Youth Resistance Groups Form

were also valued over family, though not at its expense. With most members being in their late teens, girls and young women were often involved in leadership and organizational roles as they were more mature than their male counterparts. These groups helped keep hope alive among the poverty and seemingly random killings and drafts into work camps that had been terrorizing so many.

However, the safety the youth felt only lasted for so long. Many of those who were drafted for work camps were not writing back, and there had been rumors that those who were drafted were actually being taken to death camps for execution on a scale much larger than what they had seen in the ghettos. Youth group couriers of non-Jewish, Aryan appearance, mostly women who would not have the physical tell of circumcision, had been sneaking out to find more information on these rumors. Finally, a meeting was called to gather members from several different groups in Warsaw and confirm the worst. A young girl named Sara had been taken to massive twenty-foot-deep pit in Ponary, along with her family and other Jews, where they were ordered to take off their clothes and immediately shot and killed, falling into the pit as the life left their bodies. Sara was the only one of her group who survived, lying still until night came and hiding in the forest as she made her way back to her hometown of Vilna. Similar stories had been circulating throughout Poland: it was true, the Nazis planned to kill all Jews. Faithful to their teachings and despite their fears, their decision was unanimous: the Jews had to defend themselves—they had to fight back.

Of the Jewish youth groups that were now organizing to protect as many as they could, two (Zionist-based) groups became the most active and influential: Freedom and the Young Guard. While Aryan-passing, Polish-fluent courier girls spread the news of the death camps, leaders of these groups approached the “adult” leaders of the Jewish communities for help in acquiring guns and combat training. To their shock, the community leaders refused to believe that Jews were being taken to their deaths, that their family members who had been taken might be killed. They were angry that the youth were putting themselves and their families in danger by fighting back against the Nazis and urged them to back down immediately. Youth groups continually tried to convince their adult counterparts but talks went nowhere: they were on their own.

Then in the summer of 1942 came the main Aktion in the Warsaw ghetto, which was a Nazi euphemism for the mass killings and deportations set in place by Hitler’s Final Solution. The Nazi forces began by murdering intelligence groups in the area as well as anyone they saw in the streets. Then, posters were put up that stated that whoever was not under Nazi employment would be gathered up for deportation. In a panic (now understanding what deportation actually meant), hundreds of Jews were lining up in hopes of getting jobs before it started; many resorted to buying forged work papers from under-

ground networks for fear that they would not make it in time. However, after multiple waves of deportations, even those papers would not be enough. With so many Jews fleeing to different parts of Poland, hiding in Warsaw, or being exempt from deportation, the Nazis were unable to meet their quotas and began rounding up anyone they saw, and by the end of the first Aktion, 52,000 Jews had been deported. Angered by the adults’ lack of response, the Freedom youth group established their own force: the Jewish Fighting Organization, or Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa (ZOB).

Zivia Lubetkin, the only elected female leader in ZOB, had been the one who organized the couriers of Warsaw to gather and spread information throughout Poland. Now they would need to make good use of the connections she put in place to carry out operations to sabotage the Nazis and save their people. Other female leaders—Tosia Altman, Frumka Płotnicka, and Leah Pearstein— were sent to forge ties and procure weapons. While they waited, the ZOB decided to make their influence known, and three groups were given tasks. The first would be sent out to inform everyone of the new fighting force, the second (including Zivia) would set fire to abandoned homes and Nazi warehouses of looted goods, and the third would assassinate the Jewish police chief who was now working under Nazi command. All three groups were successful, and that same night, the Russians bombed the area for the first time.

However, even with the success of the operation and the newly flowing supply of weapons, their happiness was short-lived. Anxious Jews tore down ZOB recruitment flyers and beat up those who were trying to put up more on the

(below) Zivia’s group sets fire to one of many Nazi warehouses that held stolen Jewish property of which had been meticulously organized by value.