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The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler's Ghettos
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Best History & Biography (2021)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.
Witnesses to the brutal murder of their families and neighbors and the violent destruction of their communities, a cadre of Jewish women in Poland—some still in their teens—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.
Yet the exploits of these courageous resistance fighters have remained virtually unknown.
As propulsive and thrilling as Hidden Figures, In the Garden of Beasts, Band of Brothers, and A Train in Winter, The Light of Days at last tells the true story of these incredible women whose courageous yet little-known feats have been eclipsed by time. Judy Batalion—the granddaughter of Polish Holocaust survivors—takes us back to 1939 and introduces us to Renia Kukielka, a weapons smuggler and messenger who risked death traveling across occupied Poland on foot and by train. Joining Renia are other women who served as couriers, armed fighters, intelligence agents, and saboteurs, all who put their lives in mortal danger to carry out their missions. Batalion follows these women through the savage destruction of the ghettos, arrest and internment in Gestapo prisons and concentration camps, and for a lucky few—like Renia, who orchestrated her own audacious escape from a brutal Nazi jail—into the late 20th century and beyond.
Powerful and inspiring, featuring twenty black-and-white photographs, The Light of Days is an unforgettable true tale of war, the fight for freedom, exceptional bravery, female friendship, and survival in the face of staggering odds.
Witnesses to the brutal murder of their families and neighbors and the violent destruction of their communities, a cadre of Jewish women in Poland—some still in their teens—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.
Yet the exploits of these courageous resistance fighters have remained virtually unknown.
As propulsive and thrilling as Hidden Figures, In the Garden of Beasts, Band of Brothers, and A Train in Winter, The Light of Days at last tells the true story of these incredible women whose courageous yet little-known feats have been eclipsed by time. Judy Batalion—the granddaughter of Polish Holocaust survivors—takes us back to 1939 and introduces us to Renia Kukielka, a weapons smuggler and messenger who risked death traveling across occupied Poland on foot and by train. Joining Renia are other women who served as couriers, armed fighters, intelligence agents, and saboteurs, all who put their lives in mortal danger to carry out their missions. Batalion follows these women through the savage destruction of the ghettos, arrest and internment in Gestapo prisons and concentration camps, and for a lucky few—like Renia, who orchestrated her own audacious escape from a brutal Nazi jail—into the late 20th century and beyond.
Powerful and inspiring, featuring twenty black-and-white photographs, The Light of Days is an unforgettable true tale of war, the fight for freedom, exceptional bravery, female friendship, and survival in the face of staggering odds.
560 pages, Hardcover
First published April 6, 2021
About the author
Judy Batalion
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February 22, 2024
The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos by Jude Batalion is my latest World War II read.
This non-fiction book is told in chronological order shifting perspectives between the various female fighters, spotlighting one fighter in particular, Renia. During the Holocaust, Jewish factions, many of them led by women, fought the Nazis.
This novel focused on the female Jewish resistance in Poland. Women frequently transported forged documents and led others to safety. Many raised funds for weapons and hosted soup kitchens. They also helped to form some semblance of routine and normalcy for the children by organizing education in the midst of chaos and upheaval.
The Light of Days walks the reader through the events leading up to the ghettos, the resistance, and the fate of many of the fighters (which often included death and being forced to Auschwitz). During the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, many women fought the Nazis with weapons. The Light of Days astounded me because there were Jewish women who were free of the ghettos and fought to get back in to help!
This book and I were destined for each other. I tried to request this book on NetGalley and was rejected. Then, I entered the GoodReads giveaway. When speaking to my underground book club, I was venting that I was not sure that GoodReads giveaways were even legit because I never won a single giveaway. And I entered hundreds of GoodReads giveaways.
Then, I won this book in a GoodReads giveaway! Woot! Woot!
The historical narrative for Jews in World War II is that the Nazis rounded them up against their will and were cast as helpless against monsters. This book aims to change that narrative. Some Jewish groups actively and forcibly resisted the Nazis and attacked them. They did not go quietly. Many risked their lives, and many did die. For that, I am grateful for reading this book.
This book changed my perception of World War II, and it gives voice to the females’ efforts and bravery during a horrific time of unimaginable cruelty.
However, the World War II literary space is very competitive with chilling first-hand accounts in The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank and Night by Elie Wiesel.
The Light of Days was written in the third-person perspective to its detriment. Why The Diary of Anne Frank and Night are so riveting is that it feels like Anne or Elie is sitting on the couch next to you, as a friend, recounting their experience and all of their feelings. The Light of Days is a bit light on dialogue, and it reads more like a research article.
The Light of Days also departs sharply from Night and The Diary of Anne Frank in that it rotated between the various female fighters. Again, it was to its detriment. Personally, I would have liked to see one section for each female fighter instead of rotating. Each rotation was really confusing, because there would be an entirely new set of characters, and I would forget where we left off from the previous section.
This book also needed an editor. There were multiple errors that I was surprised to find in a book from a traditional publishing company. For example, on Page 16, “What they would be without her?” Clearly, it is meant to be “What would they be without her?” There was also an instance (and I’m so sorry that I can’t direct quote it because I have a physical copy of the book and not the electronic version), but there was a paragraph where it said that a neighborhood was chasing someone when it clearly meant a neighbor.
As mentioned earlier, this book read more like a research article. The author clearly did her research and was quite passionate about the topic. However, storytelling is an art, and The Light of Days might have been better if Batalion teamed up with a ghost writer such as what Jennifer Robertson did with Stephen Kimber in Bitcoin Widow.
In my opinion, the ending of the book should have been stronger. The author ends the book with her personal experience crafting the book, and her journey researching, translating, traveling, and interviewing people. However, I think that the book should have ended much like a movie, with very short paragraphs about each of the women. Like a gut punch.
Overall, I enjoyed this book very much, and it is important to change the historical narrative around the Holocaust. Strong, brave female subjects always earn extra points in my book. However, the changing perspectives are distracting, and The Light of Days is competing with some extremely compelling World War II literature.
2024 Reading Schedule
Jan Middlemarch
Feb The Grapes of Wrath
Mar Oliver Twist
Apr Madame Bovary
May A Clockwork Orange
Jun Possession
Jul The Folk of the Faraway Tree Collection
Aug Crime and Punishment
Sep Heart of Darkness
Oct Moby-Dick
Nov Far From the Madding Crowd
Dec A Tale of Two Cities
Connect With Me!
Blog Twitter BookTube Facebook Insta
This non-fiction book is told in chronological order shifting perspectives between the various female fighters, spotlighting one fighter in particular, Renia. During the Holocaust, Jewish factions, many of them led by women, fought the Nazis.
This novel focused on the female Jewish resistance in Poland. Women frequently transported forged documents and led others to safety. Many raised funds for weapons and hosted soup kitchens. They also helped to form some semblance of routine and normalcy for the children by organizing education in the midst of chaos and upheaval.
The Light of Days walks the reader through the events leading up to the ghettos, the resistance, and the fate of many of the fighters (which often included death and being forced to Auschwitz). During the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, many women fought the Nazis with weapons. The Light of Days astounded me because there were Jewish women who were free of the ghettos and fought to get back in to help!
This book and I were destined for each other. I tried to request this book on NetGalley and was rejected. Then, I entered the GoodReads giveaway. When speaking to my underground book club, I was venting that I was not sure that GoodReads giveaways were even legit because I never won a single giveaway. And I entered hundreds of GoodReads giveaways.
Then, I won this book in a GoodReads giveaway! Woot! Woot!
The historical narrative for Jews in World War II is that the Nazis rounded them up against their will and were cast as helpless against monsters. This book aims to change that narrative. Some Jewish groups actively and forcibly resisted the Nazis and attacked them. They did not go quietly. Many risked their lives, and many did die. For that, I am grateful for reading this book.
This book changed my perception of World War II, and it gives voice to the females’ efforts and bravery during a horrific time of unimaginable cruelty.
However, the World War II literary space is very competitive with chilling first-hand accounts in The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank and Night by Elie Wiesel.
The Light of Days was written in the third-person perspective to its detriment. Why The Diary of Anne Frank and Night are so riveting is that it feels like Anne or Elie is sitting on the couch next to you, as a friend, recounting their experience and all of their feelings. The Light of Days is a bit light on dialogue, and it reads more like a research article.
The Light of Days also departs sharply from Night and The Diary of Anne Frank in that it rotated between the various female fighters. Again, it was to its detriment. Personally, I would have liked to see one section for each female fighter instead of rotating. Each rotation was really confusing, because there would be an entirely new set of characters, and I would forget where we left off from the previous section.
This book also needed an editor. There were multiple errors that I was surprised to find in a book from a traditional publishing company. For example, on Page 16, “What they would be without her?” Clearly, it is meant to be “What would they be without her?” There was also an instance (and I’m so sorry that I can’t direct quote it because I have a physical copy of the book and not the electronic version), but there was a paragraph where it said that a neighborhood was chasing someone when it clearly meant a neighbor.
As mentioned earlier, this book read more like a research article. The author clearly did her research and was quite passionate about the topic. However, storytelling is an art, and The Light of Days might have been better if Batalion teamed up with a ghost writer such as what Jennifer Robertson did with Stephen Kimber in Bitcoin Widow.
In my opinion, the ending of the book should have been stronger. The author ends the book with her personal experience crafting the book, and her journey researching, translating, traveling, and interviewing people. However, I think that the book should have ended much like a movie, with very short paragraphs about each of the women. Like a gut punch.
Overall, I enjoyed this book very much, and it is important to change the historical narrative around the Holocaust. Strong, brave female subjects always earn extra points in my book. However, the changing perspectives are distracting, and The Light of Days is competing with some extremely compelling World War II literature.
2024 Reading Schedule
Jan Middlemarch
Feb The Grapes of Wrath
Mar Oliver Twist
Apr Madame Bovary
May A Clockwork Orange
Jun Possession
Jul The Folk of the Faraway Tree Collection
Aug Crime and Punishment
Sep Heart of Darkness
Oct Moby-Dick
Nov Far From the Madding Crowd
Dec A Tale of Two Cities
Connect With Me!
Blog Twitter BookTube Facebook Insta
May 7, 2021
4.5 stars rounded up.
