Vladka Meed by Eun-Bin Choi

Who was Vladka Meed?

echo1287_1_1 — 2025-03-11 05:37:00 UTC

Vladka Meed’s original name is Feigele Peltel.

She was the oldest of three children and her family was in the lower middle class. She was born on December 29, 1921 in Warsaw, Poland.

When she was 17, the Germans invaded Poland.

Start of resistance

echo1287_1_1 — 2025-03-11 05:50:45 UTC

When Vladka lost her entire family through the wave of the deportation of the Jews, she turned her depression into fighting the Nazis. She started her resistance work when the deportation of 265,000 Jews happened and when they were sent to the Treblinka death camp. She continued her resistance with the remnants in the ghetto.

Act of resistance

echo1287_1_1 — 2025-03-11 06:06:56 UTC

Vladka was involved in youth movements even before the war. She participated in cultural resistance by secretly continuing her education when the Germans closed Jewish schools. They listened to music, lectures, and held seminars. This was part of her unarmed resistance.

echo1287_1_1 — 2025-03-11 06:15:41 UTC

In 1962, Vladka Meed helped start the Warsaw Ghetto Resistance Organization.

In 1948, she published a book in Yiddish, On Both Sides of the Wall. It was the first published eyewitness account and was translated to many languages.

echo1287_1_1 — 2025-03-11 06:16:15 UTC

Vladka was a member of a small group of women that were called “couriers.” Some members were teens and they still risked their lives to travel from place to place. They smuggled guns, bombs, money and information. In 1983, she claimed at one interview that women were preferred to be couriers because men could be recognized as a Jew by circumcision.

Impact of resistance

echo1287_1_1 — 2025-03-11 06:20:41 UTC

Vladka went on the first boat that carried survivors that reached New york. She was invited to a lecture about her destroyed European Yiddish culture and her experience. She arranged with the American Federation of Teachers to train them on Holocaust education. They created a three-and-a-half week program to learn about the Holocaust and even visit the death camps. This impacted the education of the Holocaust remain constantly throughout the years in America.

Also, her book On Both Sides of the Wall became the central source of the television movie “Uprising” shown in 2001.

Interview of Vladka Meed

echo1287_1_1 — 2025-03-11 06:37:28 UTC

This was an interview of her in 1992

A quote from Vladka Meed

echo1287_1_1 — 2025-03-11 06:48:50 UTC

"I would also like to say to people not to take for granted – not freedom, not justice. You have to stand up for it. You have to defend this. To be your brother's keeper. To remember that the other needs, too, your help. Not to be passive when things are going on around you. Not to be indifferent. To be a participant in life, and to defend the rights of humanity."

echo1287_1_1 — 2025-03-11 21:48:58 UTC

She was a woman with incredible courage and bravery.

Her outstanding cheekbones and brownish hair made her look like a gentile. She used this advantage to make a false identity card to trick the non-Jews that she was one of them. She used this card to smuggle weapons, bombs and dynamites across the Warsaw ghetto wall. She also helped children to escape the ghettos and became an impassioned leader to educate children about the Holocaust.

echo1287_1_1 — 2025-03-11 21:58:57 UTC

False identification card.
Used through 1940-1942
Used it to smuggle weapons across the ghettos and to help save precious lives.

echo1287_1_1 — 2025-03-11 22:03:07 UTC

Published book by Vladka Meed in 1948, in Yiddish
First ever published eyewitness accounts
translated to many languages

echo1287_1_1 — 2025-03-11 22:05:42 UTC

She now the courier of the Jewish underground
She is now on the “non Jewish” side

echo1287_1_1 — 2025-03-11 22:07:03 UTC

Picture took in 1973 at the Warsaw Ghetto exhibit she put together.

Interesting facts

echo1287_1_1 — 2025-03-12 02:35:31 UTC

A group leader named Ben, allowed her to join his battalion. Vladka hid a map of Treblinka in her shoe but one of the Nazi guard recognized her suspicions. He ordered to take off all of her clothes, including her shoe, but she was saved by a distraction.

In the future, Ben became her husband.

She got inspiration from her mother, who sacrificed so much for her family. Her mother ate less so her children could have more and traded her bread for an education fee for her son. She was a model of resistance.

Vladka Meed's son stated that Vladka Meed died from Alzheimer’s disease at the age of 90.