Description
The remarkableinspiring (The Wall Street Journal) true story of Dr. Josephine Janina Mehlberga Jewish mathematician who saved thousands of lives in Nazi-occupied Poland by masquerading as a Polish aristocratdrawing on Mehlbergs own unpublished memoir.
World War II and the Holocaust have given rise to many stories of resistance and rescue, but The Counterfeit Countess is unique. It tells the astonishing unknown story of Countess Janina Suchodolska, a Jewish woman who rescued more than 10,000 Poles imprisoned by Polands Nazi occupiers, becoming a heroine for the ages (Larry Loftis, author of The Watchmakers Daughter).
Mehlberg operated in Lublin, Poland, headquarters of Aktion Reinhard, the SS operation that murdered 1.7 million Jews in occupied Poland. Using the identity papers of a Polish aristocrat, she worked as a welfare official while also serving in the Polish resistance. With guile, cajolery, and steely persistence, the Countess persuaded SS officials to release thousands of Poles from the Majdanek concentration camp. She won permission to deliver food and medicineeven decorated Christmas treesfor thousands more of the camps prisoners. At the same time, she personally smuggled supplies and messages to resistance fighters imprisoned in Majdanek, where 63,000 Jews were murdered in gas chambers and shooting pits. Incredibly, she eluded detection, and ultimately survived the war and emigrated to the US.
Drawing on the manuscript of Mehlbergs own unpublished memoir supplemented with prodigious research, Elizabeth White and Joanna Sliwa, professional historians and Holocaust experts, have uncovered the full story of this remarkable woman. They interweave Mehlbergs sometimes harrowing personal testimony with broader historical narrative. Like The Light of Days, Schindlers List, and Irenas Children, The Counterfeit Countess is a rivetingstunning (Debbie Cenziper, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of Citizen 865) account of inspiring courage in the face of unspeakable cruelty.
Author: Elizabeth B. White, Joanna Sliwa
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 01/21/2025
Pages: 336
Weight: 0.75lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.10w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9781982189136
Language: English
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