Meet the Author: The Counterfeit Countess 

In 2024, the United Nations pays tribute to the bravery of all those who stood up to the Nazis, despite the grave risks. The theme guiding Holocaust education and remembrance in 2024 is “Recognizing the extraordinary courage of victims and survivors of the Holocaust.” Polish Jewish mathematician Dr. Josephine Janina Mehlberg survived the Holocaust. She successfully masqueraded as a Christian Polish aristocrat, and persuaded SS officials to release thousands of Poles from Majdanek concentration camp near Lublin. Dr. Mehlberg secured permission from the SS to deliver food and medicine for thousands more inmates, and smuggled supplies and messages to incarcerated resistance fighters. Incredibly, Dr. Mehlberg eluded detection, survived the war, and emigrated to the United States. On 27 February 2024, Elizabeth White and Joanna Sliwa, co-authors of the newly published 'The Counterfeit Countess: The Jewish Woman Who Rescued Thousands of Jews During the Holocaust,' discussed how they pieced together Dr. Josephine Janina Mehlberg's history and asked why so little has been known about this unrecognized hero.