Avenging angel risked her life to try to save Warsaw’s Jews — and lived to write about it

The Times of Israel
April 14, 2026

Updated English translation of Vladka Meed’s 1948 Yiddish memoir, ‘On Both Sides of the Wall,’ breathes new life into her experiences with the Jewish resistance against the Nazis

In May 1946, a reporter from the Yiddish newspaper, The Jewish Daily Forward, waited for Vladka Meed and her husband, Benjamin, as they disembarked from one of the first ships carrying European refugees from World War II to New York. The Jewish socialist publication knew that the 24-year-old Meed (a Bundist from childhood) had already spoken and written in Europe about her experiences in the Warsaw Ghetto resistance, and wanted its chance to ask her about them.

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“Vladka’s story stood out — not merely for its drama and her tremendous courage — but for how it was written. She provided context, developed characters, and included details. I was entirely drawn into her tragic and compelling world.” —Judy Batalion