The Light of Days by Judy Batalion is a nonfiction title that does a deep dive into the history of Jewish women resistance fighters in Poland during World War II. The author pored over stacks of first-person accounts from the survivors or histories told by family and friends after the war was over. The woman pictured on the front cover, Renia, was one of the lucky ones who lived through being arrested, imprisoned, sent to a work camp and who eventually escaped and lived into her 80s. This book also discusses the scope of Jewish activism within Poland and the Polish ghettos where the depth of Nazi atrocities documented by the survivors is truly heartbreaking.

I realized as I read this book how little I really knew about Jewish culture, history and learning in Poland, which the author delves into within the first third of the book, explaining how many of these young women were part of political youth movements before the war ever started. Educated, with strong work ethics, and close ties to family and their communities, they were uniquely poised to become the resistance fighters who would be instrumental in smuggling guns and forged papers into the ghettos, and trying to save people from the Aktions (which were brutal purges of the Jews living in the cities’ ghettos.)

Most of the history about these young women was lost, if indeed it was ever chronicled, and Batalion obviously spent hours upon hours researching the lives she found in the documents that did survive. It perhaps goes without saying that the book is filled with trigger warnings: War, abuse (physical and sexual), torture, death and torture. Please be aware if you choose to pick this one up. Perhaps because she survived and was able to tell her story with her own words, Renia is the most compelling story within this book, although the author includes many others of these resistance fighters. I found the multiple narratives somewhat confusing to follow, and wished that Renia’s story was given more of a focus to help hear her voice more clearly. I would, however, recommend this book as an important story that needs to be told about these courageous women (and men), and an untold one about World War II with implications that resonate today.

3.75/5 star read.