Join us on Wednesday October 15th at 6:30pm for the Elting Memorial Library's latest program in partnership with Inquiring Minds Bookstore: the book launch for The Girl Bandits of the Warsaw Ghetto by Elizabeth R. Hyman. Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the event. Register to get an email reminder the day before the program. Registration is optional.


Book Description: "With THE GIRL BANDITS OF THE WARSAW GHETTO: The True Story of Five Courageous Young Women Who Sparked an Uprising (Harper Perennial; ISBN: 9780063355019; $19.99/ $24.99 Can.; Trade Paperback Original; On-sale: 10/14/2025), Holocaust historian, archivist, and history blogger Elizabeth R. Hyman 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 who helped lead the Jewish resistance, sabotage the Nazis, and aid Jews in hiding across occupied Poland and Eastern Europe. Known as “the girls” by the leadership of the resistance and “bandits” by their Nazi oppressors—they 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, Hyman’s ground-breaking new book 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.

Elizabeth R. Hyman is the descendant of Polish Jews who fled Europe in 1939 and made their way, as refugees, to the United States. She earned dual master’s degrees in History and Library and Information Science from the University of Maryland-College Park, and has written the history blog, “HISTORICITY (was already taken),” since 2011. She lives in New Paltz, New York.

For more, visit:
https://www.instagram.com/historicity_wasalreadytaken/

I hope you will want to give THE GIRL BANDITS OF THE WARSAW GHETTO a special look for best of fall lists and prominent review and feature coverage. Elizabeth is available for interviews and galleys are available now – let me know if you would like a copy. I look forward to speaking with you soon."