Vladka Meed

Vladka Meed

Vladka Meed in 2005

Vladka Meed in 2005
Born Feigele Peltel
(1921-12-29)December 29, 1921
Warsaw, Poland
Died November 21, 2012(2012-11-21) (aged 90)
Paradise Valley, Arizona
Other names Feigele Peltel Miedzyrzecki
Spouse(s) Benjamin Meed
Children 2

Vladka Meed (born Feigele Peltel, December 29, 1921 – November 21, 2012) was a member of Jewish resistance in Poland who famously smuggled dynamite into the Warsaw Ghetto, and also helped children escape out of the Ghetto.[1][2]

Early life

Meed was born in Praga, a district of Warsaw, Poland to Hanna Peltel (née Antosiewicz)[3] and Shlomo Peltel.[4][5] Her father ran a haberdashery store. Meed was the oldest child; she had two siblings, sister Henia and brother Chaim.[5][6]

At 14, she joined Jewish Labor Bund and in 1942 the Jewish Combat Organization. Vladka's mother, brother, and sister died in Treblinka extermination camp.[7] Vladka and her future husband Benjamin Meed pretended to be Aryans and helped organize the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. They married in 1945 and survived both the Holocaust and World War II. They arrived in the US in 1946 with $8 between them.[8]

Career

In 1981, the Meeds founded the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors.[9][10]

Vladka Meed's book “On Both Sides of the Wall” was originally published in Yiddish in 1948 with a first hand account of her wartime experiences. The book was translated into English in 1972 (with a foreword by Elie Wiesel), and later into German, Polish and Japanese.[11] She also published in The Forward newspaper.

For nearly 20 years she organized a number of summer trips for teachers, educating them on the Holocaust, and the Jewish history of Warsaw. According to The New York Times obituary, she was a central source of the 2001 television film Uprising.[12]

Meed received a 1973 award of the Warsaw Ghetto Resistance Organization, the 1989 Morim Award of the Jewish Teachers’ Association, the 1993 Hadassah Henrietta Szold Award, and the 1995 Elie Wiesel Remembrance Award. She received an honorary degree from Hebrew Union College and Bar Ilan University.[13]

Personal life

The couple married shortly after the war, and in May 1946 they immigrated on the second boat, the Marine Flasher,[14] that carried survivors to the United States.[11] Meed's husband worked in the import-export business. They had two children, Steven and Anna, both of whom became physicians.

Meed died from Alzheimer's disease at her daughter’s home in Paradise Valley, Arizona.

Works and publication

References

  1. ↑ Oster, Marcy (26 November 2012). "Jewish Resistance fighter Vladka Meed dies at 90". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Retrieved 16 May 2015.
  2. ↑ Berenbaum, Michael (22 November 2012). "Vladka Meed, Warsaw Uprising Leader, Dies at 90". The Forward. Retrieved 16 May 2015.
  3. ↑ Meed, Vladka. "A Page of Testimony: Chana Peltel". Yad Vashem. Retrieved 17 May 2015.
  4. ↑ Meed, Vladka. "A Page of Testimony: Shlomo Peltel". Yad Vashem. Retrieved 17 May 2015.
  5. 1 2 "Vladka Meed: Visual History Biographic Profiles" (PDF). USC Shoah Foundation Institute. 2007. Retrieved 16 May 2015.
  6. ↑ "The International School for Holocaust Studies - Echoes and Reflections Lesson 6: Jewish Resistance". Yad Vashem. Retrieved 17 May 2015.
  7. ↑ NH (23 November 2012). "WWII Jewish courier Vladka Meed dies". Radio Poland. Retrieved 16 May 2015.
  8. ↑ Israel Jewish Scene (26 November 2012). "Warsaw Ghetto courier dies at 90". Ynetnews. Retrieved 16 May 2015.
  9. ↑ Fox, Margalit (26 October 2006). "Benjamin Meed, 88, Who Was a Key Advocate for Holocaust Survivors, Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 May 2015.
  10. ↑ Miller, Stephen (26 October 2006). "Benjamin Meed, 88, Organized Holocaust Survivors". New York Sun. Retrieved 16 May 2015.
  11. 1 2 Bernstein, Adam (22 November 2012). "Vladka Meed, courier for the Jewish resistance during WWII, dies at 90". The Washington Post. Retrieved 16 May 2015.
  12. ↑ Berger, Joseph (24 November 2012). "Vladka Meed, Who Infiltrated Warsaw Ghetto, Dies at 90". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 May 2015.
  13. ↑ Saidel, Rochelle G. (20 March 2009). "Vladka Meed, 1921-2012". Jewish Women's Archive. Retrieved 16 May 2015.
  14. ↑ Green, David B. (29 December 2014). "This Day in Jewish History / A woman who smuggled guns in and children out of Warsaw Ghetto is born". Haaretz. Retrieved 17 May 2015.

Further reading

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