The Light of Days Young Readers’ Edition: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler's Ghettos

Written by Judy Batalion

Narrated by Carlotta Brentan

This young readers’ edition tells the remarkable story, largely forgotten until now, of the young Jewish women who became resistance fighters against the Nazis during World War II. It has already been optioned by Steven Spielberg for a major motion picture.

As their communities were being destroyed, groups of Jewish women and teenage girls across Poland began transforming Jewish youth groups into resistance factions. These “ghetto girls” helped build systems of underground bunkers, paid off the Gestapo, and bombed German train lines.

At the center of the book is eighteen-year-old Renia Kukielka, who traveled across her war-torn country as a weapons smuggler and messenger. Other women who joined the cause served as armed fighters, spies, and saboteurs, all risking their lives for their missions.

Never before chronicled in full, this is the incredible account of the strong Jewish women who fought back against the seemingly unstoppable Nazi regime. It follows the women through arrests, internment, and for a lucky few, into the late 20th century and beyond.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Apr 6, 2021
• ISBN: 9780063037724

Judy Batalion

Judy Batalion is the New York Times bestselling author of the highly-acclaimed THE LIGHT OF DAYS: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos, published by William Morrow in April 2021. THE LIGHT OF DAYS has been published in a young readers’ edition, will be translated into nineteen languages, and has been optioned by Steven Spielberg for a major motion picture for which Judy is co-writing the screenplay. Judy is also the author of White Walls: A Memoir About Motherhood, Daughterhood and the Mess in Between, optioned by Warner Brothers, and her essays have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Forward, Vogue, and many other publications. Judy has a BA in the History of Science from Harvard, and a PhD in the History of Art from the Courtauld Institute, University of London, and has worked as a museum curator and university lecturer. Born in Montreal, where she grew up speaking English, French, Hebrew, and Yiddish, she lives in New York with her husband and three children.  https://www.judybatalion.com/

Reviews for The Light of Days Young Readers’ Edition

[Becky Baumgartner · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An important reminder that there were many, many "ordinary" women who rose to become extraordinary heroines during WWII. The young readers' adaptation conveys the seriousness of the historical events and the perils faced without going into gory or lurid details. Very well researched, and well narrated.

[vulco1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It's good. A bit dry and kind of long.Told in a series of visionettes while it follows mostly one woman through her journey and spins off to tell other women's (and tangetially men's) journeys through the war or at least thier part of it.Harrowing. Horrifying. Thrilling. I had to get about 20% of the way through before it started to get me, but it did.

[deslivres5 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I thought that I knew somewhat the history of Jewish Polish resistance during WWII. But the unfolding of the history of this particular group of Resistance Fighters, with the focus on the female Jewish couriers, gave me strength through their strength, continually going through risk after risk after risk and facing unimaginable odds in their goal to resist the Nazis. Amazing women.I especially appreciated the Epilogue and Author's Note which were interesting to understand the author's journey and to understand the choices she had to make during her research.

[lamour_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Batalion traveled Europe and Israel interviewing the descendants of the the Jews who fought against the Nazis in Poland. Most of the actual fighters had died by the time she started her research. She also did research in libraries and other research facilities in Canada, USA, Israel, and Europe including touring cities looking for actual buildings and battle sites where the Jews hid or fought back often to the surprise of the Gestapo and Polish civilians.In this volume one will find documented the horrific torture inflicted on individual Jews in order to learn information or to humiliate them. However, you will also be impressed how the Jews decided to fight back rather than go to the slaughter like a flock of sheep with only a few inadequate weapons. Aryans and Christian Poles who risk death to hide and rescued Jews are also noted.Tough reading but also inspiring. Lengthy bibliography if one wishes to do more reading.

