In 2007, I accidentally came across the dusty, old Yiddish book Freuen in di Ghettos (Women in the Ghettos). I expected mourning and gloom, but instead, this was a Yiddish thriller, filled with tales of young Jewish women who defied the Nazis by smuggling weapons, blowing up supply trains and organizing uprisings across Poland. Over the years, as I came to write a book about Jewish women’s resistance, I have read many, many books about the Holocaust. This year, for Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), I wanted to share a few that—like Freuen—jolted me. These are gripping tales that either I could not put down, or that stopped me in my tracks and made me think about the war in a slightly different and new way. Certainly, Holocaust works are not “light reading,” especially during a pandemic, but these books are uplifting for the tales of hope and resilience that they offer.
 
Books were critically important to young Jews during the Holocaust. The Nazis outlawed Jewish libraries, printing presses, books, and book stores. So young Jews revolted: they smuggled books into the ghettos, or out, for safekeeping. They started their own underground imprint using a mimeograph machine and whatever paper they could find.

They created clandestine libraries in kitchen cupboards, and distracted themselves while in hiding by reading popular mysteries and Gone with the Wind. In the Warsaw Ghetto, young women collaborated to create a catalogue of books that could be found in different houses, making this available to the public—their own form of a lending library. I am every day reminded of the sheer importance of our bookshops today—sanctuaries of debate, imagination, and liberty.

—Judy Batalion

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