Jewish Bullets

Niuta Teitelbaum was an infamous assassin in the Warsaw ghetto. With her youthful looks and naive-presenting demeanor, she carried out stealthful killings of Nazi officers without arrousing suspicion. One story states that she feigned shame to the guards of an officer and stated that she needed to speak with him about a “personal matter.” Assuming the peasant girl was pregnant, the guards allowed her into his office. Once there, she took out a pistol with a silencer and shot him in the head, smiling meekly to the unsuspecting guards outside. “Little Wanda with the Braids” was on all of the Gestapo’s most wanted lists. belief that it was a Nazi ruse to capture noncompliants. Further operations were made inviable when two beloved leaders and one courier girl were captured and killed; that same courier was also carrying their entire cache of weapons (unfortunately small enough to be carried by one person) which was being moved to a new location. Unable to make any further movements, ZOB and its cooperative groups could only watch as three more Aktions took place; over 300,000 Jews were taken to death camp Treblinka’s gas chambers, and almost 99 percent of the children in the Warsaw ghetto were killed. The 60,000 Jews that remained were left with immense survivor’s guilt and sorrow at the loss of so many friends and family. Zivia and most of the remaining ZOB fighters were devastated and wanted to plan one last act against the Nazis: it would be a suicide mission. They were stopped by Yitzhak Zuckerman, known as Antek, who convinced them that an act like that would only save themselves—they needed to keep fighting for the honor of the Jewish people and their future. With a newly invigorated hope, Zivia got to work in rebuilding the resistance movement.

Kraków was a strategic city for the Nazis and became the capitol of their General Government, however, it was also the base for activities of the Zionist youth group Akiva. In preparation for an Aktion that was sure to come, female couriers were sent out to organize movements, collect and spread information, and smuggle in weapons for the resistance fighters. They also were able to establish a connection (though somewhat unreliable) with the PPR, the underground Polish Communist Party, which provided them with guides through forests and hiding places. Still, the Aktion that came took them by surprise. Unlike how it happened in other ghettos, this Aktion that took place in the capitol city was quiet and orderly—many were too hungry to scream when they were captured. However, their response led to a much different outcome than what happened in Warsaw.

Starting with smaller acts of rebellion, Akiva set up bases inside and outside the ghetto as safe areas to be given orders and survive when not out in the field. Groups of two to three comrades would be sent out to find information, courier documents and false papers, and distribute flyers to recruit and inform the Jewish community. Fighters would also knock out or kill Nazis and their collaborators who were alone or in small groups to steal their weapons. Once conditions in the ghetto deteriorated to a severe degree, Akiva had to ramp up their operations to help Jews escape to other parts of Poland; Nazis were now being killed more often in the streets, and in anger they retaliated by taking Jewish hostages, increasing security around the ghetto, and moving up the curfew. Undaunted by the Nazis’ threats and motivated by their successes, Akiva made preparations for a major attack. Around Christmas of 1942 when Nazis were celebrating and shopping for gifts, forty Jewish men and women were gathering in the streets. When all was ready, groups attacked military

garages to set off alarms and cause confusion. They then arrived at their target: the coffeehouses where the Nazis were holding parties. Fighters threw grenades and set up bombs that killed at least seven Nazis and injured many more. While resistance leaders were captured and killed afterward, Jews continued to bomb facilities around Kraków all with the help of connections made by the female couriers who risked their lives.

Back in Warsaw at the beginning of 1943, yet another Aktion had come unexpectedly. Zivia and the ZOB had been preparing but were not yet ready to launch their own attack against the Nazis. With little time to think, groups immediately went into action. The first, comprising both male and female members, allowed themselves to get caught in the streets. When they were nearing the holding area, which was next to the railway station for ease of transport, their leader gave the signal to start their attack. Taking out their concealed weapons and grenades, they killed as many Nazis as they could and yelled for their fellow Jews to escape if they could. Many did, but the Nazis were eventually able to overpower the small force since they had so few weapons; of the group, only two were able to escape and survive. They had lost, but they had started a new wave of rebellion in the ghetto.

Zivia’s group was the second to fight back, though using a different tactic. Getting to the remaining Jews in hiding meant that Nazis had to enter buildings to search. With this in mind, Zivia believed that waiting for the Nazis to

(above) Young Jewish resistance fighters lie in wait for the right moment to ambush a Nazi officer.