As the Holocaust Documentation & Education Center continues to feature and offer a wide variety of topics on the Holocaust, today we are adding the following to our list from the Vilna Shul:
Program: “The Light of Days”
Date: Thursday, April 15, 2021
Time: 7:00 PM
Platform: This event will take place online and is free to the public.
Please note registration is required. Please click here to register.
To watch the program in full please click here.
One of the most important stories of World War II, already optioned by Steven Spielberg for a major motion picture: a spectacular, searing history that brings to light the extraordinary accomplishments of brave Jewish women who became resistance fighters – a group of unknown heroes whose exploits have never been chronicled in full, until now.
Check out the recent Op Ed piece in the New York Times!
Author Judy Batalion joins us to talk about her new book, The Light of Days, an unforgettable tale of war, the fight for freedom, exceptional bravery, female friendship, and survival in the face of staggering odds. The novel focuses on a cadre of Jewish women in Poland, some still in their teens, that witnessed the brutal murder of their families and neighbors, and the violent destruction of their communities. As a result of their trauma, they helped transform the Jewish youth groups into resistance cells to fight the Nazis. With courage, guile, and nerves of steel, these “ghetto girls” paid off Gestapo guards, hid revolvers in loaves of bread and jars of marmalade, and helped build systems of underground bunkers. They flirted with German soldiers, bribed them with wine, whiskey, and home cooking, used their Aryan looks to seduce them, and shot and killed them. They bombed German train lines and blew up a town’s water supply. They also nursed the sick and taught children.
Judy Batalion is the author of White Walls: A Memoir About Motherhood, Daughterhood, and the Mess in Between. She has written for The New York Times, Vogue, The Washington Post, and many other publications. Prior to her writing career, she was an academic, and is fluent in both Yiddish and Hebrew. Born and raised in Montreal, she now lives in New York with her husband and children.
