Overview

The Holocaust has given rise to many accounts of resistance and rescue, but The Counterfeit Countess is unique. It tells the remarkable, untold story of 'Countess Janina Suchodolska', a Jewish woman named Janina Mehlberg who rescued more than 10,000 Poles imprisoned by their country's Nazi occupiers.Janina Mehlberg operated in Lublin, 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, clothing and medicine 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, survived the war and eventually emigrated to the USA. Drawing on the manuscript of Mehlberg's own unpublished memoir, supplemented with prodigious research, Elizabeth White and Joanna Sliwa, professional historians and Holocaust experts, have uncovered the full story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 extraordinary woman. They interweave Mehlberg's sometimes harrowing personal testimony with broader historical narrative. Unsparing yet inspiring, The Counterfeit Countess is an unforgettable account of selfless courage in the face of unspeakable cruelty, and a major addition to the history of the Holocaust.

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9781789467468

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Reviews

'Powerful. . . . A heart-wrenching profile of resilience, ingenuity, and heroism.' * Publishers Weekly * 'A story of courage, compassion, and cunning so profound that it must be included with the greatest Holocaust literature. Janina Mehlberg is a heroine for the ages.' -- Larry Loftis, New York Times bestselling author of The Watchmaker's Daughter * S&S NYC * 'The Counterfeit Countess is an extraordinary testament to courage, resilience and humanity during the darkest months of the Holocaust. Beautifully crafted and meticulously researched by two of America's powerhouse World War II historians, this riveting story will ensure that the world never forgets the utterly remarkable Josephine Janina Mehlberg and an epic rescue mission that defied great evil. You will not put this book down until the very last word -- it is a stunning piece of Holocaust history that will stick with you long after you're done.' -- Debbie Cenziper, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of Citizen 865: The Hunt for Hitler's Hidden Soldiers in America

'Mehlberg's achievement was not only to save lives, but also to inspire others to do the same. One hopes that the publication of her remarkable story will continue to do so.' - TLS -- Jeffrey Veidlinger * TLS * 'Powerful. . . . A heart-wrenching profile of resilience, ingenuity, and heroism.' * Publishers Weekly * 'The Counterfeit Countess is an extraordinary testament to courage, resilience and humanity during the darkest months of the Holocaust. Beautifully crafted and meticulously researched by two of America's powerhouse World War II historians, this riveting story will ensure that the world never forgets the utterly remarkable Josephine Janina Mehlberg and an epic rescue mission that defied great evil. You will not put this book down until the very last word -- it is a stunning piece of Holocaust history that will stick with you long after you're done.' -- Debbie Cenziper, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of Citizen 865: The Hunt for Hitler's Hidden Soldiers in America 'A story of courage, compassion, and cunning so profound that it must be included with the greatest Holocaust literature. Janina Mehlberg is a heroine for the ages.' -- Larry Loftis, New York Times bestselling author of The Watchmaker's Daughter * S&S NYC *

Author Information

Dr Elizabeth 'Barry' White recently retired from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, where she served as historian and as Research Director for the museum's Center for the Prevention of Genocide. Prior to working for the USHMM, Barry spent a career at the US Department of Justice working on investigations and prosecutions of Nazi criminals and other human-rights violators. She served as deputy director and chief historian of the Office of Special Investigations and as deputy chief and chief historian of the Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section. She lives in Falls Church, Virginia. Dr Joanna Sliwa is an historian at the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) in New York, where she also administers academic programmes. She previously worked at the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, and at the Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. She has taught Holocaust and Jewish history at Kean University and at Rutgers University and has served as a historical consultant and researcher, including for the PBS film In the Name of Their Mothers: The Story of Irena Sendler. Her first book, Jewish Childhood in Krakw: A Microhistory of the Holocaust won the 2020 Ernst Fraenkel Prize awarded by the Wiener Holocaust Library. She lives in Linden, New Jersey.

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