WWII Archives - Little Edna's War

The Answer to the Monument

Articles, Blog, History, NewsFebruary 23, 2026132Views 0Likes 0Comments

In the center, rising in bronze, is Nathan Rapoport’s monument to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Mordechai Anielewicz stands at the front, grenade in hand, the fighters massed behind him. The monument was unveiled on April 19, 1948, the fifth anniversary of the uprising, on the ground where the ghetto once stood.

The Arithmetic of Survival

Articles, Blog, History, NewsFebruary 14, 2026181Views 0Likes 0Comments

The Arithmetic of Survival Ten Szureks entered the war. Four survived. The math did not end there. Miriam, Edna, and Yakov Szurek, postwar. Three siblings who survived the Holocaust on the Aryan side of Warsaw. Out of ten immediate family members, four survived. Look at this photograph. Three faces. A young woman.…

Summer of ’42

Articles, Blog, NewsFebruary 2, 2026168Views 0Likes 0Comments

A Beach in Nantucket. A Gas Chamber in Treblinka. Summer of '42 Two meanings of “Summer of ’42.” A coming-of-age romance for Americans. A season of mass murder for Europe’s Jews. In 1971, I was fourteen, sitting in a darkened movie theater, watching Jennifer O’Neill break my heart. Summer of ’42 was the film everyone was talking…

The Fury That Fell on Warsaw

Articles, History, NewsJanuary 5, 2026259Views 0Likes 0Comments

How Hitler’s rage after Operation Valkyrie shaped a nine-year-old’s war Janet Bond Brill, PhD SS forces in Wola, Warsaw Uprising, August 1944. Photo credit: Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-696-0426-22 / Leher / CC-BY-SA 3.0 August 5, 1944. Wola District, Warsaw. Amid smoke, rubble, and gunfire, a nine-year-old girl ran for her life. Her code name was KAJTEK.…

Pope Pius XII’s Most Ironic Blessing

History, NewsDecember 31, 2025213Views 0Likes 0Comments

When he honored the Oberlangen Girls—and never knew one was Jewish The Oberlangen Girls at St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City, 1946. In 1946, Pope Pius XII prepared to honor a group of young Polish women who had become symbols of resistance during World War II. They were known as the Oberlangen Girls—fighters in the…

Born at Mila 18 Street, Warsaw – Future headquarters of the resistance

History, NewsDecember 10, 2025198Views 0Likes 0Comments

Edna Stefania Brill – Warsaw, 1989 Standing at the Mila 18 memorial, site of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising command bunker. The mound was built from the stones of her childhood home. It was here, in this building, that would one day house the command bunker of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, that she came into the…

Pope Pius XII’s Most Ironic Blessing: When He Honored the Oberlangen Girls and Never Knew One Was Jewish

UncategorizedDecember 9, 2025153Views 0Likes 0Comments

In 1946, Pope Pius XII prepared to honor a group of young Polish women who had become symbols of resistance and courage during World War II. They were the famous Oberlangen Girls – decorated resistance fighters who had survived Nazi imprisonment as prisoners of war. Fifteen of these celebrated women were selected to receive papal…

The Slide into Fascism: Edna Lived Where Indifference Leads

NewsJune 14, 2025129Views 0Likes 0Comments

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." — Reverend Charles F. Aked, 1916 My mother-in-law, Edna Stefania Brill, didn't watch fascism arrive. She lived it. A Jewish child trapped in the Warsaw Ghetto, starving. She escaped to the Aryan side and lived disguised as a…

The Pope’s Secret: When a Jewish Resistance Fighter Received Papal Recognition

NewsFebruary 21, 20253KViews 0Likes 0Comments

In one of the most extraordinary ironies of World War II, a 12-year-old Jewish girl who had fought with the Polish resistance received a personal audience with Pope Pius XII in Italy in 1946. The Pope never knew her true identity.

Tag: WWII

The Answer to the Monument

The Arithmetic of Survival

Summer of ’42

The Fury That Fell on Warsaw

Pope Pius XII’s Most Ironic Blessing

Born at Mila 18 Street, Warsaw – Future headquarters of the resistance

Pope Pius XII’s Most Ironic Blessing: When He Honored the Oberlangen Girls and Never Knew One Was Jewish

The Slide into Fascism: Edna Lived Where Indifference Leads

The Pope’s Secret: When a Jewish Resistance Fighter Received Papal Recognition

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