The Girl Bandits of the Warsaw Ghetto: The True Story of Five Courageous Young Women Who Sparked an Uprising

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.