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Vladka Meed is born in Praga, a district of Warsaw, in Poland. Her given name is Feigele Peltel. She had two little siblings

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She joins the Jewish Labour Bund in Poland, a Jewish socialist party which promoted Jewish autonomy and sought to fight antisemitism. It also promoted the Yiddish language and culture.

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Due to her typical "Aryan" appearance, she manages to get assigned to the Christian side of Warsaw, and avoids the ghetto. She picks up the name Vladka Meed and passes herself as a Christian.

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Vladka's father dies of pneumonia in the Warsaw Jewish ghetto, and the rest of her family gets sent to the Treblinka death camp. She is spared due to her working at a german factory, and therefore having papers to show the Nazis.

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Vladka joins the Jewish Combat Organisation, a WWII resistance movement

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Alongside her soon-to-be husband, Benjamin, Vladka would secretly smuggle weapons to the ghetto for the ZOB, as well as help Jewish children escape the ghetto and get shelter in Christian homes. She also helped Jews hiding in the city and established contact with some who were in the camps.

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The Warsaw uprising, 1st August to 2nd October, 1944

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The Warsaw uprising, 1st August to 2nd October, 1944

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She helped organise the uprising, which unfortunately ended with a loss after 63 days, and tons of casualties, mostly due to mass murder committed by the Germans, which targetted even civilians. 80% to 90% of the city was destroyed.

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Vladka marries Ben soon after the end of WWII. They emigrate to the U.S. and arrives in New York City on May 24, 1946 on the second ship of survivors, with $8 to their names. She would be sent to lecture about her experience by the Jewish Labor Committee and International Rescue Committee. She had a son and a daughter.

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Vladka writes a book in Yiddish detailing her experience during WWII called "On Both Sides of the Wall". It doesn't get translated into English until 1972. It's regarded as a historical piece for Jewish people's lives at the time

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She and Ben found the Warsaw Ghetto Resistance Organization. She gets an award from said organisation in 1973

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Vladka and her husband found the World/American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants, an umbrella organisation for Holocaust remembrance, education and commemoration programs, as well as support and advocacy for survivors. Its reunions in Jerusalem and Washington D.C. end up gathering thousands, with Reagan even showing up.

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As a result of the Holocaust becoming part of the American curriculum, teachers could take a three and a half weeks long program in Israel and Poland, organised by Meed.

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She gets the Morim Award of the Jewish Teachers' Association, Hadassah Henrietta Szold Award and Elie Wiesel Remembrance Award, respectively. She also receives an honorary degree from both the Hebrew Union College and Bar Ilan University.

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After getting to the US, she starts doing lectures about the Holocaust, and continued to be extremely active in Holocaust education and memorialisation. She would organise events to celebrate Yiddish culture and was the only Yiddish language commentator on New York's Yiddish radio station for about ten years.

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Vladka Meed dies of Alzheimer's disease at the ripe old age of 90 inside of her daughter's home in Paradise Valley, Arizona

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After her family is sent to Treblinka and killed, she gets misidentified as Aryan and starts aiding the Jewish ghetto in secret, smuggling weapons and saving children. After the war, she migrates to the United States with her husband Ben. She went on to write an autobiography. She received multiple awards and continued to advocate for Holocaust remembrance and education as well as Yiddish culture.