Party, which seized control of Germany in January of 1933. Her newspaper was quickly shut down, but she escaped any intimidation or retribution when she permanently relocated to the United States with her American husband, Eliot Pratt. Together, they attempted, through the ISS, to aid other refugees in escaping the Nazi regime. In the United States, she met and later married Joseph Lash, former general-secretary of the ISS (Trude succeeded him). His involvement in leftist student organizations such as the ISS drew the attention of the House Un-American Activities Committee. Though an admirer of Communism’s resistance to fascism in the Spanish Civil War, he was critical of both the American Communist Party and the Soviet Union, especially after the latter signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in 1939, paving the way for Germany’s invasion of Poland and the start of the Second World War.

While giving testimony, Joseph Lash came to the attention of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The First Lady was a staunch defender of progressive student activism; she and Joseph Lash saw eye-to-eye on many issues. They became close friends during the 1940s, and when Joseph married Trude in 1944, she was brought into contact with the Roosevelts as well. After the death of President Roosevelt, the Lashes worked with Mrs. Roosevelt in continuing her late husband’s legacy, especially with regards to the United Nations. Trude served on the Human Rights Committee, which oversaw one of Eleanor Roosevelt’s proudest legacies, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Lash also worked in her adopted city of New York as program director, then executive director, for the Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York, and the Foundation for Child]]."


 * Director, Citizens' Committee for Children of NY
 * Council of the Foundation for Child Development
 * Chair Emeritus, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute