The girl bandits of the Warsaw Ghetto : the true story of five courageous young women who sparked an uprising / Elizabeth R. Hyman.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A Holocaust historian, archivist, and history blogger adds a new dimension to the story of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising during World War II, shining a long overdue spotlight on five young, Polish Jewish women--champions who helped lead the resistance, sabotage the Nazis, and aid Jews in hiding across occupied Poland and Eastern Europe.

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising is one of the most storied events of the Holocaust, yet previous accounts of have almost entirely focused on its male participants. In The Girl Bandits of the Warsaw Ghetto, 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. They include:

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.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Prologue: Zivia in Geneva (1)
• Introduction: A Youth without a Future (6)
• Poland and Its Jews (7)
• The Girl Bandits (17)
• Notes on Sources and Narrative Scope (20)
• Chapter 1 A Cabinet of Girls (22)
• September 1939 (23)
• Occupied Warsaw and the Jews (31)
• The Cabinet Returns (36)
• A Ghetto in Warsaw (41)
• Chapter 2 Dancing on the Edge (44)
• Socioeconomics and Survival in the Warsaw Ghetto (44)
• Ghetto Maladies: Starvation, Typhus, and Sanitation (48)
• Clandestine Culture (51)
• Resistance (55)
• Bloody Friday (60)
• Chapter 3 Harbingers of Death (61)
• Operation Barbarossa (61)
• Vilna, Summer 1941 (64)
• Autumn 1941 (72)
• The Winter of 1941-1942 (74)
• The "Final Solution" (77)
• March 1942 (79)
• April 1942 (81)
• June 1942 (82)
• Chapter 4 Postcards from the Dead (85)
• July 1942 (85)
• August 1942 (95)
• September 1942 (100)
• Chapter 5 The Death of Feigele Peltel (108)
• Chapter 6 The Undisputed Authority in the Warsaw Ghetto (128)
• The "Little Uprising" (128)
• Attics, Bunkers, and Expropriations (133)
• Final Preparations (141)
• Chapter 7 Passover 1943 (144)
• Prelude: April 13-18 (144)
• Day 1: April 19 (146)
• Day 2: April 20 (152)
• Day 3: April 21 (154)
• Day 4: April 22 (155)
• Day 5: April 23 (157)
• Day 6: April 24 (161)
• Day 7: April 25 (163)
• Day 8: April 26 (165)
• Chapter 8 Mila 18 (167)
• April 28 (167)
• April 29 (168)
• May 1-6 (169)
• May 7 (172)
• May 8 (173)
• May 9 (176)
• May 10 (180)
• "The Jewish Quarter in Warsaw Exists No More" (186)
• Chapter 9 Gowno (189)
• The Rescued Fighters (189)
• Money and Melinas (192)
• Love, Apartments, and Death (203)
• D-Day (213)
• Chapter 10 Celina (218)
• August 1, 1944 (218)
• The Old Town (223)
• The Sewers Again (224)
• Zoliborz (226)
• Surrender (229)
• 41 Promyka Street (232)
• 1945 (241)
• Epilogue: Eichmann in Jerusalem (245)
• Acknowledgments (249)
• Notes (253)
• Glossary of Names and Terms (311)
• Bibliography (317)
• Primary Sources (317)
• Secondary Sources (321)
• Index (328)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

This detailed battle account of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising focuses on five young Polish Jewish women who were central figures in the Jewish resistance to Nazi Germany. Holocaust historian Hyman (author of the blog Historicity Was Already Taken) provides background information and context, describing the political landscape and circumstances during the years that led up to the revolt. This information is especially helpful for anyone not already aware of the event and its implications. The book captures the increasingly tense atmosphere in the Warsaw Ghetto through firsthand accounts from witnesses as they recognized Hitler's plan to wipe out the Jewish people. Hyman shows how the grim day-to-day existence in Poland and the Ghetto shaped the women at the narrative's core, prompting them to become heroines who saved many lives and continued to fight. While more demarcation between the women's stories would have been helpful, readers will still be entranced by all the emotion and intrigue of this emotional and thrilling account. VERDICT A superb addition to World War II and Holocaust history, recommended for all general collections.--Amanda Ray

Publishers Weekly Review

Historian and archivist Hyman debuts with a meticulous portrait of five women central to the resistance movement within the Warsaw Ghetto during WWII. Among those profiled are Vladka Meed, who smuggled powdered dynamite and illegal literature into the ghetto; Tema Schneiderman, a fearless beauty who volunteered for dangerous missions across Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe; Adina "Inka" Blady-Schweiger, a doctor forced to perform unthinkable mercy killings of starving residents; and Tosia Altman, who fought in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Along the way, Hyman sheds intriguing light on how the political and gender dynamics of Eastern European Jewish society between the two world wars prepared the young women for their resistance work. Students were often "highly politicized" and joined ideological youth groups, which provided the structure and training the "girl bandits" used in their dangerous activities. Moreover, in idealized Eastern European Jewish marriages, the "scholar-husband" stayed home to study the Talmud while his wife went to earn a living, leading Jewish mothers to raise daughters who were educated in Polish public schools and could blend into Polish society. Though the copious citations can sometimes bog down the narrative, the tales relayed here are tense and gripping. It's a spellbinding saga of daring acts of resistance in the face of certain death. (Oct.)Correction: An earlier version of this review mistakenly described the author as a librarian instead of an archivist.

Kirkus Book Review

Saying their names. In this uncompromisingly terrifying work of historical recovery, historian Hyman writes of the lives of the young women who led Polish Jewry into a period of confident self-awareness and then, ultimately, to the great and self-annihilating resistance of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising of 1943. Hyman retells a history of the Holocaust in women's voices. She illustrates how they were educated in the traditions of religious learning and Hebrew language. The Zionist impulses of the 1930s found some of their most vigorous leaders in the women born in Poland after World War I. They worked in the interstices of Polish Jewish life. Because they were not physically marked like Jewish men, and because they were largely ignored by occupying German authorities, they could move back and forth among the Jewish and non-Jewish spheres of Polish life. "It is in recognition of these women's psychological impact on the Jews of Occupied Poland, and their roles in organizing and supporting the Polish Jewish underground, that they were dubbed thekashariyot; a word derived from the Hebrewkesher, or 'connection.'" Zivia Lubetkin, the sisters Frumka and Hancia Plotnitzka, Lea Perlstein, and Tosia Altman--these are among heroines of the story. In a day-by-day chronicle of the ghetto uprising, women appear, trying to run their households, moving among the resistance, building communities of survival. They come alive in letters, memoirs, and reminiscences. Theirs is a story of friendship against hardship. As one of them, Feigele Peltel, writing under the assumed name of Vladka Kowalska, said, "We formed a close-knit group, almost a family, each looking after the other….In the warm atmosphere of camaraderie, we felt much more secure and at ease than even in the best hideout." We have no statues to their courage. Instead, we have this book. Women of the Jewish resistance come alive in this revisionary history of the Polish Holocaust. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.