New Holocaust books by Canadians offer new perspectives

The Globe and Mail
July 2, 2021

Three books by Canadian authors reveal new information, new perspectives to add to the Holocaust literary canon

I recognize that books about the Holocaust might not fit with a lot of people’s ideas of summer reading material. My personal patterns are different. Rather than light and fluffy beach reads when I have time off, I like to go deep and dark. I find the summer is one of the few times I have the bandwidth to devour a good book for fun, as opposed to for my job (well, maybe “fun” is the wrong word in this instance).

In recent weeks, I have ploughed through a pile of books about the Holocaust (I am writing one, as well), including three by Canadian authors that really stood out. Even with all that I have read and know about this difficult topic, these books – memoir, history and fiction – revealed new information, offered new perspectives and proved to be important additions to the Holocaust literary canon. I recommend them all – to read this summer, or whenever.

The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos, Judy Batalion (William Morrow) 

Meticulously researched, this tome is a major addition to what we know about Jewish resistance during the Second World War. Judy Batalion spent years with diaries and testimonies to uncover and cross-check details – and the book is packed with them – of the brave actions of young Jewish women.

In 2007, Batalion, who grew up in Montreal, requested a stack of books about women’s history from the British Library; on the bottom of the pile was a book of nearly 200 pages of tiny Yiddish script – a gold mine. Freuen in di Ghettos (Women in the Ghettos), published in New York in 1946, was filled with stories of unknown young Jews who fought in the resistance, mainly from the Polish ghettos. Thus began the research project of a lifetime for Batalion, who comes from a family of Polish-Jewish Holocaust survivors.

When it came to operating in disguise as Christian Poles, these women had to take on the acting job of their lives. But they had a big advantage over their male counterparts, who would be immediately found out as Jews during the “pants-drop” test, because they were circumcised. Women smuggled food into the ghettos, warned Jews of the massacres that were taking place, created and distributed fake identification documents, found hiding spots for Jewish children, committed acts of sabotage and physically fought the Nazis. “A woman is fighting!” German soldiers screamed in disbelief during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

Ruzka Korczak hiked 40 miles through the forest in the freezing cold with a group of men to blow up a German munitions train. Bela Hazan got a job as a translator for the Grodno Gestapo, then used her Gestapo ID to travel and create fake documents for other Jews. As deportations began in the Warsaw Ghetto, Zivia Lubetkin – who would later participate in the uprising – was part of a group that set fire to abandoned houses and warehouses filled with goods looted from deported Jews. “We rejoiced as we saw the reflection of the revenge that was burning inside us, the symbol of the Jewish armed resistance that we had yearned for, for so long.”