Joanne D Gilbert

Award-winning author, editor, and popular public-speaker, Joanne D. Gilbert, grew up in Oak Park, Michigan—a predominantly Jewish suburb of Detroit, where many Holocaust Survivors had settled after World War II. Her most profound influence was her beloved Grandmother, Millie Wineman Ron, who had been able to get out of Vilna, Lithuania before the Germans came. Except for 2 brothers, the rest of Millie's large family were murdered--along with 95% of Lithuania’s Jewish people.

Throughout her life, Joanne has been haunted by two questions:

1. Did the Jews “go silently like sheep to the slaughter”?

2. Did Gentiles help their Jewish friends and neighbors?

After a 40 year career in education, Joanne was finally able to search for answers to these questions. Her first book, the award-winning, “WOMEN OF VALOR: Polish Resisters to the Third Reich,” (2014) was the result of her extensive research, and interviews with elderly women who, as girls had defied the Nazis. The second, updated edition, with a revised title, “WOMEN OF VALOR: Polish Jewish Resisters to the Third Reich,” was published in 2018, and is also an award-winner.

Joanne's second book, co-written with Dr. Miriam M. Brysk, "A VICTORY FOR MIRIAM! The Little Jewish Girl Who Defied the Nazis!" was published to enthusiastic reviews in 2019.

Joanne is currently working on “WOMEN OF VALOR: German, French, and Dutch Resisters to the Third Reich."

Among her numerous speaking engagements throughout the US. Europe, and Canada, Joanne was especially honored to be a speaker at the Krakow, Poland Jewish Cultural Festival; the Warsaw, Poland Jewish Community Center; the International Association of Jewish Genealogy Societies Annual Convention in Warsaw; the Vilna, Lithuania Jewish Library; and the Freya von Moltke International Institute for Peace in Kreisau, Poland.

Joanne welcomes the opportunity to make presentations to groups. For information, please contact her at: www.joannedgilbert.com