We have to keep reading these books so we don’t forget . I say that every time I read a work of historical fiction about the Holocaust or a memoir of someone who survived it. Having read this non fiction account of courageous, strong Jewish women of the resistance in Poland, it should go without saying, but not only do I have to say it again - we just can’t forget - but I have to say how important it is to remember these women and pay tribute to them. I haven’t read much about organized Jewish resistance, about the Jewish youth movements and not much about the role of Jewish women in the resistance . I have not read about the harrowing acts of Jewish women carrying resistance documents or arms until now. I’ve read a lot about the horrific treatment of Jews during this time, but not some of the things that are related here, unrelenting truths of what happened. These accounts are so disturbing, and that’s exactly why I recommend that people read this book . We need to know and we need to remember. The real life stories of Renia Kukielka, Zivia Lubetkin, Frumka Plotnicka, Tosia Altman and others whose stories we find here represent so many women who carried documents, arms, and money in and out of the ghetto, conducted attacks on Nazis. How did they get their strength and determination and resilience? Maybe because:
“On another memorable evening, several buses of Gestapo forced Jews, half naked, barefoot in nightclothes, to go outside and run around the snow-filled market while the Gestapo chased them with rubber clubs, or told them to lie down in the snow for thirty minutes, or forced them to flog their fellow Jews with whips, or to lie on the ground and have a military vehicle run over them.”
“Nazis had Jews dig their own graves and made them sing and dance in the pits until they shot them...Elderly Jews were also made to sing and dance, the Nazis plucking out their beard hairs one by one and slapping them until they spat out their teeth.”
“Through hysterical sobs, these starving women told her that their town had been surrounded. Gunshots flew in every direction. Their children had been playing outside and ran to their houses. but a Nazi caught them and beat the kids to death ,one by one.”
There are so many more of these vile and violent attacks on Jews told here, and some may choose not to read this because of the horror of it all. I have included these quotes here because if someone chooses not to read this book, they will at least know some of it, if they read this review. This fell a little short of 5 solid stars because I felt the narrative lacked cohesiveness and at times felt like it could have been better organized. BUT in spite of that, what is told here is just so important and it needs be read widely. I have to up it to 5 stars. I liked that the author lets us know the fates of these women in the last part of the book and in the moving epilogue and relates to us her personal connection as the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor. Her extensive research efforts are notable, with pages of references and notes from documents written by some of these women and numerous other sources. Kudos to Judy Batalion for discovering and bringing to light the stories of these amazing women. If you think it can’t happen again, think about the neo Nazis who marched with torches in Charlottesville just a couple of years ago .
I received a copy of this book from William Morrow/Harper Collins through Edelweiss.
We have to keep reading these books so we don’t forget . I say that every time I read a work of historical fiction about the Holocaust or a memoir of someone who survived it. Having read this non fiction account of courageous, strong Jewish women of the resistance in Poland, it should go without saying, but not only do I have to say it again - we just can’t forget - but I have to say how important it is to remember these women and pay tribute to them. I haven’t read much about organized Jewish resistance, about the Jewish youth movements and not much about the role of Jewish women in the resistance . I have not read about the harrowing acts of Jewish women carrying resistance documents or arms until now. I’ve read a lot about the horrific treatment of Jews during this time, but not some of the things that are related here, unrelenting truths of what happened. These accounts are so disturbing, and that’s exactly why I recommend that people read this book . We need to know and we need to remember. The real life stories of Renia Kukielka, Zivia Lubetkin, Frumka Plotnicka, Tosia Altman and others whose stories we find here represent so many women who carried documents, arms, and money in and out of the ghetto, conducted attacks on Nazis. How did they get their strength and determination and resilience? Maybe because:
“On another memorable evening, several buses of Gestapo forced Jews, half naked, barefoot in nightclothes, to go outside and run around the snow-filled market while the Gestapo chased them with rubber clubs, or told them to lie down in the snow for thirty minutes, or forced them to flog their fellow Jews with whips, or to lie on the ground and have a military vehicle run over them.”
“Nazis had Jews dig their own graves and made them sing and dance in the pits until they shot them...Elderly Jews were also made to sing and dance, the Nazis plucking out their beard hairs one by one and slapping them until they spat out their teeth.”
“Through hysterical sobs, these starving women told her that their town had been surrounded. Gunshots flew in every direction. Their children had been playing outside and ran to their houses. but a Nazi caught them and beat the kids to death ,one by one.”
There are so many more of these vile and violent attacks on Jews told here, and some may choose not to read this because of the horror of it all. I have included these quotes here because if someone chooses not to read this book, they will at least know some of it, if they read this review. This fell a little short of 5 solid stars because I felt the narrative lacked cohesiveness and at times felt like it could have been better organized. BUT in spite of that, what is told here is just so important and it needs be read widely. I have to up it to 5 stars. I liked that the author lets us know the fates of these women in the last part of the book and in the moving epilogue and relates to us her personal connection as the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor. Her extensive research efforts are notable, with pages of references and notes from documents written by some of these women and numerous other sources. Kudos to Judy Batalion for discovering and bringing to light the stories of these amazing women. If you think it can’t happen again, think about the neo Nazis who marched with torches in Charlottesville just a couple of years ago .
I received a copy of this book from William Morrow/Harper Collins through Edelweiss.
February 11, 2023
“Zivia [Lubetkin] was one of thirty fighters posted on the highest floors of a building at the intersection of Nalewski and Gensia Streets – the first unit to encounter the Germans. The anxiety, the excitement, was nearly overwhelming. While they were no army, they were so much more organized than they’d been…hundreds of them in strategic locations armed with pistols, rifles, automatic weapons, grenades, bombs, and thousands of Molotov cocktails…As the sun rose, Zivia saw the German forces advancing toward the ghetto, as if it were a real battlefront. Two thousand Nazis, panzer tanks, machine guns. Polished, lighthearted soldiers marched in, singing tunes, ready for an easy final coup…”
- Judy Batalion, The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos
The Second World War effected just about everyone on the globe in some way or the other. Half of those people were women. Like everyone else, women were victimized. In places like Nanking, Berlin, and Manilla, they were subjected to sexual violence. In places like Hamburg, Tokyo, and Leningrad, they struggled to keep families together beneath a rain of bombs and artillery shells, while food stocks dwindled. Women were held in internment camps, concentration camps, and death camps.
But their roles went far beyond simply enduring punishment. Women served as air wardens, spotters, and antiaircraft gunners. They were doctors, nurses, and ambulance drivers. They worked in factories building tanks and planes. They served in the uniformed services, not only typists, radio operators, and clerks, but as pilots and snipers. Women also acted as spies, saboteurs, and resistance fighters.
Despite this multitude of experiences, the literature on the Second World War has been slow to recognize women. While a lot of backfilling has been done by historical fiction, nonfiction still has a way to go before any semblance of balance can be restored.
To that end, Judy Batalion’s The Light of Days is a welcome volume. In presenting a true account of female Jewish fighters in Poland, she doesn’t merely highlight an under-told story, but does so in ways that are frequently gripping, and always inspiring. It reminds you that there are still a lot of stories to tell.
***
When Poland fell to the Germans in 1939, Germany promptly divided the ill-starred country into three parts. One part went to the Germans themselves, another to the Soviet Union, who – in their devil’s bargain – had also invaded Poland, while the final segment became the so-called “General Government.” In this administrative territory, the Nazis planned to warehouse undesirables until such time as the land could be colonized with German settlers.
Very soon, Jews found themselves legally declared non-humans. They were rounded up into ghettos, worked as slaves, and summarily executed. As the “Final Solution” unfolded, they began to be shipped to death camps as well. Resistance to this calamity came in many different forms, including groups that gathered maps and information, smuggled necessary supplies, and hid those who were able to escape. A smaller number decided to mount an armed struggle.
Among these active resisters, young women played important roles as intelligence operatives, couriers, and warriors. These women, Batalion explains, had important advantages over men, which allowed them to move more freely outside the ghettos. For one, they avoided the circumcision test, which the Nazis used to catch males suspected of trying to pass as gentiles. For another, classic chauvinism meant that females were often underestimated or unsuspected.
The Light of Days follows the exploits of around twenty of these female resisters. Some we follow throughout the book. Some we only know for a short while. No matter how long they are around, they hold the page with immediacy.
***
Initially, The Light of Days is a bit slow, as Batalion works to introduce all the characters, as well as the organizations to which they belonged, which were often in ideological conflict. The pace picks up drastically once the battle is joined during the Warsaw Uprising. Despite being well over 400 pages of text, the pages fly by with the swiftness of a thriller.
Occasionally, I thought Batalion’s obvious passion for this subject matter led to overwritten passages with a few too many flourishes, such as rhetorical questions, repeated phrases, inferred thoughts and emotions, and a dubiously-high number of exclamation points. Given the inherent vitalness of the underlying action, these novelistic touches felt unnecessary, even distracting. Batalion is far better when she is restrained in her telling, because an unadorned recounting of these women’s experiences is quite potent without being goosed with one-word sentences and one-sentence paragraphs.
***
The Light of Days is well-researched, as attested by Batalion’s annotated endnotes. This is history, not an act of imagination. That said, it is subjective rather than objective, and told strictly from the perspective of the Jewish women. The male fighters are mentioned as necessary, but are never allowed to hijack our focus. The Germans exist only as unnamed, faceless antagonists, a shadowed evil. Adolf Hitler does not appear, while Heinrich Himmler, head of the murderous SS, shows up only twice, and quite briefly. Save for an epigraph, the rabid antisemite General Jurgen Stroop never joins the narrative, despite being in charge of the Germans who razed the Warsaw Ghetto
This is a bit odd, but I understood Batalion’s intent. Sometimes, the only way to correct a distortion is by another distortion. She wants to center her characters without our attention being drawn away. In that, she succeeds.
***
The downside to this approach, in my opinion, is that Batalion has avoided not only German perspectives, but apparently German documentation. During the Warsaw Ghetto fight, for instance, one of Batalion’s sources claims 300 Germans killed, while Stroop reported less than twenty. Obviously, the Germans might have been lying, yet this discrepancy is not reported, much less explored.
This can be forgiven, as The Light of Days is about humans, not statistics. Nevertheless, Batalion narrates some thinly-sourced scenes without any explanation. She relies heavily on memoirs, which can be notoriously tricky as primary sources. The reason is that they often combine eyewitness testimony with supposition, rumors, and secondhand information. Batalion states that she tried to corroborate and cross-index. Ultimately, however, she sides with the woman telling the tale, regardless of plausibility.
The starkest example comes during an episode that purportedly took place at a liquidation camp. According to a prisoner, an unidentified Nazi commandant plucked beautiful Jewish women from the crowd, dressed them in fancy dresses, brought them to a party, and forced them to dance with SS members. During the dance – a literal danse macabre – the women were shot in the head by the commandant. Having read thousands of pages about the Holocaust, this might be the single most shocking thing I’ve seen. Unfortunately, the source is a person who was not there, and who heard it from a person who also could not have been there. Once they constructed Auschwitz, the Germans lost the benefit of the doubt. Still, this feels like hearsay that – while figuratively true, and symbolic of Nazi depravity – is not based on hard evidence.
