LEADER 00000cam  2200529 i 4500 
001    on1384411761 
003    OCoLC 
005    20240124145022.0 
008    230622s2024    nyuabf   b    001 0 eng d 
019    1415631477 
020    1982189126|q(hardcover) 
020    9781982189129|q(hardcover) 
035    (OCoLC)1384411761|z(OCoLC)1415631477 
040    YDX|beng|erda|erda|cYDX|dBDX|dIOU|dOCLCO|dY$5|dCCPLG|dIUO
       |dHQD|dOCLCO|dGCV|dJFL|dWHP 
043    e-pl---|an-us--- 
049    WHPP 
050  4 D804.34 
082 04 940.53/18|223 
100 1  White, Elizabeth B.,|eauthor. 
245 14 The counterfeit Countess :|bthe Jewish woman who rescued 
       thousands of Poles during the Holocaust /|cElizabeth B. 
       White and Joanna Sliwa. 
246 30 Jewish woman who rescued thousands of Poles during the 
       Holocaust 
250    First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition. 
264  1 New York :|bSimons & Schuster,|c2024. 
300    xxix, 305 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates :
       |billustrations, maps ;|c24 cm 
336    text|btxt|2rdacontent 
337    unmediated|bn|2rdamedia 
338    volume|bnc|2rdacarrier 
504    Includes bibliographical references (pages [253]-290) and 
       index. 
520    "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       drawing on Mehlberg's own unpublished memoir.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"--|cProvided by publisher. 
600 10 Mehlberg, Josephine Janina,|d1905-1969. 
610 20 Majdanek (Concentration camp) 
650  0 Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)|zPoland|zLublin. 
650  0 Countesses|zPoland|vBiography. 
650  0 Impostors and imposture|zPoland|vBiography. 
650  0 Jewish women|zPoland|vBiography. 
650  0 Women mathematicians|zUnited States|vBiography. 
650  0 World War, 1939-1945|xUnderground movements|zPoland
       |zLublin|vBiography. 
651  0 Lublin (Poland)|vBiography. 
655  7 Biographies.|2lcgft 
700 1  Sliwa, Joanna,|eauthor. 
994    C0|bWHP