Elizabeth White & Joanna Sliwa 
Counterfeit Countess, The [EPUB ebook] 
The untold story of the Jewish heroine who defied the Holocaust

‘Powerful. . . . A heart-wrenching profile of resilience, ingenuity, and heroism.’ Publisher’s 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



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.



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. 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 Drawing on the manuscript of Mehlberg’s own unpublished memoir, supplemented with prodigious research, , historians and Holocaust experts Elizabeth White and Joanna Sliwa have uncovered the full story of this extraordinary woman.



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.

Circa l’autore

Dr Joanna Sliwa is an historian at the Conferenceon Jewish Material Claims Against Germany(Claims Conference) in New York, where shealso administers academic programmes. Shepreviously worked at the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, and at the Museumof Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial tothe Holocaust. She has taught Holocaustand Jewish history at Kean University and at Rutgers University and has served as a historicalconsultant and researcher, including for the PBSfilm In the Name of Their Mothers: The Story of Irena Sendler. Her first book, Jewish Childhoodin Kraków: A Microhistory of the Holocaustwon the 2020 Ernst Fraenkel Prize awardedby the Wiener Holocaust Library. She lives in Linden, New Jersey.