***
The dramatic climax of The Light of Days comes during the war. My favorite parts, however, are the closing chapters, in which Batalion follows the survivors – many of them “premature orphans” who have lost their entire families – as they attempt to forge the semblance of a normal life. It is an effecting struggle, one in which not all triumphed. These summation chapters also delve into the reasons these women’s stories were downplayed in the first place, sometimes sacrificed to the necessities of Israeli politics.
Batalion concludes The Light of Days with a bit of explanation regarding her methodology, and the choices she made. Her reasoning is sensitive, and though I stand by my critiques, I appreciated her motivations.
***
In general, the resistance movements around the world did little to change or even shorten the war. The Jewish resistance in particular could not stop the Holocaust, and Batalion stays well clear of any such claims.
Instead, the decision to fight back was an act of agency. It was a seizure of a small semblance of control in an otherwise vast and impersonal conflict. Moral victories can be overstated; they can also be too easily dismissed.
Whatever the true casualties suffered by the Germans in the Warsaw Uprising, it is worth noting that the female fighters terrified them. They are emphasized in Nazi accounts for their ferociousness, their nimbleness, their suicidal willingness to die, as long as they took a German with them. “Devils or goddesses,” General Stroop called them, also referring to them as hallucinations. It’s fair to ponder whether, as they faced this resistance – these women with pistols and grenades, shouting curses with their last breaths – the Germans first realized that despite their best efforts, they would never succeed in their annihilationist quest, and that the Jewish people would persevere and live on.
- Judy Batalion, The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos
The Second World War effected just about everyone on the globe in some way or the other. Half of those people were women. Like everyone else, women were victimized. In places like Nanking, Berlin, and Manilla, they were subjected to sexual violence. In places like Hamburg, Tokyo, and Leningrad, they struggled to keep families together beneath a rain of bombs and artillery shells, while food stocks dwindled. Women were held in internment camps, concentration camps, and death camps.
But their roles went far beyond simply enduring punishment. Women served as air wardens, spotters, and antiaircraft gunners. They were doctors, nurses, and ambulance drivers. They worked in factories building tanks and planes. They served in the uniformed services, not only typists, radio operators, and clerks, but as pilots and snipers. Women also acted as spies, saboteurs, and resistance fighters.
Despite this multitude of experiences, the literature on the Second World War has been slow to recognize women. While a lot of backfilling has been done by historical fiction, nonfiction still has a way to go before any semblance of balance can be restored.
To that end, Judy Batalion’s The Light of Days is a welcome volume. In presenting a true account of female Jewish fighters in Poland, she doesn’t merely highlight an under-told story, but does so in ways that are frequently gripping, and always inspiring. It reminds you that there are still a lot of stories to tell.
***
When Poland fell to the Germans in 1939, Germany promptly divided the ill-starred country into three parts. One part went to the Germans themselves, another to the Soviet Union, who – in their devil’s bargain – had also invaded Poland, while the final segment became the so-called “General Government.” In this administrative territory, the Nazis planned to warehouse undesirables until such time as the land could be colonized with German settlers.
Very soon, Jews found themselves legally declared non-humans. They were rounded up into ghettos, worked as slaves, and summarily executed. As the “Final Solution” unfolded, they began to be shipped to death camps as well. Resistance to this calamity came in many different forms, including groups that gathered maps and information, smuggled necessary supplies, and hid those who were able to escape. A smaller number decided to mount an armed struggle.
Among these active resisters, young women played important roles as intelligence operatives, couriers, and warriors. These women, Batalion explains, had important advantages over men, which allowed them to move more freely outside the ghettos. For one, they avoided the circumcision test, which the Nazis used to catch males suspected of trying to pass as gentiles. For another, classic chauvinism meant that females were often underestimated or unsuspected.
The Light of Days follows the exploits of around twenty of these female resisters. Some we follow throughout the book. Some we only know for a short while. No matter how long they are around, they hold the page with immediacy.
***
Initially, The Light of Days is a bit slow, as Batalion works to introduce all the characters, as well as the organizations to which they belonged, which were often in ideological conflict. The pace picks up drastically once the battle is joined during the Warsaw Uprising. Despite being well over 400 pages of text, the pages fly by with the swiftness of a thriller.
Occasionally, I thought Batalion’s obvious passion for this subject matter led to overwritten passages with a few too many flourishes, such as rhetorical questions, repeated phrases, inferred thoughts and emotions, and a dubiously-high number of exclamation points. Given the inherent vitalness of the underlying action, these novelistic touches felt unnecessary, even distracting. Batalion is far better when she is restrained in her telling, because an unadorned recounting of these women’s experiences is quite potent without being goosed with one-word sentences and one-sentence paragraphs.
***
The Light of Days is well-researched, as attested by Batalion’s annotated endnotes. This is history, not an act of imagination. That said, it is subjective rather than objective, and told strictly from the perspective of the Jewish women. The male fighters are mentioned as necessary, but are never allowed to hijack our focus. The Germans exist only as unnamed, faceless antagonists, a shadowed evil. Adolf Hitler does not appear, while Heinrich Himmler, head of the murderous SS, shows up only twice, and quite briefly. Save for an epigraph, the rabid antisemite General Jurgen Stroop never joins the narrative, despite being in charge of the Germans who razed the Warsaw Ghetto
This is a bit odd, but I understood Batalion’s intent. Sometimes, the only way to correct a distortion is by another distortion. She wants to center her characters without our attention being drawn away. In that, she succeeds.
***
The downside to this approach, in my opinion, is that Batalion has avoided not only German perspectives, but apparently German documentation. During the Warsaw Ghetto fight, for instance, one of Batalion’s sources claims 300 Germans killed, while Stroop reported less than twenty. Obviously, the Germans might have been lying, yet this discrepancy is not reported, much less explored.
This can be forgiven, as The Light of Days is about humans, not statistics. Nevertheless, Batalion narrates some thinly-sourced scenes without any explanation. She relies heavily on memoirs, which can be notoriously tricky as primary sources. The reason is that they often combine eyewitness testimony with supposition, rumors, and secondhand information. Batalion states that she tried to corroborate and cross-index. Ultimately, however, she sides with the woman telling the tale, regardless of plausibility.
The starkest example comes during an episode that purportedly took place at a liquidation camp. According to a prisoner, an unidentified Nazi commandant plucked beautiful Jewish women from the crowd, dressed them in fancy dresses, brought them to a party, and forced them to dance with SS members. During the dance – a literal danse macabre – the women were shot in the head by the commandant. Having read thousands of pages about the Holocaust, this might be the single most shocking thing I’ve seen. Unfortunately, the source is a person who was not there, and who heard it from a person who also could not have been there. Once they constructed Auschwitz, the Germans lost the benefit of the doubt. Still, this feels like hearsay that – while figuratively true, and symbolic of Nazi depravity – is not based on hard evidence.
***
The dramatic climax of The Light of Days comes during the war. My favorite parts, however, are the closing chapters, in which Batalion follows the survivors – many of them “premature orphans” who have lost their entire families – as they attempt to forge the semblance of a normal life. It is an effecting struggle, one in which not all triumphed. These summation chapters also delve into the reasons these women’s stories were downplayed in the first place, sometimes sacrificed to the necessities of Israeli politics.
Batalion concludes The Light of Days with a bit of explanation regarding her methodology, and the choices she made. Her reasoning is sensitive, and though I stand by my critiques, I appreciated her motivations.
***
In general, the resistance movements around the world did little to change or even shorten the war. The Jewish resistance in particular could not stop the Holocaust, and Batalion stays well clear of any such claims.
Instead, the decision to fight back was an act of agency. It was a seizure of a small semblance of control in an otherwise vast and impersonal conflict. Moral victories can be overstated; they can also be too easily dismissed.
Whatever the true casualties suffered by the Germans in the Warsaw Uprising, it is worth noting that the female fighters terrified them. They are emphasized in Nazi accounts for their ferociousness, their nimbleness, their suicidal willingness to die, as long as they took a German with them. “Devils or goddesses,” General Stroop called them, also referring to them as hallucinations. It’s fair to ponder whether, as they faced this resistance – these women with pistols and grenades, shouting curses with their last breaths – the Germans first realized that despite their best efforts, they would never succeed in their annihilationist quest, and that the Jewish people would persevere and live on.
April 7, 2024
For the most part, war histories have been written by men, and brave women have been given short shrift. Judy Batalion helps correct this by telling the stories of Jewish women in Poland who resisted the Nazis during World War II. These women served as couriers, caretakers, and fighters, especially in Będzin, Krakow, Warsaw and other cities that had relatively large Jewish communities.
Jews in Warsaw before World War II
After the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939, Jews in cities were relegated to cramped ghettos where living space, food, medicine, clothing, money, sanitation, work papers, etc. were in short supply.
Warsaw Ghetto
Women smugglers who could pass for Polish Christians would sneak out, round up supplies, pass messages, and do what had to be done....with no thought to their own safety.
Some Jewish women in Poland could pass as Aryans
A female memoirist describes the girls in a diary: 'Heroic girls; boldly they travel back and forth through the cities and towns of Poland. They are in mortal danger every day. They rely entirely on their Aryan faces and on the peasant kerchiefs that cover their heads. Without a murmur, without a second's hesitation, they accept and carry out the most dangerous missions. If someone needed to travel to Vilna, Białystok, Lemberg [or other cities], to smuggle in contraband such as illegal publications, goods, money, the girls volunteer as though it's the most natural thing in the world. If comrades have to be rescued, they undertake the mission. Nothing stands in their way. The missions are dangerous; the women are often arrested and searched. But they are indefatigable.'
Jewish women resistance fighters
The book, which is almost 600 pages long, contains the stories of many women - all of them memorable. To provide a feel for the narrative, I'll briefly summarize one woman's tale.
In 1942, Renia Kukielkher was a 17-year-old girl living in the Warsaw Ghetto with her family. Jews who made their way to the ghetto from outside told horrible tales. Renia heard the story of a German, foaming at the mouth who killed two infants by kicking them with spiked boots. The mother was ordered to watch, then dig them graves. The German finally crushed the mother's skull with the butt of his rifle.
On another day Renia saw a group of half-insane women - raggedy, pale, blue-lipped, and shaking - who told her that their town had been surrounded. Gunshots flew and the Nazis beat their children to death.
Nazis killed Jewish children
Other women told stories of Poles adding to the persecution, blackmailing Jews for money and possessions, under threat of turning them in.
When the Nazis began liquidating the Warsaw Ghetto, and deporting Jews to work camps and concentration camps (extermination camps), Renia's family decided to leave.
