January 29, 2024
7:00PM
-
8:30PM
Temple Israel Columbus, 3100 East Broad Street, Columbus, OH 43209
Add to Calendar
2024-01-29 19:00:00
2024-01-29 20:30:00
Historians Elizabeth White and Joanna Sliwa Share "The Counterfeit Countess"
An International Holocaust Remembrance Day Spotlight: Noted Historians Elizabeth White and Joanna Sliwa in Conversation with Robin Judd! Presented by Gramercy Books Bexley. In a special International Holocaust Remembrance Day program, join noted historians and co-authors Dr. Elizabeth B. White and Dr. Joanna Sliwa to learn about The Counterfeit Countess: The Jewish Woman Who Rescued Thousands of Poles During the Holocaust, the astonishing story of the Jewish mathematician Dr. Josephine Janina Mehlberg, drawing on Mehlberg’s own unpublished memoir. White and Sliwa will be in conversation with Holocaust expert Dr. Robin Judd. Purchase TicketsThe purchase of The Counterfeit Countess waives the $12 registration fee. The JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER, MELTON CENTER FOR JEWISH STUDIES at The Ohio State University, OSU DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY, TEMPLE ISRAEL, and WOMEN'S PHILANTHROPY at JEWISHCOLUMBUS are Gramercy’s partners for this exclusive program. World War II and the Holocaust have given rise to many stories of resistance and rescue, but The Counterfeit Countess is unique. It tells the remarkable, unknown story of “Countess Janina Suchodolska,” a Jewish woman who rescued more than 10,000 Poles imprisoned by Poland’s Nazi occupiers. Mehlberg operated in Lublin, Poland, headquarters of Aktion Reinhard, the SS operation that murdered 1.7 million Jews in occupied Poland. Using the identity papers of a Polish aristocrat, she worked as a welfare official while also serving in the Polish resistance. With guile, cajolery, and steely persistence, the “Countess” persuaded SS officials to release thousands of Poles from the Majdanek concentration camp. She won permission to deliver food and medicine—even decorated Christmas trees—for thousands more of the camp’s prisoners. At the same time, she personally smuggled supplies and messages to resistance fighters imprisoned at Majdanek, where 63,000 Jews were murdered in gas chambers and shooting pits. Incredibly, she eluded detection, and ultimately survived the war and emigrated to the US. Drawing on the manuscript of Mehlberg’s own unpublished memoir, supplemented with prodigious research, Elizabeth White and Joanna Sliwa, professional historians and Holocaust experts, have uncovered the full story of this remarkable woman. They interweave Mehlberg’s sometimes harrowing personal testimony with broader historical narrative. Like The Light of Days, Schindler’s List, and Irena’s Children, The Counterfeit Countess is an unforgettable account of inspiring courage in the face of unspeakable cruelty.
Temple Israel Columbus, 3100 East Broad Street, Columbus, OH 43209
OSU ASC Drupal 8
ascwebservices@osu.edu
America/New_York
public
Date Range
2024-01-29 19:00:00
2024-01-29 20:30:00
Historians Elizabeth White and Joanna Sliwa Share "The Counterfeit Countess"
An International Holocaust Remembrance Day Spotlight: Noted Historians Elizabeth White and Joanna Sliwa in Conversation with Robin Judd! Presented by Gramercy Books Bexley. In a special International Holocaust Remembrance Day program, join noted historians and co-authors Dr. Elizabeth B. White and Dr. Joanna Sliwa to learn about The Counterfeit Countess: The Jewish Woman Who Rescued Thousands of Poles During the Holocaust, the astonishing story of the Jewish mathematician Dr. Josephine Janina Mehlberg, drawing on Mehlberg’s own unpublished memoir. White and Sliwa will be in conversation with Holocaust expert Dr. Robin Judd. Purchase TicketsThe purchase of The Counterfeit Countess waives the $12 registration fee. The JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER, MELTON CENTER FOR JEWISH STUDIES at The Ohio State University, OSU DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY, TEMPLE ISRAEL, and WOMEN'S PHILANTHROPY at JEWISHCOLUMBUS are Gramercy’s partners for this exclusive program. World War II and the Holocaust have given rise to many