[thewanderingjew_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos,-Judy Batalion, author; Mozhan Marhan, narratorThis is a story of Jewish women and girls who formed a resistance movement and fought Hitler and his Nazis. It is an important story, crying out to be told, because most of the world believes all Jews were led to the slaughter, without resisting; it is believed that the people of the book went quietly to their deaths, complying with the commands of their captors, even when they outnumbered them. The fact that they were so brutalized, and demeaned, and made totally helpless without any allies to help them, never entered the equation. The book begins in the 1940’s, and the author includes a brief history of the women and Zionism. It goes on to illustrate, in great detail, each of these women’s efforts to fight for the freedom of their country and their people, and in that illustration, it also opens eyes to the valiant efforts of not only the women, but the men, as well, including gentiles and Jews, who also fought the forces of evil that Hitler had spawned. The women who began to fight back, too numerous to name, came from a community in Poland that was largely Communist or Socialist. Their efforts spread to other towns and women. The author allows the reader a glimpse into their lives involving family and friends, their philosophy of life, and their enemies and the dangers they faced daily. Danger came from the Germans, the Poles and the Judenrat made up of their fellow Jews. Antisemitism was rampant and there were unknown collaborators, everywhere, eager to turn in a Jew for a crust of bread, so cheap were their lives believed to be. Jealousy and greed were motivators at first, but as the war raged on, poverty and starvation loomed large in everyone’s life. To survive, people took desperate measures on both sides of the battle. In most instances, the enemies of each other were barbaric in their behavior.The author took 12 years to complete this book and her extensive research and attention to detail and description attests to it.. She stays with each of the women until the end of the war and beyond, describing battles, captures, underground efforts, betrayals, punishments, torture, loyalty and even romance, until the conclusion in which she describes, ultimately, the survival of the few lucky ones. The war went on and on and they suffered emotionally and mentally from their war effort to challenge the Nazis. Every day they hoped and prayed for help and/or for an end to the horror, the slavery, the cruelty, the atrocious treatment of prisoners. Several of those involved committed suicide, before and after the war, never able to justify why they lived and others in their group, those they loved, were tortured and died. Not even the next generations of the survivors escaped unscathed from the onslaught of the terrible memories that the Jews had to deal with, since there were always invisible scars that could not be erased, what is called survivor’s guilt. The shadow of the Holocaust always loomed over them, in spite of the fact that it was often not discussed out loud. While the guilt of survivors may surprise some readers, the incredible amount of facts about the savagery, humiliation and degradation that the victims of Hitler and his minions had to endure will startle and shock them. Reading the details about the roundups, the selections, the camps, the torture, the sadism, the inhumane treatment without regard for the Geneva Conventions, and the murders for sport, coupled with the callousness of the Germans and the Poles, and sometimes their fellow Jews, will make the reader understand why there is so much emotional detritus associated with them. The policies of the National Socialists turned citizens into creatures so beaten, they would do anything to survive. The Jews were slaves, and no one cared. Yet they did show courage as they blew up bridges, sabotaged weapons, smuggled documents to the allies and fought the Germans whenever they found them. It was eye opening.There were some Poles who were not Nazis, but like elsewhere that Hitler invaded, there were too few. Hitler invoked such fear of retaliation, that anyone willing to help was soon discouraged. Only the very brave stepped up to the task. More likely, they took advantage of the Jewish plight and stole their property, blackmailed them or betrayed them and reported them to the authorities for rewards that surely did not equal the value of a human life, but Hitler’s policies convinced them that his enemies were less than human, and so, they participated in the murder of millions. There were over 400 Ghettoes in Poland, so it would be rather impossible to claim ignorance of what was happening. Many women (and men) fought back, sabotaged equipment, couriered documents, helped escaped prisoners of war and risked their lives to save the lives of others. This book is about several unsung Jewish female heroes. They knew they had no hope of beating the Germans, but they had no desire to acquiesce to their demands and “go quietly into the night”. The lies about their resettlement were slowly coming to light and they knew they faced being humiliated, tortured, starved and worked to death, if captured. They had few weapons and few allies. After the war, only 10% of the Jews of Poland survived. The losses were devastating with whole families wiped out. As one reads this book, it will be impossible not to be moved. How could decent people accept the ambitions of Hitler to kill those who were not perfect Aryans, according to him? How did mass hysteria grip a world without it becoming generally known that people were being rounded up and indiscriminately murdered? Did the world turn a blind eye, or was it truly blind? Many of those who supported the Nazis were motivated by jealousy and greed. They resented the success of the Jews, and although these people did not earn it, they wanted their share of what the Jews possessed. They wanted the spoils of this terrible war. When the war ended, many claimed they didn’t know what was really happening, but it was impossible for them not to have seen children mercilessly tortured and murdered in front of their parents, prisoners put in buildings and burnt alive, not to have noticed the empty apartments with all the belongings left behind which they took, and impossible not to wonder where these people had disappeared to when they smelt the scent of burning bodies in the crematoria. Few showed remorse, rather they were angry and still vindictive and cruel, even in their defeat.Although Hitler also murdered the disabled, the gay and the gypsies among others, this is not mentioned in this book. This book is about women who fought back. However, the reader must be left with the thought that without so many willing accomplices and subjects, wouldn’t Hitler have failed? Had other countries and citizens stepped up to help those targeted by the National Socialists, had they provided weapons and ammunition to the Freedom Fighters and resistance workers, had they bombed the transport routes, more victims could have fought back valiantly. There would have been hope, instead of the hopelessness that faced those who did fight with their limited means, gathering one or two weapons at a time, sabotaging German efforts in whatever way they could, even putting sugar into their gas tanks or not tightening the screws on their tools of war so that they would fail. They fought in the ghetto and in the forest, and they succeeded in sabotaging the Germans as they refused to go like sheep to their own slaughter. The retribution was savage, but they believed it to be worth it. Their honor and country, their people and way of life was being threatened. Someone had to survive to tell their story, and now, someone has.***The book is long and intense. It can’t be read in one sitting although it is written well. It needs to be read more than once. It needs to be read, period. There is so much information within these pages, it would be a pity for it to go unread and not to have the chance to open the eyes of people today to the dangers of current behavior, even in America., a country in the throes of change and chaos which may not be good for it, in the end.

