“Little Edna’s War” Uncovers a Wartime Story of a Jewish Girl’s Survival and Resistance

A new memoir reveals the true story of a Jewish child in the Warsaw Ghetto and the Polish Resistance.

NEW YORK, NY – On January 27, 2026 – International Holocaust Remembrance Day – Little Edna’s War by Janet Bond Brill, PhD, delivers a harrowing account of Jewish childhood during the Holocaust under Nazi terror. Written in first person and drawn from more than five hours of testimony recorded by the USC Shoah Foundation, Little Edna’s War preserves a life that intersected with the defining events of the Holocaust and World War II.

Already recognized by BookLife Reviews as an Editor’s Pick and Highly Recommended by Midwest Book Review, the memoir traces the survival of Edna Szurek, a young Jewish girl born at Mila 18 – the address that would later become the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising’s legendary command bunker.

Dr. Michael Berenbaum, one of the world’s preeminent Holocaust scholars and former Project Director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, provides the foreword, calling it “A haunting and beautifully rendered memoir that ensures the voices of survivors will never fade into silence.”

Disguised as a Catholic child after escaping the Warsaw Ghetto, Edna became the youngest known member of the Polish Home Army at age 9. By 12, Pope Pius XII decorated her for bravery assisting the Polish Resistance, never knowing his “Catholic war hero” was actually a Jewish child in hiding.

The Polish resistance recruited nine-year-old Edna as a courier, sending her through sewers and sniper-patrolled streets with messages that could mean life or death. Her courage earned medals and that papal audience, the ultimate irony of her hidden identity.

She survived armed underground combat, the Wola Massacre, and capture as a prisoner of war. She was imprisoned at Oberlangen, the only all-female POW camp in Nazi Germany, before being liberated in April 1945 by the Polish 1st Armoured Division under British command.

This deeply personal project grew from Brill’s 37-year relationship with her mother-in-law and fills a crucial gap in Holocaust history.

“Survivors like my mother-in-law are leaving us,” says author Janet Bond Brill, PhD. “I wrote this because our children face a world where denial and antisemitism are rising. Edna’s story proves that one little girl’s courage defeated Hitler’s Final Solution.”

AVAILABILITY

Little Edna’s War By Janet Bond Brill, PhD

On sale: January 27, 2026 on International Holocaust Remembrance Day

366 pages 
ISBN (Hardcover): 978-9493418646

ISBN (Paperback): 978-9493418639

ISBN (E-Book): 978-9493418653

“Edna is not a distant historical figure. She is a girl we recognize: stubborn, spirited, hungry to live,” notes Amsterdam Publishers founder Liesbeth Heenk. “Little Edna’s War is an intimate, emotionally honest testament to identity, resilience, and the unbreakable will to survive—exactly the kind of lived truth we founded Amsterdam Publishers to bring into the world.”

Pre-orders available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, and Books-A-Million. Pre-order here: https://amzn.to/47JJsp8

About Janet Bond Brill

Janet Bond Brill, Ph.D., is an internationally recognized health author whose four books, including Cholesterol Down and Blood Pressure Down, have helped thousands improve their lives. Janet shared a 37-year bond with her mother-in-law Edna and wrote this memoir to preserve her testimony. Her current work focuses on Holocaust memory and the long-term impact of genocide on children and families. Dr. Brill has twice presented Edna’s story at the Pacific Lutheran University Powell-Heller Conference for Holocaust Education. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband Sam, Edna’s son. Together they cherish their three children and two grandchildren, who are themselves living proof that Hitler failed.To learn more, visit LittleEdnaswar.com.

Media Contact

Jeremy Broekman, Publicist  818-212-9201 | jeremy@broekmancomm.com