McGill University will commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27 with a special lecture titled “The Counterfeit Countess: The True Story of a Polish Jewish Woman Who Fooled the Nazis”. Hosted by the Office of the Deputy Provost for Student Life and Learning and the Department of Jewish Studies, the event aims to honor Holocaust victims, raise awareness of antisemitism, and foster education to combat hatred.
The lecture will be delivered by Professor Joanna Sliwa, an expert on the Holocaust in Poland and compensation for Holocaust survivors. Sliwa serves as a historian at the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany and brings a wealth of knowledge to this annual commemoration.
The focus of her lecture will be Dr. Josephine Janina Mehlberg, a prewar mathematics scholar who assumed the false identity of a Polish Christian countess to survive the Holocaust. Using this identity, Mehlberg played a key role in saving thousands of non-Jewish Poles from Nazi persecution. After the war, she immigrated to Canada, where her extraordinary story remained largely untold until recent years.
This lecture offers an opportunity to learn not only about Mehlberg’s remarkable courage and ingenuity but also about the broader lessons her story teaches about humanity and resistance during times of crisis.
The event will take place at 5:00 pm on Monday, January 27, in the Thompson House Ballroom at 3650 McTavish Street. It is open to the entire McGill community and welcomes members of the public.
Through this commemoration, McGill seeks to strengthen the collective commitment to counter discrimination and foster unity through research and education.