In glitzy interwar Warsaw, truth meets fiction as 2 young women hunt for missing mentor

The Times of Israel
April 7, 2026

In ‘The Last Woman of Warsaw,’ out April 7, author Judy Batalion shows the Jewish diversity of the cosmopolitan city as an odd couple sets out to solve a mystery

Five years ago, it was clear to author Judy Batalion that she was not done with the determined, resilient young Jewish women she had come to know so well through work on her award-winning bestseller, “The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos.”

“I became very interested in this period. I knew there was more there, and I wanted to further explore the world that had created these audacious, stylish young Jewish women,” Batalion said.

This quest led her to Poland’s capital, Warsaw — the “Paris of the North” during the interwar period. Moving back in time several years to before the Nazi ghettos and partisan fighters featured in “The Light of Days,” she encountered a city of nearly 1.2 million residents bubbling with art, culture, and nightlife, while concurrently contending with political instability and growing right-wing nationalism and pro-Nazi sentiment.