The Counterfeit Countess

The Jewish Woman Who Rescued Thousands of Poles during the Holocaust

By: Elizabeth B. White, Joanna Sliwa

Narrated by: Gilli Messer

The “remarkable…inspiring” (The Wall Street Journal) true story of Dr. Josephine Janina Mehlberg—a Jewish mathematician who saved thousands of lives in Nazi-occupied Poland by masquerading as a Polish aristocrat—drawing on Mehlberg’s own unpublished memoir.

World War II and the Holocaust have given rise to many stories of resistance and rescue, but The Counterfeit Countess is unique. It tells the astonishing unknown story of “Countess Janina Suchodolska,” a Jewish woman who rescued more than 10,000 Poles imprisoned by Poland’s Nazi occupiers, becoming “a heroine for the ages” (Larry Loftis, author of The Watchmaker’s Daughter).

Mehlberg operated in Lublin, Poland, headquarters of Aktion Reinhard, the SS operation that murdered 1.7 million Jews in occupied Poland. 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. She won permission to deliver food and medicine—even decorated Christmas trees—for thousands more of the camp’s prisoners. At the same time, she personally smuggled supplies and messages to resistance fighters imprisoned in Majdanek, where 63,000 Jews were murdered in gas chambers and shooting pits. Incredibly, she eluded detection, and ultimately survived the war and emigrated to the US.

Drawing on the manuscript of Mehlberg’s own unpublished memoir supplemented with prodigious research, Elizabeth White and Joanna Sliwa, professional historians and Holocaust experts, have uncovered the full story of this remarkable woman. They interweave Mehlberg’s sometimes harrowing personal testimony with broader historical narrative. Like The Light of Days, Schindler’s List, and Irena’s Children, The Counterfeit Countess is a “riveting…stunning” (Debbie Cenziper, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and author of Citizen 865) account of inspiring courage in the face of unspeakable cruelty.

Very different Holocaust story

This is unlike any other stories of the Holocaust that I have read. Told by a Jewish woman from a very different perspective. Bless her.

This story makes you want to be better 

An incredible story of a woman who made a difference. It is a lesson for each of us, even today. 

Hero of WWII

She had every reason to hide, do nothing, never intervene but that just wasn't who she was. This was throughly researched, blending her own words with the facts found while verifying her story. If ever faced with choosing myself or choosing others I hope I am able to do what she did.

Inspiration during evil times

The human spirit never ceases to amaze in its capacity for good and evil. The Countess proves courage can rise above fear. To face death daily hour to hour, minute to minute is hard to fathom what that takes.

Her humility.

Very difficult to keep track of the foreign names but well worth taking the time to go back and gather the information.