[beamis12 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I've read many holocaust books, which are always horrific. This one though was if possible even more so, but the bravery of these women left me without words. I had to keep.putting this book down, sometimes letting a day go by before picking it up again.Hitler invades Poland and soon the News are forced into ghettoes. I never knew of these resistance movements by the news, how much many risked. Women were often sent on missions, as couriers, surveillance, retrieving weapons and forged papers. Men were suspect and it was easy to prove they were Jews by their circumcisions. Their are many names, though some of the women are paid more attention than others, so they became familiar as was their family stories.The author spares the reader little. The murders in the ghettos, the cruelties of the camps, the sadistic guards, the killings of so many young children and infants, all graphically described. These women who did so much should be read about and remembered. Their bravery should be known.ARC from Netgalley.

[bookwyrmm_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Uplifting true stories of female Jewish resistance fighters, but it was hard to keep all of them straight, which may have been easier with a print copy.

[brangwinn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Judy Batalion brings detailed research to her compelling story about the “ghetto girls” who are mostly forgotten eastern European women who were part of the resistance to the Nazis. These women were so successful that one was even hired as a secretary to the Gestapo. They were adept at disguises and traveled from Polish towns and ghettos acting as news broadcasters to the citizens. Instead of spreading hopelessness, the spread hope and determination. Not only were they smuggling information the smuggled in food and medical supplies. It took a lot of research reading memoirs and diaries including some hidden beneath floorboards and written on toilet paper.

[jetangen4571 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

horror, resistance-efforts, bravery, historical-places-events, historical-research, history-and-culture, history, Poland, criminal-acts, Jewish, Jewish-law, murder, gestapo, women, World War 2, biography, memoir, forgery, nonfiction*****Even Stephen King cannot duplicate the horror of reality. This is a book filled with horror and hope, not to mention man's inhumanity toward other humans.Each woman portrayed is real and the research was as intricate as any forensic study and the brief creative forays (conversations and such) make it somewhat less nauseating.In an afterward, the author explains that she took 12 years to write the book, most of it spent researching diaries, memoirs, testimonies, books, and writings in a variety of languages, including English, Yiddish, German, Hebrew, Polish and Russian. She also traveled around the world to meet the descendants of the featured women, sifted through photographs and letters, and learned how the ladies lived during the post-war phase of their lives. Many of the women suffered from survivor's guilt and/or mental illness, and some committed suicide.I don't know how Mozhan Marno was able to narrate this so well. She is truly a voice actor.I requested and received a free temporary audio copy from Harper Audio via NetGalley. Thank you!

[acargile-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

LIght of Days by Judy Batalion dropped me right into Poland during WWII.All of us have read and watched movies about WWII our whole lives because it's a fascinating and horrific time in history. It amazes each of us how cruel people can be to others. This book showed me what I hadn't seen in other books about how cruel the Nazis could be during interrogation. Ms. Batalion introduces many women who fought against the Nazi occupation. I'll be honest. I had a terrible time keeping everyone straight. I actually can't really tell much in a review because it's all muddled in my head. This book requires note-taking for me to follow every strand, and I did not take notes. Furthermore, you need some knowledge of the Jewish faith. I do not live in an area where there is much Jewish culture. I think I've met one person who practices the Jewish faith in my entire life. My lack of knowledge kept me from understanding certain parts as well. Despite my handicaps, the experiences of these women amazed me. They moved about a lot--both in and out of ghettos and cities, even prisons. I didn't realize how much movement was possible. They would get captured and escape. They would have to make decisions and then not know if family members would survive. They chose their chosen families often over their birth families. Most lost many if not all of their family members, yet they continued to fight. Several women displayed defiance as the Nazis killed them. When the war was over, I was most affected by the idea that surviving is hard. Maybe harder than dying. They had to find a life-- most wanted to move to Israel. Even this move wasn't easy. Their stories were wanted and then changed or discarded. So much sacrifice yet so little recognition--not that they sought glory for themselves--more that it seems as if their sacrifices were not valued so let's move on.The book is good--it introduces women who bravely completed actions many would never do. They were strong; they were brave; they were quick-witted and quick-footed; and they were loyal. I found the novel difficult to follow--it didn't read like a narrative in the sense that it wasn't very linear. It does proceed by chronological year, but you'll be reading about a character who meets up with another character and then you read a flashback or a part about that character that goes for a long time and then you have to remember what was going on when it returns to the original character. It jumps to different locations and different people, making it hard to remember who does what and what everyone's story or past is. I couldn't tell there was a unifying character although we are told who it is. This organization didn't work for me. At the end, I remember individual scenes, but I cannot tell you many names. The final part of the book detailing their lives after the war was most compelling and reveals so much character. The relationship with their children and grandchildren was interesting--easier to talk to grandkids than own children. It's an important book and I was pulled in, but I can't say that I am leaving with a full understanding--more due to my own shortcomings, I'm sure.