Krakow`s Polish Jews arriving at German Auschwitz concentration camp
Renia made it to a Nazi-run Jewish labor camp, where the workers hoped to be safe from deportation.
Nazi-run Jewish labor camp
The camp wasn't safe, however, and Renia left and began wandering around Poland. Renia was caught by police with dogs, but looked Aryan enough to pass for a Christian, and got away.
At a train station, Renia found a woman's purse with some money and a Polish passport, which was her ticket to travel.
Polish train station during World War II
After a harrowing journey - during which Renia lived in constant fear of being exposed as a Jew - she got a job as a housekeeper in the home of a half-German family called the Hollanders. There Renia pretended to be Catholic, went to church with the family, was careful to speak like a Pole, etc....all the time fearful of being outed as a Jew, and suffering from anxiety and insomnia.
Polish Catholics attended church on Sundays
Renia received letters from her sister, and learned that her family was living in the woods and suffering. Though it was very dangerous, Renia made up her mind to join them. Renia told the Hollanders her aunt was sick, and got permission to visit her. A smuggler helped Renia travel, with her Jewishness deeply buried. Renia finally made it to a Jewish enclave in Będzin, but all her relatives - except for one sister - was lost.
Będzin Ghetto
Wanting to help the Jewish cause, Renia became a courier for the resistance. If caught by Germans, couriers were imprisoned in filthy conditions, raped, beaten, starved, and either transported to concentration camps or killed. But Renia survived to tell her story.
Other women have tales similar to Renia's, and some even took part in armed rebellions. Women fought during the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto uprising, for example, and German soldiers were amazed to see women hand-to-hand fighting, shooting guns, and throwing grenades.
Warsaw Ghetto uprising
The book is hard to read because the disgusting, vicious, stomach-churning atrocities committed by the Nazis and (many) Poles are described in detail. Still, the bravery of the featured women is uplifting and inspiring, and it's good to see their stories told.
Author Judy Batalion
In an afterward, Judy Batalion writes that she took 12 years to write the book, most of it spent researching diaries, memoirs, testimonies, books, and writings in a variety of languages, including English, Yiddish, German, Hebrew, Polish and Russian. Battalion also traveled around the world to meet the descendants of the featured women, sifted through photographs and letters, and learned how the ladies lived during the post-war phase of their lives. Many of the women suffered from survivor's guilt and/or mental illness, and some committed suicide.
The book tells an important story of remarkable women, and is well worth reading.
Thanks to Netgalley, Judy Battalion, and William Morrow Publishers for a copy of the book.
You can follow my reviews at https://reviewsbybarbsaffer.blogspot.com
November 19, 2020
The Light of Days is the first book I have encountered that tells the stories of heroic young Jewish women in Poland who fought the oppression and subsequent Holocaust of their people with fervor and an undeniable braveness that I cannot imagine. It is immediately evident how well researched this book was by Judy Batalion and how important is was to her to tell these stories with as much respect and accuracy as possible. Her forward and authors notes were my most favourite parts of the book. I approached this read thinking it would be a semi-fictional "based on real stories and real women" story, a "The Secrets we Kept" style novel, but it really is a non-fiction piece almost reading like a research paper, with authors thoughts and the use of interjections like, "in one instance" and "it is reported that she said" woven through the accounts.
The audiobook was narrated by Mozhan Marno whose voice was very soothing yet strong and was the perfect compliment to tell these stories. It has quite a long running time at 16.25 hours. I am hopeful that, when released, Harper sets up an accessible webpage with a list of names, maps and photos to accompany the audiobook to round out the experience.
There are many young women featured here, all of whom sacrificed everything, even opportunities for personal freedom, to keep fighting in an attempt to secure those freedoms for others in the face of unspeakable brutality. I feel very well read on the atrocities of the Holocaust but had read very little about female freedom fighters in this time so was very interested to hear about these women. There were many tears shed listening to this, and many moments of thankfulness that my own life hasn't been subject to trials such as these women faced. Batalion does not shirk the atrocities here, the horrible sexual, depraved, barbaric, animalistic treatments are described in full.
There is a lot of information and full stories of each of the women's lives included. It was really a different read and at times changed it's mind as to whether it was telling a story or detailing an historical event but that didn't detract in my opinion as the author clearly felt both after committing so much of her life to tell the stories of these women. When I was done the book and hearing the author tell her own stories of traveling to the birth homes of these women in Poland and meeting with their present day families, I felt so emotional and connected and she made some really wonderful points about why some of these stories were never told, reasons both political and personal. She also remarked that none of these heroic women who lived and grew old were given assistance dealing with the fact that they survived and what that left them with to deal with, especially after the tortures they had endured and the loss of their young adult lives. I wished she had been comfortable with weaving her thoughts throughout the book as her voice was so welcomed at the end. I do feel that she wanted to respect these women's stories and wanted to give them a vessel and a voice and not overlay her own.
She did all of these women proud, they are portrayed with strength and compassion but still as women and although a dark and difficult read, I am grateful to Judy Batalion for telling their stories.
I am thankful to NetGalley and Harper Audio for an Advanced Reader Copy of this Audiobook, it will be released in April 2021 and and has also already been optioned for movie production by Steven Spielberg.
The audiobook was narrated by Mozhan Marno whose voice was very soothing yet strong and was the perfect compliment to tell these stories. It has quite a long running time at 16.25 hours. I am hopeful that, when released, Harper sets up an accessible webpage with a list of names, maps and photos to accompany the audiobook to round out the experience.
There are many young women featured here, all of whom sacrificed everything, even opportunities for personal freedom, to keep fighting in an attempt to secure those freedoms for others in the face of unspeakable brutality. I feel very well read on the atrocities of the Holocaust but had read very little about female freedom fighters in this time so was very interested to hear about these women. There were many tears shed listening to this, and many moments of thankfulness that my own life hasn't been subject to trials such as these women faced. Batalion does not shirk the atrocities here, the horrible sexual, depraved, barbaric, animalistic treatments are described in full.
There is a lot of information and full stories of each of the women's lives included. It was really a different read and at times changed it's mind as to whether it was telling a story or detailing an historical event but that didn't detract in my opinion as the author clearly felt both after committing so much of her life to tell the stories of these women. When I was done the book and hearing the author tell her own stories of traveling to the birth homes of these women in Poland and meeting with their present day families, I felt so emotional and connected and she made some really wonderful points about why some of these stories were never told, reasons both political and personal. She also remarked that none of these heroic women who lived and grew old were given assistance dealing with the fact that they survived and what that left them with to deal with, especially after the tortures they had endured and the loss of their young adult lives. I wished she had been comfortable with weaving her thoughts throughout the book as her voice was so welcomed at the end. I do feel that she wanted to respect these women's stories and wanted to give them a vessel and a voice and not overlay her own.
She did all of these women proud, they are portrayed with strength and compassion but still as women and although a dark and difficult read, I am grateful to Judy Batalion for telling their stories.
I am thankful to NetGalley and Harper Audio for an Advanced Reader Copy of this Audiobook, it will be released in April 2021 and and has also already been optioned for movie production by Steven Spielberg.
April 10, 2021
Audiobook... read by Mozhan
Marno / synced with the ebook (own)
From 1941 on, no Jews or anyone living in Poland were allowed to leave, the ghetto.
“The Light of Days” is an unveiling of anonymous Jewish women who displayed acts of astonishing bravery.
We meet Renia Kukielka, not yet 20 years of age at the start — “neither an idealist or a revolutionary but a savvy middle-class girl who happened to find herself in a sudden and unrelenting nightmare. She rose to the occasion, fueled by an inner sense of justice and by anger”.
Renia and other Polish Jewish women ( her sister Sarah, too), joined foreign resistance units. Some of these women went underground and established rescue networks to help fellow Jews hide or escape.
They resisted morally, spiritually, and culturally by concealing their identities distributing Jewish books, setting up soup kitchens for orphans.
Author, Judy Batalion (love the *lion* in her name), did phenomenal research. Reading her notes are of great interest.
This book is filled with stories about dozens of unknown young Jews who fought in the resistance against the Nazis, mainly from the inside of the Polish ghettos.
The “ghetto girls” paid off Gestapo guards....
“hid revolvers in loaves of bread, and helped build systems of underground bunkers. They flirted with Nazis, bought them off with wine, whiskey, and pastry, and, with stealth, shot and killed them. They carried out espionage missions for Moscow, distributed fake IDs and underground flyers, and were bearers of the truth about what was happening to Jews. They helped the sick and taught the children; they bombed German train lines and blew up Vilna’s Electric supply. They dressed up as non-Jews, worked as maids on the Aryan Side of town, and helped Jews escape the ghettos through canals and chimneys, by digging holes in walls and crawling across rooftops. They bribed executioners, wrote underground radio bulletins, upheld group morale, negotiated with Polish landowners, tricked the Gestapo into carrying their luggage filled with weapons, initiated a group of anti-Nazi Nazis, and, of course, Took care of most of the underground administration”.
The imprisonment,
mass shootings, forced labor,
starvation, and sterilization.... set up in the ghetto in the second half of 1941, was liquidated in 1943. Those who survived, were deported to the Belzec extermination camps and the Janowska concentration camps.
Judy Batalion, herself, comes from a family of Polish Jewish Holocaust survivors.
Her Montreal Jewish community was composed a largely of Holocaust survivor families—both Judy’s family and neighbors—who were each lived with painful and suffering family stories.
In some ways reading this book felt like a thriller. Maybe that’s why Steven Spielberg knew this was not only important story....but would draw flocks of people to see this book adapted for the screen.
This is non-fiction’ book that reads like a thriller....stories we wish ‘were’ fiction.
The woman we learn about acted with so much ferocity, fortitude, and even
violence when necessary.
Several of them had a chance to escape yet did not, some even chose to return and battle.
Their rebellious acts
spanned the gamut— from simple acts to more -cautious- elaborate complex planning.
Journeys with fake documents... escaping... facing danger every step of the way.
For some Jewish women, the goal was to rescue Jews; for others, to die and leave a legacy of dignity.
I tried to imagine what I would’ve done in some of these ladies situation. Would I have stayed to fight? Or would I have escaped if I had a chance?
There were cases where children were being taken to the extermination camps, and their mothers—who didn’t want them to be alone— went along with them, killing themselves as well.
I can’t think of anything much more sad than that. And I wouldn’t fault a mother for whatever choice she made.
Writing, proved, like we’ve learned through history in war before, was a savior. These women wrote, documented, wrote and wrote and wrote, hoping that, maybe, one day their notes would be read. They made four copies, and hide them, under floorboards.
The stories in here are so phenomenal.
I don’t care how many Holocaust books you’ve read, this isn’t those.
