Elisabeth Heyward

Elisabeth Heyward was one of the participating interpreters during the Nuremberg Trials (1945–1949) held in the city of Nuremberg, Germany, after World War II. She was the wife of Dick Heyward, former senior deputy executive director of UNICEF. Her son is former CBS News president Andrew Heyward.

Biography

Exodus from Russia Elisabeth Heyward was born on October 8, 1919, in St. Petersburg, Russia. About a year after her birth Heyward's family left St. Petersburg. In 1920, she was among a mass of Russian migrants diverging into Berlin. Four years later, Heyward's family left Germany to settle in Paris, France. A few years after World War I – at the age of five – Heyward had the overwhelming task of attending a school in Paris without, at first, having any knowledge of French. At home, Heyward spoke Russian with her parents although they were fluent in German as an outcome of having resided in Berlin for four years.

Book excerpts

In New York City At the United Nations headquarters in New York, Heyward joined the French Section of the Interpretation Service, working from English and Russian. She later occupied the post of Head of the French Section until her retirement in 1981. After officially leaving the U.N. as a permanent staff member, Heyward continued working as a freelance interpreter until April 17, 2004. She died July 29, 2007, in New York.