Vladka Meed by Hayleigh Smoot

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The Warsaw Ghetto

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Vladka Meed served the Jewish underground in the Warsaw Ghetto by passing as a Christian. Meed became a successful underground courier, smuggling weapons across the wall to the Jewish Fighting Organization. Meed came to New York immediately following the war and in 1948 she published a memoir about her experiences, On Both Sides of the Wall.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcqgClGTt60

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“In this land where we live today, the spirit of freedom for all was inscribed on the great Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. The same spirit was also close to us in the world from which we came. Its sound was heard in the idealistic Jewish youth from political ranks who became the core of the resistance fighters in the ghettos, in the forests, in the camps. They drew their idealism and their strength from the wellspring of our cultural treasures, which gave meaning and exaltation to their lives.”

Awards and Organizations

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Vladka Meed was vice president of the Jewish Labor Committee, she ran the Yiddish Cultural and Welfare Department for many years. She received numerous awards, including the 1993 Hadassah Henrietta Szold Award and the 1995 Elie Wiesel Remembrance Award. She was born on December 29, 1921 in Warsaw, where she became active in the Zukunft, the youth organization of the S.C., a strong Jewish socialist-democratic party, founded in 1897. The organization was opposed to Zionism and advocated Yiddish language and culture as well as secular Jewish nationalism in the Diaspora. Vladka Meed met Czeslaw (Benjamin) Miedzyrzecka, later known as Ben Meed (b. February 19, 1918 in Warsaw), in the underground in Warsaw. They married soon after the end of World War II, and arrived in New York City on May 24, 1946 on the second ship bringing survivors from Europe.

The Impact

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The Meeds dedicated their lives to teaching about the Holocaust, regularly lecturing and writing about their experiences. 1981, they helped organize the first World Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors in Jerusalem, and in 1983, they founded the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors. In 1985, Vladka initiated a landmark program that brought American teachers to Poland and Israel to learn about the Holocaust. Her 1993 memoir On Both Sides of the Wall recounts her wartime experiences and in 2014, Scholastic published her story as a book for middle school students, The Girl Who Fought Back, Vladka Meed and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKLeGBfyrJA

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“We are here – we Jews who survived. We are here to teach, to learn, to remember, to rebuild – to join hands among ourselves and with all other people in the world in celebration of the continuity of life.â€¦ We maintain the legacy of a people who never gave up, even in the darkest hours, and we shall preserve that memory for future generations.”

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This was a book written about Vladka Meed during the Warsaw Ghetto to share her accomplishments.

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“We carry this heritage with us everywhere. It has helped us find a new place for ourselves in America where we rebuilt our homes and families. America – the infinite variety of this great land, with its many races, creeds and nationalities – has enriched us all. And our Jewish cultural heritage has enriched America and the entire world.”

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOvbJ7equIU

Early Life

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Vladka Meed was born in Warsaw, Poland, on December 29, 1921, the eldest child in the family. Her given name was Feigele and she had two younger siblings, Chaim and Henia. The Peltel family owned a small store and was traditional, observing shabbat and Jewish customs.

When Germany invaded Poland, more than 3 million Jews lived there, 380,000 of them in Warsaw, making it the largest Jewish population in Europe. Anti-Jewish laws were swiftly implemented, and in October 1940, the Nazis established the Warsaw Ghetto. The city’s Jews, among them the Peltel family were enclosed by a 10-foot-high wall topped with barbed wire. Overcrowding, starvation and privation led to the death of over 80,000 Jews, including Vladka’s father.

Motivation

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In the mid-1980s, with the Holocaust beginning to become part of the American curriculum, Mrs. Meed arranged with the American Federation of Teachers and other groups to train teachers in Holocaust education. Every year a few dozen teachers would take a three-and-a-half-week program in Israel and Poland on teaching the Holocaust, including visits to the death camps and to the Warsaw that Mrs. Meed knew so intimately.

The program continues, and Steven Meed estimates that 750 teachers have been through it.

In a 1988 interview, Mrs. Meed explained her motivation.

“Our ranks are getting thinner and thinner,” she said, “and we were thinking how and who will continue to tell the story, but to tell the story in the right way.”

Coming to an End

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Vladka Meed, who with her flawless Polish and Aryan good looks was able to smuggle pistols, gasoline for firebombs and even dynamite to the Jewish fighters inside the Warsaw Ghetto, died Wednesday in Phoenix. The death was confirmed by her son, Steven Meed. The cause was later found to be Alzheimer’s disease.

The Holocaust's Impact on Vladka

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Vladka was devastated by the Holocaust. Having lost her entire family, she channeled her depression into fighting the Nazis. This gave her life a clear meaning. She already knew how to exploit her looks and fluent Polish; now she did this in the service of the underground youth movements that coalesced into a fighting force.