NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — It was August of 1920, and Tennessee's ratification of the 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote.
"We're standing here in the doorway of what we call the Votes for Women room," said Andrea Fanta of the Nashville Public Library.
The space of historical pictures and videos is dedicated not only to those stories from 1920 but of pioneering women throughout history.
"Our job is to connect this space with every day women of all different experiences in Nashville," Fanta continued.
It's in the spirit of this room the library launched the Nashville Voices campaign. They asked the city to send in stories of women who are everyday heroes to display on the library site. Those stories include an 82-year-old who just put her story to paper.
"I tell everybody, 'if you have a story to tell, you need to write about it,'" said Kassiana Bateman of Nashville.
Her book 'Out of Hiding' was released last year. Bateman said it was the right time to write it.
"First of all, for my age," she laughed. "I want to have it done before I die."
Bateman has seen a lot of pain in her life. She was born in Berlin, Germany, in 1940.
"I was 5 years old when I met my mother officially," Bateman explained.
At the time, she didn't understand why she was living with another family and never knew her mother before then. When she was 9, her mother told her why.
"She told me that I was Jewish," Bateman said. "When I was born, the Nazis had forced the mothers to give their newborns a Jewish first name. My birth certificate is written out to Tana Hirsch because that's what the Nazis ordered. After I was born, my mother was sent to a labor camp, and I was taken in by a Jewish family. My mother and I were separated on purpose because it was easier to hide."
The book tells how the Nazis didn't know where to find Bateman.
"They were still trying to eliminate as many Jews as possible," she said. "In that time, at 3 and 4 years old, you don't tell a child [they are Jewish]. Children talk, and it's just not a smart thing to do."
She later learned at least 30 of her family members were killed in the Holocaust. As a Jewish child in post-war Germany, Bateman was the target of antisemitism.
"The teacher had nothing better to do than to announce to the class, 'We have a Jew amongst us,'" she said. "I was ridiculed. They were following me and throwing rocks at me. I ran home crying. I didn't understand why that was."
As Bateman grew up, she saw the lasting effects the Holocaust had taken on her mother.
"When I went back to visit my mother, I had to take off my Star of David, because my mother and husband didn't want anyone to know that we're Jewish, even in the 80s and 90s and 2010 even," she said.
At an appearance at Mary, Queen of Angels Assisted Living, Bateman read a bit of her book.
"I want people to understand it can happen again," she said. "I'm very proud of what I am. I'm very proud to be a Jew. I show it every day."
"Kassiana, we feel a reverence and admiration for," said Fanta. "The chance to learn from her story, it was a real privilege for all of us here."
"I'm bashful that I received that honor," said Bateman, referring to being included in Nashville Voices. "I was terribly honored to be chosen to be one of those interesting women. Being honored in such a way, I never dreamed of that before, and I'm very, very proud of it."
For more on the Nashville Voices campaign, visit here.
