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Author White, Elizabeth B., author.

Title The counterfeit Countess : the Jewish woman who rescued thousands of Poles during the Holocaust / Elizabeth B. White and Joanna Sliwa.

Publication Info. New York : Simons & Schuster, 2024.
6 holds on first copy returned of 17 copies

Copies

Location Call No. Status
 Bristol, Main Library - New Materials  940.5318 WHITE    Check Shelf
 Canton Public Library - Adult New Materials  940.5318 WHITE    Check Shelf
 Cheshire Public Library - Adult New Materials Lower Level    On Order
 Colchester, Cragin Memorial Library - New Materials  940.5318 WHITE, ELIZABETH B.    Check Shelf
 Cromwell-Belden Public Library - New Materials  940.5318 WHI    DUE 04-16-24
 Glastonbury, Welles-Turner Memorial Library - New Materials  940.5318 WHITE    DUE 04-10-24
 Manchester, Whiton Branch - New Materials  940.5318 WHITE    DUE 04-10-24
 Marlborough, Richmond Memorial Library - New Materials  940.5318 WHITE    Check Shelf
 Middletown, Russell Library - NEW Adult Nonfiction  940.5318 WHI    Check Shelf
 New Britain, Main Library - New Materials  940.5318 WHI    Check Shelf

Edition First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition.
Description xxix, 305 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages [253]-290) and index.
Summary "The astonishing story of Dr. Josephine Janina Mehlberg--a Jewish mathematician who saved thousands of lives in Nazi-occupied Poland by masquerading as a Polish aristocrat--drawing on Mehlberg's own unpublished memoir.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 remarkable, unknown story of "Countess Janina Suchodolska," a Jewish woman who rescued more than 10,000 Poles imprisoned by Poland's Nazi occupiers. 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 medicine--even decorated Christmas trees--for thousands more of the camp's prisoners. At the same time, she personally smuggled supplies and messages to resistance fighters imprisoned at 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 Mehlberg's 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 Mehlberg's sometimes harrowing personal testimony with broader historical narrative. Like The Light of Days, Schindler's List, and Irena's Children, The Counterfeit Countess is an unforgettable account of inspiring courage in the face of unspeakable cruelty"-- Provided by publisher.
Subject Mehlberg, Josephine Janina, 1905-1969.
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Poland -- Lublin.
Countesses -- Poland -- Biography.
Impostors and imposture -- Poland -- Biography.
Jewish women -- Poland -- Biography.
Women mathematicians -- United States -- Biography.
Majdanek (Concentration camp)
World War, 1939-1945 -- Underground movements -- Poland -- Lublin -- Biography.
Lublin (Poland) -- Biography.
Genre/Form Biographies.
Added Author Sliwa, Joanna, author.
Added Title Jewish woman who rescued thousands of Poles during the Holocaust
ISBN 1982189126 (hardcover)
9781982189129 (hardcover)
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