Jews murdered at synagogues and festivals. Jewish students harassed in schools and universities. Jewish businesses boycotted. Jewish customers kicked out of stores and restaurants. Jews being put on lists. Jews wondering if it’s time to leave their country. 1930s Germany? No. It’s happening now in Western democracies. Antisemitism has always been an early warning sign that something is really wrong in a nation. Countries that harm their Jewish population often go onto deeper horrors.
Non-fiction author Judy Batalion paints a picture of pre-World War II Poland in her debut novel, The Last Woman of Warsaw. Two young Jewish women struggle for independence as the clouds of antisemitism gather. Will they be able to protect themselves before it’s too late?
It’s 1938, and Fanny Zelshinsky, only daughter of a rich divorcee, is newly engaged. But she cares more about changing her college major from French to fine arts, and entering a photography show that would showcase her fashion photos. When her favorite professor Wanda Petrovsky disappears before she can approve Fanny’s transfer, Fanny becomes desperate to find her.
Grocer’s daughter Zosia Dror has left her shtetl for Warsaw in hopes of securing a visa to move to British Mandate for Palestine and play a part in securing the Jewish homeland there. But when the movement’s leader, Wanda Petrovsky, disappears, Zosia is torn between staying in Warsaw, returning to her family, or finding another way to create Eretz Israel.
The women are polar opposites—Fanny fearless and outspoken, Zosia insecure and doubtful—and at first they clash as they seek to find Wanda. But as they keep running into each other, eventually they realize they’ll need each other to help their mentor—and for whatever else is coming.
The Last Woman of Warsaw is unlike most books of the time period, which emphasize the danger the Jews are facing and usually conclude after the end of World War II. This novel is a slow burn, and Fanny in particular is so consumed with her photography and wanting to avoid her marriage that she barely notices the storm clouds. And while Zosia realizes danger is in the air, she’s so caught up in the politics of the movement—trying to figure out who’s really working to create a Jewish homeland and who only wants a ticket to Tel Aviv—and her crush on a co-worker that she’s not on high alert.
The city of Warsaw itself is also a character, teeming with art and fashion and positioning itself as the Paris of eastern Europe. Its Jews make up a hefty percentage of its citizens, and they work in important professions as financiers, university professors, lawyers. Jewish leaders are well aware of Hitler and his threats, but they don’t believe anything like that could happen in a place like Warsaw.
Some chapters were a bit too “inside baseball” for me—I don’t know enough about the difference between socialism and communism to follow those debates—and at times, the dialogue was a bit preachy and unrealistic. But overall, the author sends a very powerful message about people who happen to be Jewish trying to live their lives while dark forces assemble against them.
In the 1930s and 40s, European Jews watched as waves of antisemitism crashed over their countries. The lucky ones got out early; others were trapped by quotas and murdered in concentration camps. After the war, Jews were left homeless and stateless until the founding of Israel. And now, two and a half years after Hamas attacked Israel, Jews around the world are again wondering if their countries are too dangerous for them to stay. Ironically, Israel, which has been almost under perpetual attack since its founding, may be the safest place for them to go.
If it could happen in Warsaw in 1939, it could happen in London in 2026.
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