I have a friend, Lani, who is reading this book, along side with me —🙂—
This is a type of book one reads, and you’re happy to have somebody to discuss it with afterwards.
Not an easy book to read as anyone can understand, but the women’s courageous resilience was mind-blowing extraordinary.
By the end I came to think of these Jewish women as professional spies and front line comrades.
There was devastating horror ... as anyone of us can imagine.... but while fighting, planning, and working with purpose (while physically weak), they also told jokes, celebrated Shabbat when they could, chanted songs, found ways to keep each other’s spirits up.
The ending & photos included are really moving.
It worked well for me too sync ‘read & listen’.
Both formats were gripping, and outstanding.
Both formats were relatively easy to easy to follow.
It never felt like a textbook in other words.
Personally - I recommend it....
Yeah even during a pandemic.
I’m not sure when the movie is coming out but I can already imagine it.
Marno / synced with the ebook (own)
From 1941 on, no Jews or anyone living in Poland were allowed to leave, the ghetto.
“The Light of Days” is an unveiling of anonymous Jewish women who displayed acts of astonishing bravery.
We meet Renia Kukielka, not yet 20 years of age at the start — “neither an idealist or a revolutionary but a savvy middle-class girl who happened to find herself in a sudden and unrelenting nightmare. She rose to the occasion, fueled by an inner sense of justice and by anger”.
Renia and other Polish Jewish women ( her sister Sarah, too), joined foreign resistance units. Some of these women went underground and established rescue networks to help fellow Jews hide or escape.
They resisted morally, spiritually, and culturally by concealing their identities distributing Jewish books, setting up soup kitchens for orphans.
Author, Judy Batalion (love the *lion* in her name), did phenomenal research. Reading her notes are of great interest.
This book is filled with stories about dozens of unknown young Jews who fought in the resistance against the Nazis, mainly from the inside of the Polish ghettos.
The “ghetto girls” paid off Gestapo guards....
“hid revolvers in loaves of bread, and helped build systems of underground bunkers. They flirted with Nazis, bought them off with wine, whiskey, and pastry, and, with stealth, shot and killed them. They carried out espionage missions for Moscow, distributed fake IDs and underground flyers, and were bearers of the truth about what was happening to Jews. They helped the sick and taught the children; they bombed German train lines and blew up Vilna’s Electric supply. They dressed up as non-Jews, worked as maids on the Aryan Side of town, and helped Jews escape the ghettos through canals and chimneys, by digging holes in walls and crawling across rooftops. They bribed executioners, wrote underground radio bulletins, upheld group morale, negotiated with Polish landowners, tricked the Gestapo into carrying their luggage filled with weapons, initiated a group of anti-Nazi Nazis, and, of course, Took care of most of the underground administration”.
The imprisonment,
mass shootings, forced labor,
starvation, and sterilization.... set up in the ghetto in the second half of 1941, was liquidated in 1943. Those who survived, were deported to the Belzec extermination camps and the Janowska concentration camps.
Judy Batalion, herself, comes from a family of Polish Jewish Holocaust survivors.
Her Montreal Jewish community was composed a largely of Holocaust survivor families—both Judy’s family and neighbors—who were each lived with painful and suffering family stories.
In some ways reading this book felt like a thriller. Maybe that’s why Steven Spielberg knew this was not only important story....but would draw flocks of people to see this book adapted for the screen.
This is non-fiction’ book that reads like a thriller....stories we wish ‘were’ fiction.
The woman we learn about acted with so much ferocity, fortitude, and even
violence when necessary.
Several of them had a chance to escape yet did not, some even chose to return and battle.
Their rebellious acts
spanned the gamut— from simple acts to more -cautious- elaborate complex planning.
Journeys with fake documents... escaping... facing danger every step of the way.
For some Jewish women, the goal was to rescue Jews; for others, to die and leave a legacy of dignity.
I tried to imagine what I would’ve done in some of these ladies situation. Would I have stayed to fight? Or would I have escaped if I had a chance?
There were cases where children were being taken to the extermination camps, and their mothers—who didn’t want them to be alone— went along with them, killing themselves as well.
I can’t think of anything much more sad than that. And I wouldn’t fault a mother for whatever choice she made.
Writing, proved, like we’ve learned through history in war before, was a savior. These women wrote, documented, wrote and wrote and wrote, hoping that, maybe, one day their notes would be read. They made four copies, and hide them, under floorboards.
The stories in here are so phenomenal.
I don’t care how many Holocaust books you’ve read, this isn’t those.
I have a friend, Lani, who is reading this book, along side with me —🙂—
This is a type of book one reads, and you’re happy to have somebody to discuss it with afterwards.
Not an easy book to read as anyone can understand, but the women’s courageous resilience was mind-blowing extraordinary.
By the end I came to think of these Jewish women as professional spies and front line comrades.
There was devastating horror ... as anyone of us can imagine.... but while fighting, planning, and working with purpose (while physically weak), they also told jokes, celebrated Shabbat when they could, chanted songs, found ways to keep each other’s spirits up.
The ending & photos included are really moving.
It worked well for me too sync ‘read & listen’.
Both formats were gripping, and outstanding.
Both formats were relatively easy to easy to follow.
It never felt like a textbook in other words.
Personally - I recommend it....
Yeah even during a pandemic.
I’m not sure when the movie is coming out but I can already imagine it.
April 21, 2021
Quick thoughts:
A Steven Spielberg movie? One of the most important stories of WWII? The strength of brave Jewish women who became resistance fighters? Why have we not heard their stories before? This book gave me chills and inspired me in the best of ways.
It's a story of female friendship and bravery against all odds. I’m grateful Judy Batalion is shining a well-deserved spotlight on these remarkable women. I promise you, you will never, ever forget this true tale.
I received a gifted copy.
Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com and instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader
A Steven Spielberg movie? One of the most important stories of WWII? The strength of brave Jewish women who became resistance fighters? Why have we not heard their stories before? This book gave me chills and inspired me in the best of ways.
It's a story of female friendship and bravery against all odds. I’m grateful Judy Batalion is shining a well-deserved spotlight on these remarkable women. I promise you, you will never, ever forget this true tale.
I received a gifted copy.
Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com and instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader
April 30, 2021
I've read many holocaust books, which are always horrific. This one though was if possible even more so, but the bravery of these women left me without words. I had to keep.putting this book down, sometimes letting a day go by before picking it up again.
Hitler invades Poland and soon the News are forced into ghettoes. I never knew of these resistance movements by the news, how much many risked. Women were often sent on missions, as couriers, surveillance, retrieving weapons and forged papers. Men were suspect and it was easy to prove they were Jews by their circumcisions. Their are many names, though some of the women are paid more attention than others, so they became familiar as was their family stories.
The author spares the reader little. The murders in the ghettos, the cruelties of the camps, the sadistic guards, the killings of so many young children and infants, all graphically described. These women who did so much should be read about and remembered. Their bravery should be known.
ARC from Netgalley.
Hitler invades Poland and soon the News are forced into ghettoes. I never knew of these resistance movements by the news, how much many risked. Women were often sent on missions, as couriers, surveillance, retrieving weapons and forged papers. Men were suspect and it was easy to prove they were Jews by their circumcisions. Their are many names, though some of the women are paid more attention than others, so they became familiar as was their family stories.
The author spares the reader little. The murders in the ghettos, the cruelties of the camps, the sadistic guards, the killings of so many young children and infants, all graphically described. These women who did so much should be read about and remembered. Their bravery should be known.
ARC from Netgalley.
May 1, 2021
What I expected was the story of these amazing, courageous, brave women. I was disappointed.
The author obviously did a great deal of research and she seems to have incorporated every bit of information she had at hand.
The story of the women became bogged down somewhere within the pages of Polish history. The book is top heavy with information that could have been another book entirely. It’s one of those books that makes it hard for the reader to follow. There was TMI that added nothing to the women’s stories.
The author obviously did a great deal of research and she seems to have incorporated every bit of information she had at hand.
The story of the women became bogged down somewhere within the pages of Polish history. The book is top heavy with information that could have been another book entirely. It’s one of those books that makes it hard for the reader to follow. There was TMI that added nothing to the women’s stories.
March 6, 2020
This book was a bit of an information dump. I'm really glad that she did this research and brought these young women's stories to light, but there were so many characters and events that it was hard to keep track of them. It ended up feeling to me like I was reading a string of separate anecdotes. They were all gripping, but not as much as if I had been able to get attached to any of the characters. I think others will likely use this book as source material to write something that feels more like a story.
May 28, 2021
Everyone else seemed to love this book and I find that my negative review is in the minority. This was one of my most anticipated nonfiction reads of the year, especially when I found out that Spielberg has already optioned it.
This is a story that must be told, and my review is not based on the historical events and the astounding heroism of the Jewish Polish women in WWII - because this is a story that needs telling. Instead, my negative review has to do with Judy Batalion's writing and organization, which seemed all over the place. First, Batalion would have done better to focus on just a couple of these women resistors of WWII Poland. While the main character was Revia, there were at least a dozen others that I struggled to keep track of. Because of this, I was constantly trying to figure out who each woman was and their relationships to one another. I eventually gave up.
Adding to my frustration was the organization of the book. The chapters were constantly broken up with seemingly no rhyme or reason. Batalion would talk about Revia, then switch to some historical context, then go onto another woman, only to then return to Revia. This organization drove me crazy and I couldn't see any point to it. Is she trying to mimic the staccato nature of life during wartime? It seemed very ADD to me and kept me from connecting with the book.
It's clear that Batalion did a lot of research for this book. She's spent ten years doing research and she wants everything in the book. But it all doesn't need to be in this 450-page book. Exacerbating this: Batalion is repetitive. There might be different women, but many of them are doing similar things. For example, I had to read over and over again how one of the ways Jewish women were successful in the resistance is that they disguised themselves as non-Jews. The ways in which they did this was mentioned repeatedly. Again, better organization and editing would have been helpful.
I have a feeling that Spielberg's movie, if it is made, will be very good and probably only focus on Revia and one or two other women. It will be like HIDDEN FIGURES - a book I hated (again, because of the writing, not the content) and a movie I loved (focusing on the women's stories).
This is a story that must be told, and my review is not based on the historical events and the astounding heroism of the Jewish Polish women in WWII - because this is a story that needs telling. Instead, my negative review has to do with Judy Batalion's writing and organization, which seemed all over the place. First, Batalion would have done better to focus on just a couple of these women resistors of WWII Poland. While the main character was Revia, there were at least a dozen others that I struggled to keep track of. Because of this, I was constantly trying to figure out who each woman was and their relationships to one another. I eventually gave up.
