About:
The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos by Judy Batalion shines light on the mostly forgotten, and not often told, women resistance fighters in Poland. Ms. Batalion is a Canadian writer; this is her second book.
- 576 pages
- Publisher : William Morrow
- Language : English
- ISBN-10 : 0062874217
My rating for The Light of Days – 5
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More Books by Judy Batalion*
Thoughts:
As long as I’ll live, I’ll never understand the inhumanity humans can inflict on one another. The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos by Judy Batalion does not mince words about the bravery, and suffering at the hands of the Nazis and Poles as well. This is important to mention since the Polish government is legislating a rewriting of history casting themselves as victims. Not just in the interrogation rooms, but cruelty for sake of sadistic amusement as well.
The experiences of the women in this book are amazing, as well as astounding. The courage was unbelievable, to clarify, it was downright suicidal at many points. I never realized that they moved in and out of the ghettos and to Będzin, Krakow, Warsaw and other cities.
This is an extremely well researched book. The author writes that it took her 12 years to compile the narrative, searching through books, diaries, as well as testimonies in several languages. Ms. Batalion also interviewed the descendants of these women.
The book has a lot of information in it, and it’s very difficult to keep track of who’s who. Even for me, who is familiar with some of the identities and events it was a chore (to my amazement, I discovered at the end that I knew one of the women’s husbands). The result is that the reader follows these women around, but never has a personal stake (as funny as it might sound) in their journey. On the other hand, I have read several books about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and the author is absolutely correct in her assertions that these brave women were almost all erased from history.
The author, however, did justice to the women, whose courage, strength, and compassion is something most of us could only hope for. This is not an easy book to read, it does not mince words about torture techniques, plain brutality, and the difficult lives many lived during, and after World War II.
PurchaseThe Light of Days from Amazon.com*
More Books by Judy Batalion*
Zohar — Man of la Book
Disclaimer: I got this book for free
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