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VIRTUAL: The Girl Bandits of the Warsaw Ghetto

with Historian Elizabeth R. Hyman

Holocaust historian Elizabeth Hyman introduces five young, courageous Polish Jewish women who were central to the Jewish resistance as fighters, commanders, couriers, and smugglers.

**PLEASE NOTE THIS IS A VIRTUAL PROGRAM THAT WILL TAKE PLACE VIA ZOOM. Registrants will receive a link to access the Zoom Webinar via email.**  

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising is one of the most storied events of the Holocaust, yet previous accounts of which have almost entirely focused on its male participants. In The Girl Bandits of the Warsaw Ghetto: The True Story of Five Courageous Young Women Who Sparked an Uprising, Holocaust historian Elizabeth Hyman introduces five young, courageous Polish Jewish women—known as “the girls” by the leadership of the resistance and “bandits” by their Nazi oppressors—who were central to the Jewish resistance as fighters, commanders, couriers, and smugglers. Join us as Elizabeth shares this extraordinary, important, and heretofore hidden history with us. 

RECORDING NOTE: This program will be recorded. All registrants will receive the recording via email within 48 hours of the program.

Presented in partnership with the Ashland Public Library.

About the book: 

Learn about:

Zivia Lubetkin, the most senior female member of the Jewish Fighting Organization Command Staff in Warsaw and a reluctant legend in her own time, who was immortalized by her code name, "Celina".

Vladka Meed, who smuggled dynamite into and illegal literature out of the Warsaw Ghetto in preparation for the uprising.

Dr. Idina “Inka” Blady-Schweiger, a young medical student who became a reluctant angel of mercy.

Tema Schneiderman, a tall, beautiful and fearless young woman who volunteered for smuggling and rescue missions across Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe.

Tossia Altman, a heroic courier with a poetic soul, who helped bring arms into the Warsaw Ghetto, fought in the Uprising, and ferried communiques to the outside world.

Interspersed with the stories of other Jewish women who resisted, The Girl Bandits of the Warsaw Ghetto rescues these women from the shadows of time, bringing to light their resilience, bravery, and cunning in the face of unspeakable hardship—inspiring stories of courage, daring, and resistance that must never be forgotten.

About Elizabeth: 

The granddaughter and great-granddaughter of Polish Jews who fled their homeland in 1939 and ultimately made their way, as refugees, to the United States, I earned dual master’s degrees in History and Library Science from the University of Maryland-College Park, and have written the history blog, “HISTORICITY (was already taken,” since 2011. I live in New Paltz, New York. My first book, a work of narrative non-fiction titled The Girl Bandits of the Warsaw Ghetto: The True Story of Five Courageous Young Women Who Sparked an Uprising will be released by Harper Perennial in Fall, 2025. 

I have spoken at such events as the Heroines of the Holocaust: New Frameworks of Resistance, International Symposium at the Wagner College Holocaust Center (June 16, 2022; Talk Titled: "Voices from Beyond the Grave: Tossia Altman and Tema Schneiderman") and the 15th Annual Conference on World War II at The National World War II Museum (November 18, 2022; Talk Titled: "Women in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising." 

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