World War II's Women Warriors by Historian Narayan Sengupta

As part of the Smyrna Public Library’s observation of the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II and its aftermath, the library is featuring a series of World War II-related programs in 2015.  Historian and author Narayan Sengupta presented World War II's Women Warriors at the Smyrna Public Library today. 

Presentation Overview: 

More women participated in World War II than any other war. Whether Allied or Axis, they contributed in droves. They were factory workers, pilots, nurses, scientists, Resistance, snipers, spies, etc. Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosie the Riveter, Anne Frank, WACS and WAVES are household names. Learn about them and others such as Russia’s Lydia Litviak (a triple ace fighter pilot) and Lyudmila Pavlichenko, a sniper with 309 kills, Indo-American spy Noor Inayat Khan, the Manhattan project’s Chinese-born Dr. Chien-Shiung Wu and the scientific exploits of Hollywood bombshell Hedy Lamarr. They and hundreds of thousands of others changed global society and paved the way for Angela Merkel, Golda Meir, Valentina Tereshkova, Mary Barra and countless others since WWII including today's mothers, wives, sisters and daughters.

The "First Sunday" lecture series is held in the Smyrna Public Library Meeting Room and is sponsored by the Friends of Smyrna Library.

Speaker Bio: Narayan Sengupta 

Narayan has had ten veterans on the French side of his family, seven of whom were in combat. One died in action, one was wounded, one was captured, one was an occupier and one was in the Resistance. Two received the Croix de Guerre. On August 27, 1944, his mother’s family was liberated by brave Americans of the US 3rd Armored Division. On the Indian side of his family, both great uncles were noted historians, and one was head of the All India Historical Society. Consequently, he is very passionate about America’s military accomplishments and its veterans.

Narayan speaks several languages, loves to travel and has visited about 20 countries. He was Star Student at North Fulton High School (which was America’s first International Baccalaureate School), majored in History at Emory and earned an MBA from Georgia State. He worked at places like IBM, Coca-Cola, Hewlett Packard, MCI and Alltel before starting NFI (www.nfiweb.com), a website, search engine optimization and database development firm in Atlanta, Georgia.

He is in the Smyrna Rotary Club and served as President in 2008-2009. He started Smyrna’s annual Veterans Day event in 2008. He is on the Smyrna Veterans Committee and in SuperSmyrna. In 2010, the Smyrna Rotary Club named him “Smyrna Citizen of the Year.” He is the very proud father of two young daughters.