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The Girl Who Fought Back

Vladka Meed and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (Scholastic Focus)

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

A Junior Library Guild Selection!

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising is one of history's most powerful acts of resistance. Here, author Joshua M. Greene (Signs of Survival) tells the true story of a young Jewish woman who was instrumental in the uprising as a smuggler of messages and weapons into and out of the Warsaw Ghetto.

Warsaw, Poland, 1940s: The Nazis are on the march, determined to wipe out the Jewish people of Europe. Teenage Vladka and her family are among the thousands of Jews forced to relocate behind the walls of the Warsaw Ghetto, a cramped, oppressive space full of starvation, suffering, and death.

When Vladka's family is deported to concentration camps, Vladka joins up with other young people in the ghetto who are part of the Jewish underground: a group determined to fight back against the Nazis, no matter the cost.

Vladka's role in the underground? To pass as a non-Jew, sneaking out of the ghetto to blend into Polish society while smuggling secret messages and weapons back over the ghetto wall. Every move she makes comes with the risk of being arrested or killed. But Vladka and her friends know that their missions are worth the danger-they are preparing for an uprising like no other, one that will challenge the Nazi war machine.

This astonishing true story of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, told through the lens of Holocaust survivor and educator Vladka Meed, introduces readers to a crucial piece of history while highlighting the persistence of bravery in the face of hate.

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    • Booklist

      April 15, 2024
      Grades 4-7 This true story recounts how Jewish teenager Vladka Meed posed as a Polish citizen to help save Jewish people imprisoned in the Warsaw ghetto during WWII. She smuggled Jewish women and children out and smuggled weapons and dynamite in. The book opens as Vladka witnesses the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising from outside the ghetto wall, but is unable to help. It then flashes back four years to explain how she first joined the Jewish resistance after her mother and siblings' deaths in Treblinka. The book suspensefully describes her close calls with SS officers, including one who suspects her of being Jewish because "she has sad eyes."" The book also details her marriage and postwar life in the U.S. This volume is based on a Vladka's memoir, other memoirs, and video recordings Vladka made between 1946 and 2012 (when she died at age 90). An exciting and inspiring story of a young woman who courageously risked her life to save other Jewish people during WWII.

      COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • School Library Journal

      May 1, 2024

      Gr 5 Up-In this latest entry in the narrative nonfiction series, readers learn about Vladka Meed, a teenage girl who completed hundreds of daring missions for the Resistance in World War II Warsaw. Born Feige Peltel to a Jewish family, her light brown hair and gray-green eyes masked her true identity. Her appearance allowed her to take risks others could not, securing a job, money, and food for her family forcibly relocated to Warsaw's Jewish ghetto. Her father died from illness and her mother, sister, and brother were deported to death camps. Deciding to use her appearance as a way to fight back, she joined ZOB, the Jewish Resistance, and was given the code name Vladka. She was able to blend in with the Christian Polish population, carrying out missions outside ghetto walls to secure weapons, money, and refuge for Jewish women and children. Interspersed with accounts of her increasingly dangerous exploits are short, fact-dense chapters adding context through historical details and period photographs. Greene's direct, engaging style will keep readers turning pages and emotionally invested in Meed's role in shaping history through the 1980s, when she and her husband established the Registry of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, a worldwide database with information on more than 200,000 individuals. Back matter is limited to a glossary and acknowledgments listing the author's sources, including Meed's memoir, published in English in 1993. VERDICT Ideal for classroom study of the Holocaust and for history lovers. Recommended.-Marybeth Kozikowski

      Copyright 2024 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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  • Kindle Book
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Languages

  • English

Levels

  • ATOS Level:7.1
  • Interest Level:4-8(MG)
  • Text Difficulty:6

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