The Light of Days became a New York Times Bestseller, winner of a National Jewish Book Award and has now been optioned by Steven Spielberg for a major motion picture. Author Judy Batalion joins us for her only in-person UK appearance since its publication last year.
This spectacular, searing history brings to light the extraordinary accomplishments of brave Jewish women who inspired Poland’s Jewish youth groups to resist the Nazis.
Witnesses to the brutal murder of their families and the violent destruction of their communities, a cadre of Jewish women in Poland – some still in their teens – became the heart of a wide-ranging resistance network that fought the Nazis. They helped build life-saving systems of underground bunkers and sustained thousands of Jews in safe hiding places. They bribed Gestapo guards with liquor, assassinated Nazis and sabotaged German supply lines.
The Light of Days at last reveals the real history of these incredible women whose courageous yet little-known feats have been eclipsed by time.
Chaired by Mandy Wilkins.
Judy Batalion
Judy Batalion is the author of White Walls: A Memoir About Motherhood, Daughterhood and the Mess in Between. She has written for the New York Times, Vogue, the Washington Post and many other publications. Prior to her writing career, she was an academic, a stand-up comedian and an archivist. She is fluent in both Yiddish and Hebrew. Born and raised in Montreal, she had a few years in London before moving to New York.
Mandy Wilkins
Mandy is a children's social worker and founder of educational charity, Masambiro UK which supports a secondary school in Malawi.
Mandy grew up in the Jewish youth movement Habonim Dror where she first learnt about young people's resistance during the Holocaust. In 1998 she had the privilege of interviewing ghetto fighter Vitke Kovner, as part of her research into female ghetto fighters whilst studying History at Edinburgh University.