stories of resistance and rescue, but The Counterfeit Countess is unique. It tells the remarkable, unknown story of “Countess Janina Suchodolska,” a Jewish woman who rescued more than 10,000 Poles imprisoned by Poland’s Nazi occupiers. Mehlberg operated in Lublin, Poland, headquarters of Aktion Reinhard, the SS operation that murdered 1.7 million Jews in occupied Poland. Using the identity papers of a Polish aristocrat, she worked as a welfare official while also serving in the Polish resistance. With guile, cajolery, and steely persistence, the “Countess” persuaded SS officials to release thousands of Poles from the Majdanek concentration camp. She won permission to deliver food and medicine—even decorated Christmas trees—for thousands more of the camp’s prisoners. At the same time, she personally smuggled supplies and messages to resistance fighters imprisoned at Majdanek, where 63,000 Jews were murdered in gas chambers and shooting pits. Incredibly, she eluded detection, and ultimately survived the war and emigrated to the US. Drawing on the manuscript of Mehlberg’s own unpublished memoir, supplemented with prodigious research, Elizabeth White and Joanna Sliwa, professional historians and Holocaust experts, have uncovered the full story of this remarkable woman. They interweave Mehlberg’s sometimes harrowing personal testimony with broader historical narrative. Like The Light of Days, Schindler’s List, and Irena’s Children, The Counterfeit Countess is an unforgettable account of inspiring courage in the face of unspeakable cruelty.
Temple Israel Columbus, 3100 East Broad Street, Columbus, OH 43209
America/New_York
public
An International Holocaust Remembrance Day Spotlight: Noted Historians Elizabeth White and Joanna Sliwa in Conversation with Robin Judd! Presented by Gramercy Books Bexley.
In a special International Holocaust Remembrance Day program, join noted historians and co-authors Dr. Elizabeth B. White and Dr. Joanna Sliwa to learn about The Counterfeit Countess: The Jewish Woman Who Rescued Thousands of Poles During the Holocaust, the astonishing story of the Jewish mathematician Dr. Josephine Janina Mehlberg, drawing on Mehlberg’s own unpublished memoir. White and Sliwa will be in conversation with Holocaust expert Dr. Robin Judd.
The JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER, MELTON CENTER FOR JEWISH STUDIES at The Ohio State University, OSU DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY, TEMPLE ISRAEL, and WOMEN'S PHILANTHROPY at JEWISHCOLUMBUS are Gramercy’s partners for this exclusive program.
World War II and the Holocaust have given rise to many stories of resistance and rescue, but The Counterfeit Countess is unique. It tells the remarkable, unknown story of “Countess Janina Suchodolska,” a Jewish woman who rescued more than 10,000 Poles imprisoned by Poland’s Nazi occupiers.
Mehlberg operated in Lublin, Poland, headquarters of Aktion Reinhard, the SS operation that murdered 1.7 million Jews in occupied Poland. Using the identity papers of a Polish aristocrat, she worked as a welfare official while also serving in the Polish resistance. With guile, cajolery, and steely persistence, the “Countess” persuaded SS officials to release thousands of Poles from the Majdanek concentration camp. She won permission to deliver food and medicine—even decorated Christmas trees—for thousands more of the camp’s prisoners. At the same time, she personally smuggled supplies and messages to resistance fighters imprisoned at Majdanek, where 63,000 Jews were murdered in gas chambers and shooting pits. Incredibly, she eluded detection, and ultimately survived the war and emigrated to the US.
Drawing on the manuscript of Mehlberg’s own unpublished memoir, supplemented with prodigious research, Elizabeth White and Joanna Sliwa, professional historians and Holocaust experts, have uncovered the full story of this remarkable woman. They interweave Mehlberg’s sometimes harrowing personal testimony with broader historical narrative. Like The Light of Days, Schindler’s List, and Irena’s Children, The Counterfeit Countess is an unforgettable account of inspiring courage in the face of unspeakable cruelty.