Adding to my frustration was the organization of the book. The chapters were constantly broken up with seemingly no rhyme or reason. Batalion would talk about Revia, then switch to some historical context, then go onto another woman, only to then return to Revia. This organization drove me crazy and I couldn't see any point to it. Is she trying to mimic the staccato nature of life during wartime? It seemed very ADD to me and kept me from connecting with the book.
It's clear that Batalion did a lot of research for this book. She's spent ten years doing research and she wants everything in the book. But it all doesn't need to be in this 450-page book. Exacerbating this: Batalion is repetitive. There might be different women, but many of them are doing similar things. For example, I had to read over and over again how one of the ways Jewish women were successful in the resistance is that they disguised themselves as non-Jews. The ways in which they did this was mentioned repeatedly. Again, better organization and editing would have been helpful.
I have a feeling that Spielberg's movie, if it is made, will be very good and probably only focus on Revia and one or two other women. It will be like HIDDEN FIGURES - a book I hated (again, because of the writing, not the content) and a movie I loved (focusing on the women's stories).
July 29, 2021
This 461 page book is a huge, welcome accomplishment and a very important contribution to world history. I say world as opposed to Holocaust because it has even more import than for just that one horrific event. Batalion will hopefully be rewarded for her passionate and carefully researched book. I know a movie is forthcoming, but I hope there are some book awards, as well!
May 8, 2021
I found the accounts of resistance efforts a little too scattered at the beginning of the book. The last third of the book was incredibly suspenseful and horrifyingly detailed. 4.5 stars
December 20, 2021
I have a lot of thoughts and my first one is that I HATE the way this book was written, but I don’t want to dissuade other people from reading it because they definitely should. The author told the stories of different Jewish women who were in Polish ghettos and worked as resistance fighters. There were a few main characters that were followed throughout the story but many side stories about other women were placed randomly in the middle of chapters that completely interrupted the flow of the story and my train of thought. There were A LOT of names to remember and it was especially confusing because they were going between different locations so often. There were also a few very repetitive parts and the book could have been shorter. I think it would have been way more effective if the author either focused on the same two or three girls or dedicated a chapter to the story of a different woman. There were a few instances when the author would include a really interesting story and then abruptly moved on and I would be like wait that’s it?! There were also a few pages towards the middle of the book that explained what a courier was in more detail and why women made such good couriers and it would have been helpful for the author to include this information at the beginning of the book considering courier girls and other resistance fighters are literally the entire premise of the book. As inspiring as some of the included stories are, obviously Holocaust books are not meant to be entertaining but there is something to be said for engaging your readers and writing in an easy to follow way. I was and still am extremely frustrated with the structure of the book but the content was the most important part.
Next, there were several extremely horrific and disturbing details that made me have to put down the book for a while to calm down. As upsetting as it is, I think it is very very important for people to be reminded of how bad the Holocaust was because we often forget and take our own safety and comfort for granted.
I did learn a lot from this book and despite having a Jewish education, and learning a considerable amount about the Holocaust, I had never learnt about the events talked about in this book (like the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising) and it baffles me that we don’t talk about Jewish women resistance fighters more often. There were stories about teenagers and early women in their twenties waking in to Gestapo houses/ offices and shooting officers in the face and then walking back out again, women making homemade bombs and blowing up Nazis, saving other Jews, and enduring the worst suffering imaginable, etc AND NOBODY TALKS ABOUT IT. The author also gave explanations at the end of the book about why so many women’s stories were forgotten about.
Even though I despise the way this book was written I still 100% recommend that everyone should read it but you need to have patience. Maybe the April break would be a good time to read it.
Especially now that antisemitism is on the rise and more and more people have never heard about the Holocaust, education is THE MOST IMPORTANT THING and telling these kinds of stories is crucial so we never forget.
Next, there were several extremely horrific and disturbing details that made me have to put down the book for a while to calm down. As upsetting as it is, I think it is very very important for people to be reminded of how bad the Holocaust was because we often forget and take our own safety and comfort for granted.
I did learn a lot from this book and despite having a Jewish education, and learning a considerable amount about the Holocaust, I had never learnt about the events talked about in this book (like the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising) and it baffles me that we don’t talk about Jewish women resistance fighters more often. There were stories about teenagers and early women in their twenties waking in to Gestapo houses/ offices and shooting officers in the face and then walking back out again, women making homemade bombs and blowing up Nazis, saving other Jews, and enduring the worst suffering imaginable, etc AND NOBODY TALKS ABOUT IT. The author also gave explanations at the end of the book about why so many women’s stories were forgotten about.
Even though I despise the way this book was written I still 100% recommend that everyone should read it but you need to have patience. Maybe the April break would be a good time to read it.
Especially now that antisemitism is on the rise and more and more people have never heard about the Holocaust, education is THE MOST IMPORTANT THING and telling these kinds of stories is crucial so we never forget.
March 10, 2021
[Thank you to William Morrow/HarperCollins for the free Advance Reader's Edition]
I am a strong believer in reading any and everything documenting the Holocaust. As we move farther away from the years during which these atrocities took place, survivors are almost gone or will have passed soon. A distressing rise in social conservatism and far right beliefs means Holocaust deniers are continuing to spread their lies. So I will start this book review by saying, it is worth reading.
At the same time, however, I will say that it is a difficult book to get through. Painstakingly researched over (I believe) more than a decade, there is a lot. It is page after page of violence, pain, suffering to which we must all continue to bear witness. At the same time, the writing itself was uneven, vacillating between the melodrama that can come with recounting people's personal stories, particularly after having survived such horrors, and straightforward history. My preference is for the latter; historical fiction is its own genre, and not every writer can pull it off. The melodrama in these stories of incredible courage, stamina and survival is unnecessary -- they are compelling on face value.
This is the story of the Polish girls and women who made up the Resistance during World War II. Their stories must be told. If anything, I appreciated how much this book centered their lives and experiences -- as opposed to so many books focusing on the horrors of what the Nazis did to Jews and those who tried to help them, this book focused on those who fought back. And in this case, the girls and women, whose stories have consistently taken a back seat. There are many accounts of how girls and women were particularly brutalized during these times -- and Ms. Batalion offers stories of those who, with unimaginable strength, devised strategic plans, took great risks to help others, and ended up fighting and killing along with men. The sexism of the generation has not allowed for anywhere nearly enough of their stories to be told.
The first time I began to plow through it was Chapter 30, when Ms. Batalion's writing switches and becomes straightforward. The earlier chapters needed far better editing (words were occasionally missing, and perhaps that can be resolved in the final publication), not only for general editing purposes, but also to fix the circuity of the chapters and stories to make it easier to follow.
All that written, I will say again that it's worth a read, although it is a book you may need to put down and pick up again.
I am a strong believer in reading any and everything documenting the Holocaust. As we move farther away from the years during which these atrocities took place, survivors are almost gone or will have passed soon. A distressing rise in social conservatism and far right beliefs means Holocaust deniers are continuing to spread their lies. So I will start this book review by saying, it is worth reading.
At the same time, however, I will say that it is a difficult book to get through. Painstakingly researched over (I believe) more than a decade, there is a lot. It is page after page of violence, pain, suffering to which we must all continue to bear witness. At the same time, the writing itself was uneven, vacillating between the melodrama that can come with recounting people's personal stories, particularly after having survived such horrors, and straightforward history. My preference is for the latter; historical fiction is its own genre, and not every writer can pull it off. The melodrama in these stories of incredible courage, stamina and survival is unnecessary -- they are compelling on face value.
This is the story of the Polish girls and women who made up the Resistance during World War II. Their stories must be told. If anything, I appreciated how much this book centered their lives and experiences -- as opposed to so many books focusing on the horrors of what the Nazis did to Jews and those who tried to help them, this book focused on those who fought back. And in this case, the girls and women, whose stories have consistently taken a back seat. There are many accounts of how girls and women were particularly brutalized during these times -- and Ms. Batalion offers stories of those who, with unimaginable strength, devised strategic plans, took great risks to help others, and ended up fighting and killing along with men. The sexism of the generation has not allowed for anywhere nearly enough of their stories to be told.
The first time I began to plow through it was Chapter 30, when Ms. Batalion's writing switches and becomes straightforward. The earlier chapters needed far better editing (words were occasionally missing, and perhaps that can be resolved in the final publication), not only for general editing purposes, but also to fix the circuity of the chapters and stories to make it easier to follow.
All that written, I will say again that it's worth a read, although it is a book you may need to put down and pick up again.
September 8, 2023
A most important story, told in the most disorganised and confusing fashion. I’m still glad I read it as I know little on the subject.
What I do believe, I looked this up on the Web, is the Hague (where the United Nations International Court of Justice sits) in 1943 was occupied by the Germans; yet advice was given to seek refuge in the Hague. This cannot be correct. Also, I did feel that other episodes have been fictionalised. The thoughts and emotions of people who actually died in that time are relayed: that can only be supposition.
Overall, I did learn from this, but would suggest it needs to read with a large pinch of salt.
What I do believe, I looked this up on the Web, is the Hague (where the United Nations International Court of Justice sits) in 1943 was occupied by the Germans; yet advice was given to seek refuge in the Hague. This cannot be correct. Also, I did feel that other episodes have been fictionalised. The thoughts and emotions of people who actually died in that time are relayed: that can only be supposition.
Overall, I did learn from this, but would suggest it needs to read with a large pinch of salt.
November 1, 2022
This book spotlights the Jewish women who fought the Nazis, who have received much less recognition than their male counterparts. The most "Aryan looking" were selected as couriers, but others were also involved with undercover work, explosives and guns. Thoroughly researched, the book is understandably hard to read at times, with details of assault, gang rape, and grisly descriptions of torture and death. Thanks to the publisher and Edelweiss for the ARC.
May 26, 2021
I'm struggling on what to say about this book. This was a magnificent book that was very well researched. It told a story that NEEDS to be told that has been overlooked by historians or simply not shared by those who lived it. (Whether from PTSD, survivors guilt, caving to politics, or the misguided perception of "other people had it so much worse than I did, my story doesn't matter.") But it was also a hard and at times painful read. I could barely read two or three chapters a day without having to put it aside and collect myself. Batalion does not shy away from the horrors that these women experienced and witnessed. "Tell our story" is the phrase that pops up so many times throughout any history or biography of the Holocaust and this story of women who fought back is one that was almost lost to history. I'm so glad the author undertook what was definitely NOT an easy task to bring this story back into the light.
Because there seems to be confusion in the reviews, I will state CLEARLY this is not a historical fiction book. This is a historical book, thus it will read "like a history textbook." (like that's a bad thing?) But it is an important read all the same. (generally if the book has photographs, it's probably a historical book y'all and won't read like your every day novel)
Also, you should go into this book prepared to read some rather horrific things. These aren't glossed over or romanticized accounts. These are true atrocities that happened to real people. The accounts will haunt you, and they should. The kind of evil and hatred that enable these kinds of acts is unimaginable, but we should also keep in mind that very few people start off that way. It starts small and snowballs. Accounts like these should make us take a deep look inside ourselves for the small things that could snowball. We all have the potential for love and hate. Choose love.
Because there seems to be confusion in the reviews, I will state CLEARLY this is not a historical fiction book. This is a historical book, thus it will read "like a history textbook." (like that's a bad thing?) But it is an important read all the same. (generally if the book has photographs, it's probably a historical book y'all and won't read like your every day novel)
Also, you should go into this book prepared to read some rather horrific things. These aren't glossed over or romanticized accounts. These are true atrocities that happened to real people. The accounts will haunt you, and they should. The kind of evil and hatred that enable these kinds of acts is unimaginable, but we should also keep in mind that very few people start off that way. It starts small and snowballs. Accounts like these should make us take a deep look inside ourselves for the small things that could snowball. We all have the potential for love and hate. Choose love.
September 14, 2022
The Light of Days is a nonfiction book about the Women Resistance Fighters during World War II, specifically Jewish women in Poland. Having read many books about the war, it never ceases to amaze me the sheer acts of heroism when fighting against evil. For various reasons their contributions have largely been untold or long forgotten, and I'm thankful this book gives them the recognition they deserve.
A tremendous amount of effort was put into the research and writing. It's impressive when you consider so many of their stories were essentially lost due to things like the passage of time and info not available because of the general chaos of war. The author did a great job piecing together what she could with limited resources.
Photos are included of many of the people featured and I completely teared up when I got to the last photo of one of the survivors in her later years pictured with her granddaughter. I couldn't help but realize that it perfectly illustrated what she fought for so many years ago. She was fighting not just for her future, but for the next generation, and the generation after that.
Thank you to William Morrow for providing me with a copy! All thoughts expressed are my honest opinion.
A tremendous amount of effort was put into the research and writing. It's impressive when you consider so many of their stories were essentially lost due to things like the passage of time and info not available because of the general chaos of war. The author did a great job piecing together what she could with limited resources.
Photos are included of many of the people featured and I completely teared up when I got to the last photo of one of the survivors in her later years pictured with her granddaughter. I couldn't help but realize that it perfectly illustrated what she fought for so many years ago. She was fighting not just for her future, but for the next generation, and the generation after that.
Thank you to William Morrow for providing me with a copy! All thoughts expressed are my honest opinion.
March 31, 2021
Even Stephen King cannot duplicate the horror of reality. This is a book filled with horror and hope, not to mention man's inhumanity toward other humans.
Each woman portrayed is real and the research was as intricate as any forensic study and the brief creative forays (conversations and such) make it somewhat less nauseating.
In an afterward, the author explains that she took 12 years to write the book, most of it spent researching diaries, memoirs, testimonies, books, and writings in a variety of languages, including English, Yiddish, German, Hebrew, Polish and Russian. She also traveled around the world to meet the descendants of the featured women, sifted through photographs and letters, and learned how the ladies lived during the post-war phase of their lives. Many of the women suffered from survivor's guilt and/or mental illness, and some committed suicide.
I don't know how Mozhan Marno was able to narrate this so well. She is truly a voice actor.
I requested and received a free temporary audio copy from Harper Audio via NetGalley. Thank you!
Each woman portrayed is real and the research was as intricate as any forensic study and the brief creative forays (conversations and such) make it somewhat less nauseating.
In an afterward, the author explains that she took 12 years to write the book, most of it spent researching diaries, memoirs, testimonies, books, and writings in a variety of languages, including English, Yiddish, German, Hebrew, Polish and Russian. She also traveled around the world to meet the descendants of the featured women, sifted through photographs and letters, and learned how the ladies lived during the post-war phase of their lives. Many of the women suffered from survivor's guilt and/or mental illness, and some committed suicide.
I don't know how Mozhan Marno was able to narrate this so well. She is truly a voice actor.
I requested and received a free temporary audio copy from Harper Audio via NetGalley. Thank you!
May 9, 2021
It was easy to see that this book was very well researched. "A" for effort?
That said, I could not connect with any of the women's stories. If I'd been expecting an extended Time Magazine article, I might have tried a little harder. Instead, I found myself confused by all the names and characters, and had a terrible time engaging with the story overall.
That said, I could not connect with any of the women's stories. If I'd been expecting an extended Time Magazine article, I might have tried a little harder. Instead, I found myself confused by all the names and characters, and had a terrible time engaging with the story overall.
May 29, 2020
Intense. Well written. Well researched. Beyond just the more well-known activities of the Warsaw ghetto, the author shows how these brave women, traveled across borders, between occupied lands, connecting the pockets of Jewish civilians, forced into overcrowded ghettos across Poland and Lithuania. At first, focused on survival, they quickly realized there was no coming to terms with a machine bent on their death. Despite the difficulty in making connections with other Polish resistance groups, they began to focus on armed resistance and struggle. Passing as Poles, these young women - many in their teens, smuggled weapons, intelligence, documents past Germans, Polish police and blackmailers. The found Poles willing to hide Jews, arranged and distributed payments - all of this at an age when they should have been enjoying life and relaxing. Instead, they faced instant death, torture, imprisonment. And yet they persisted, found the inner strength to continue, to live, to survive, and to help others, even when they couldn't save their own families. These women and their bravery was "forgotten" for too long and this great book should help in this effort.
November 23, 2021
Judy Battalion writes, "Inspired by these women fighters' memoirs I began to see the importance of laying out stories that were multi-faceted, telling tales that were not black and white but ached in their ambivalence. History needs to account for complexities. We must all confront our past honestly, face the ways we are both victims and aggressors. Otherwise no-one will believe the storyteller and we will write ourselves out of any real conversation. Understanding does not have to mean forgiving, but it is a necessary step for self-possession and growth."
April 29, 2021
WOW. This is Nonfiction and it was unlike any other book (both fiction and nonfiction) that I've read about WWII. This covered so much about how Jewish women fought back in Poland. I've read of people stepping up when it came to the Resistance, but this about those women who, when tragedy was at their door step, fought back and didn't go quietly to the work/death camps. They were organized and focused. Their stories were courageous and brave, not to mention both heartbreaking and heartwarming. And really, there was also so much tragedy that they witnessed and experienced.
Usually my 5 star books means that I'd read them again in a heartbeat. There has only been one book that I've given 5 stars that I don't think I'd ever read again and that was Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption. Now The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler's Ghettos will share that same shelf because I have the same gut reaction to this one as well. Definitely a story that needs to be told.
Usually my 5 star books means that I'd read them again in a heartbeat. There has only been one book that I've given 5 stars that I don't think I'd ever read again and that was Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption. Now The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler's Ghettos will share that same shelf because I have the same gut reaction to this one as well. Definitely a story that needs to be told.
December 16, 2020
This story begins in 1939 Poland. World War II is underway. While German soldiers begin to overtake the country by torture, extermination, and relocation, teenager Renia Kukielkher enlists the help of girls and other youth from the Polish ghettos to form a resistance against the Nazi occupation. These truly harrowing and often graphic tales from the survivors themselves, is downright horrific and yet inspirational. For those who read Band of Brothers and A Woman of No Importance.
January 1, 2021
I won this on goodreads First reads sweepstakes.
This book took me absolutely forever to read because it was so intense and heart-wrenching that I could only read 5 to 10 pages at a time. I knew that there were Jewish women who resisted the Nazis in WW2 and even were successful in causing damage to the nazi efforts, but this book was very informative as to how influential and effective these strong, resilient women were, and how very much impact they had on the efforts made to fight the genocide of WW2. It was heart-rending to read about the traumas they suffered at the hands of both Nazi and partisan Polish fighters.
I appreciate the efforts the author took to dig through the various, difficult-to-find accounts and compile them into a coherent narrative to enlighten the rest of the world about women whose names have been largely lost in the studies done on WW2 resistance efforts.
This book took me absolutely forever to read because it was so intense and heart-wrenching that I could only read 5 to 10 pages at a time. I knew that there were Jewish women who resisted the Nazis in WW2 and even were successful in causing damage to the nazi efforts, but this book was very informative as to how influential and effective these strong, resilient women were, and how very much impact they had on the efforts made to fight the genocide of WW2. It was heart-rending to read about the traumas they suffered at the hands of both Nazi and partisan Polish fighters.
I appreciate the efforts the author took to dig through the various, difficult-to-find accounts and compile them into a coherent narrative to enlighten the rest of the world about women whose names have been largely lost in the studies done on WW2 resistance efforts.
May 15, 2021
Excellent Book.
April 20, 2021
The role of women during the Holocaust be it their experiences in the death camps, participants in the resistance, and the effect of Nazi atrocities on the families of victims has not received the attention it should. Five years ago, Sarah Helms’ Ravensbruck: Life and Death in Hitler's Concentration Camp for Women was published and provided numerous insights into what women experienced in the camps, but their role in the resistance has not received the serious treatment that needed to be afforded until now with the publication of Judy Batalion’s THE LIGHT OF DAYS: THE UNTOLD STORY OF WOMEN RESISTANCE FIGHTERS IN HITLER’S GHETTOS. In her remarkable book Batalion has created a narrative that follows the exploits of a number of women who fought back against the Nazi genocide. Batalion focuses on Renia Kuklieka, who was a courier for the Zionist youth organization; “Freedom,” Zivia Lubetkin, a “Freedom” leader in the Jewish Fighting Organization (ZOB) and the Warsaw Ghetto uprising; Frumka Plotnicka, a “Freedom” comrade who led the fighting organization in Bedzin, Poland; and Vladka Meed, who rescued countless people from the Warsaw Ghetto and other acts of bravery and genius. There are numerous other courageous women that Batalion brings to the reader’s attention and they all exhibit an unimaginable degree of courage, tenacity, and empathy as they confronted their situation on a daily basis.
Batalion tells her story through the eyes of numerous women through their personal experiences, first trying to maintain a degree of normalcy once the Nazis invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. They would continue their work with Zionist Youth organizations working to gain passage to Palestine, trying and manipulate the Judenrat, and training their members for what appeared to be a dismal and dangerous future. Batalion examines the lives and personalities of these women and explores their character as they evolved into strategists, leaders, and carrying out dangerous missions. Their bravery was unquestioned, and their work was rewarding in that they chose to return to Poland rather than emigrate to Palestine in order to contribute as much as possible to derail the Nazi machine.
The origin of the book stems from Batalion’s research into the life of Hannah Senesh, one of the few female resisters in World War II not lost to history. While examining material in London’s British Library she came across a book written in Yiddish, FREUEN IN DI GHETTOS (WOMEN IIN THE GHETTOS) published in New York in 1946. Up until that time Batalion and numerous others were unaware how many women were involved in the resistance effort, nor to what degree. The stories recounted in the book speaks of women who engaged in violence, smuggling, gathering intelligence, committing sabotage, and engaging in combat. This exposure to the heroism of these women led Batalion to pursue her narrative that resulted in LIGHT OF DAYS.
The core of female exploits originated from “female ghetto fighters”: underground operatives who emerged from Jewish youth group movements and worked in the ghettos. These young women were combatants, editors of underground bulletins, and social activists. The role that stands out is the contribution women made as “couriers,” disguised as non-Jews who traveled between locked ghettos and towns all across Poland smuggling people, cash, documents, information, and weapons, many of which they obtained themselves. In addition, women fled into the forests and enlisted in partisan units, carrying out sabotage and intelligence missions.
Batalion has the uncanny ability to tell the personal stories of her protagonists uncovering their emotions, strengths, and private thoughts. She presents the horrors of ghetto and camp life that the Nazis perpetrated very clearly. She traces European anti-Semitism dating to the 19th century that culminated in Nazi atrocities. German malice and sadism are on full display as they carried out Hitler’s Final Solution which made Renia and her compatriots sick and haunted from what they witnessed. For Jews anything they did or said at any moment could result in execution of themselves and their families. Jews faced a dilemma even if they escaped the ghetto as their families would be eliminated in retaliation. The options women faced were limited; stay and try to protect the community, run, fight, or flight.
Batalion accurately and poignantly describes life in the Warsaw, Bedzin, and Vilna Ghettos. She examines people’s fears and coping strategies that were developed in order to survive from soup kitchens, autobiographical writings and meetings to share experiences, including medical care and cultural activities. Batalion presents a vivid portrait of the role women played in the preparation for the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. She delves into the acquisition of weapons, explosives, and other necessities including the training that women had undergone. The end result was a disaster from a military point of view, but it provided Jews with self-respect as they achieved revenge against the Germans as they killed over 300 Nazi soldiers suffering over 13,000 deaths of their own. Renia and others escaped to continue their goal of revenge against the Germans.
The resistance organizations that women were a part of were not uniform in their beliefs and strategies. Batalion explains their differences from the left wing Zionist groups to the more religious Akiva organization. The key for these groups was that they were led by individuals mostly in their late teens and late twenties who were committed to seeking vengeance against the Nazis. Batalion’s presentation allows the reader to get to know Renia who by 1944 was only 19 years old and her compatriots on a personal level in addition to their exploits on the battlefield.
Perhaps Batalion’s most powerful chapter, “The Courier Girls” offers a description that humanizes the women in a world of atrocities and genocide. Her details of their preparation and missions are eye opening and for them life affirming. Another important chapter, “Freedom in the Forests – Partisans” is well thought out as life in the forest was extremely difficult but the partisans accomplished a great deal. They set up a village of underground huts which included printing and weapons capabilities, medical attention, a communication network, the accumulation of clothing and food, in addition to the work of the couriers.
At times reading Batalion’s account is literary torture as she describes the use of sex as a means of exchange for survival, torture, rape and other perversions fostered by the Nazis. This material is difficult to digest unless you realize the perpetrators were a version of animals. How Renia and others did not lose their minds is beyond my comprehension.
Batalion’s narrative is somewhat bifurcated as she relates the actions of couriers, events in the ghettos, partisans in the forest, and preparation by all groups in seeking revolt and revenge against the Nazis. On the other hand, her story is one of endurance and survival as she probes the daily travails women faced under the most ominous conditions including imprisonment, torture, and the constant fear of death. A case in point is Renia’s capture resulting in constant torture and deportation to Auschwitz. Her story is one of amazement as she would survive the camp by escaping, traveling across Slovakia, Hungary and Turkey and eventually arriving in Haifa, Palestine on March 3, 1944.
Batalion’s epilogue is important as she delves into why women were left out of the “history of resistance” for so long. She focuses on the politics of the newly created state of Israel, how their role was viewed by American historians, the image of women needed to fit the policy and personal goals of the survivors, and why so many women “self-silenced.” It is clear that an incalculable number of women suffered from survival guilt, nightmares, and post-traumatic stress syndrome after the war, and Battalion’s recounting of their role is important to set the historical record straight, but also to clarify the emotions the survivors felt and how the next generation views what they accomplished. I agree with Sonia Purnell’s comments in her April 6, 2021 New York Times book review that a simpler narrative with fewer subjects might have been even more powerful.
Batalion tells her story through the eyes of numerous women through their personal experiences, first trying to maintain a degree of normalcy once the Nazis invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. They would continue their work with Zionist Youth organizations working to gain passage to Palestine, trying and manipulate the Judenrat, and training their members for what appeared to be a dismal and dangerous future. Batalion examines the lives and personalities of these women and explores their character as they evolved into strategists, leaders, and carrying out dangerous missions. Their bravery was unquestioned, and their work was rewarding in that they chose to return to Poland rather than emigrate to Palestine in order to contribute as much as possible to derail the Nazi machine.
The origin of the book stems from Batalion’s research into the life of Hannah Senesh, one of the few female resisters in World War II not lost to history. While examining material in London’s British Library she came across a book written in Yiddish, FREUEN IN DI GHETTOS (WOMEN IIN THE GHETTOS) published in New York in 1946. Up until that time Batalion and numerous others were unaware how many women were involved in the resistance effort, nor to what degree. The stories recounted in the book speaks of women who engaged in violence, smuggling, gathering intelligence, committing sabotage, and engaging in combat. This exposure to the heroism of these women led Batalion to pursue her narrative that resulted in LIGHT OF DAYS.
The core of female exploits originated from “female ghetto fighters”: underground operatives who emerged from Jewish youth group movements and worked in the ghettos. These young women were combatants, editors of underground bulletins, and social activists. The role that stands out is the contribution women made as “couriers,” disguised as non-Jews who traveled between locked ghettos and towns all across Poland smuggling people, cash, documents, information, and weapons, many of which they obtained themselves. In addition, women fled into the forests and enlisted in partisan units, carrying out sabotage and intelligence missions.
Batalion has the uncanny ability to tell the personal stories of her protagonists uncovering their emotions, strengths, and private thoughts. She presents the horrors of ghetto and camp life that the Nazis perpetrated very clearly. She traces European anti-Semitism dating to the 19th century that culminated in Nazi atrocities. German malice and sadism are on full display as they carried out Hitler’s Final Solution which made Renia and her compatriots sick and haunted from what they witnessed. For Jews anything they did or said at any moment could result in execution of themselves and their families. Jews faced a dilemma even if they escaped the ghetto as their families would be eliminated in retaliation. The options women faced were limited; stay and try to protect the community, run, fight, or flight.
Batalion accurately and poignantly describes life in the Warsaw, Bedzin, and Vilna Ghettos. She examines people’s fears and coping strategies that were developed in order to survive from soup kitchens, autobiographical writings and meetings to share experiences, including medical care and cultural activities. Batalion presents a vivid portrait of the role women played in the preparation for the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. She delves into the acquisition of weapons, explosives, and other necessities including the training that women had undergone. The end result was a disaster from a military point of view, but it provided Jews with self-respect as they achieved revenge against the Germans as they killed over 300 Nazi soldiers suffering over 13,000 deaths of their own. Renia and others escaped to continue their goal of revenge against the Germans.
The resistance organizations that women were a part of were not uniform in their beliefs and strategies. Batalion explains their differences from the left wing Zionist groups to the more religious Akiva organization. The key for these groups was that they were led by individuals mostly in their late teens and late twenties who were committed to seeking vengeance against the Nazis. Batalion’s presentation allows the reader to get to know Renia who by 1944 was only 19 years old and her compatriots on a personal level in addition to their exploits on the battlefield.
Perhaps Batalion’s most powerful chapter, “The Courier Girls” offers a description that humanizes the women in a world of atrocities and genocide. Her details of their preparation and missions are eye opening and for them life affirming. Another important chapter, “Freedom in the Forests – Partisans” is well thought out as life in the forest was extremely difficult but the partisans accomplished a great deal. They set up a village of underground huts which included printing and weapons capabilities, medical attention, a communication network, the accumulation of clothing and food, in addition to the work of the couriers.
At times reading Batalion’s account is literary torture as she describes the use of sex as a means of exchange for survival, torture, rape and other perversions fostered by the Nazis. This material is difficult to digest unless you realize the perpetrators were a version of animals. How Renia and others did not lose their minds is beyond my comprehension.
Batalion’s narrative is somewhat bifurcated as she relates the actions of couriers, events in the ghettos, partisans in the forest, and preparation by all groups in seeking revolt and revenge against the Nazis. On the other hand, her story is one of endurance and survival as she probes the daily travails women faced under the most ominous conditions including imprisonment, torture, and the constant fear of death. A case in point is Renia’s capture resulting in constant torture and deportation to Auschwitz. Her story is one of amazement as she would survive the camp by escaping, traveling across Slovakia, Hungary and Turkey and eventually arriving in Haifa, Palestine on March 3, 1944.
Batalion’s epilogue is important as she delves into why women were left out of the “history of resistance” for so long. She focuses on the politics of the newly created state of Israel, how their role was viewed by American historians, the image of women needed to fit the policy and personal goals of the survivors, and why so many women “self-silenced.” It is clear that an incalculable number of women suffered from survival guilt, nightmares, and post-traumatic stress syndrome after the war, and Battalion’s recounting of their role is important to set the historical record straight, but also to clarify the emotions the survivors felt and how the next generation views what they accomplished. I agree with Sonia Purnell’s comments in her April 6, 2021 New York Times book review that a simpler narrative with fewer subjects might have been even more powerful.
July 14, 2023
The Light of Days is the true story of female Polish Jews who fought in the resistance in world war 2. All of the information was new to me, and as such it was fascinating.
I listened to the audiobook, so I’m not sure if the style of writing or the narration was at fault, but I found the book dry and draggy. Too bad—these badass heroines deserved to have their story told.
I listened to the audiobook, so I’m not sure if the style of writing or the narration was at fault, but I found the book dry and draggy. Too bad—these badass heroines deserved to have their story told.
April 3, 2021
Awesome read and extremely well researched but a hard to read about all the deaths and suffering. Full review later. Definitely, a must read and I particularly enjoyed her write up of meeting survivors as she gathered material for her book.
See full review at: https://freshfiction.com/review.php?i...
See full review at: https://freshfiction.com/review.php?i...
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