Women in the uprising narrative

This moment divided two worlds. On one side was the here and now, on the other, the uncertain future. Between them were emotions: "It's worth living to see this," Stefania Szochur (Staszewska) exclaimed at the sight of a burned-out tank. "The Germans are sneaking along the walls, afraid of the 'Jewish bandits.'" It was the first day of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Not long before, the author of these words had fallen victim to a roundup. On Żelazna Street—"completely indifferent"—she awaited execution. Not much later, along with several dozen people, after being herded to the Umschlagplatz, she awaited deportation. The slogan was: "Lager Poniatowa." The train set off at night: "We see a great bloody glow over Warsaw. The ghetto is fighting, the ghetto is burning." After which she asked only one question: "Does the world see this glow?" [4; 177–178]

This moment connected two worlds. On one side there was still life, on the other, inevitable death. Anger and misfortune mingled between them. The Germans' plans to crush the Jewish uprising in its infancy failed. They then began implementing a scorched-earth policy with great force. Building after building, they ignited fires. These actions were inevitably followed by "living torches"—people trapped in burning hideouts, who could only escape. Often unsuccessfully. Pola Elster served in the ranks of the Jewish Combat Organization (ŻOB). On the third day of the uprising, as she and her unit retreated from the fire zone, she witnessed human tragedy. A girl, not yet seventeen, was dying before her eyes. Her legs were charred. With the last of her strength, she begged: "Kill me!" "That scream," Pola Elster wrote, "is not easily forgotten." [1; 338]

Three women: the first days of the uprising and their very different roles within it. Common to all were the temporality and the enclosed space. The tragedy of those condemned to extermination unfolded within these dimensions. These roles were not assigned to them by fate—they created them. Remaining in the ghetto, they engaged in active or passive resistance. They were fully aware of what awaited them in return. Was there enough room in their minds for the thought-hope: "We will survive?" Perhaps. However, sacrifice and courage took precedence over it. Each of them, according to the statistical average, was just under 23 years old. The youngest, unnamed, died first. The oldest, 32-year-old Pola Elster, perished several months later in the Warsaw Uprising. Only twenty-year-old Stefania Szochur (Staszewska), survived the war.

From the very beginning of its existence, the Warsaw Ghetto witnessed a process of role reversal. The traditional, patriarchal system collapsed. The Germans condemned men to powerlessness, leaving women responsible for supporting their families, caring for their siblings, their own children, and often their parents. And for their husbands and brothers who were in hiding. At least until mid-1941, they illusionarily believed they were immune to the same fates as men: forced labor or deportation to a concentration camp. By the end of 1939, of the approximately 360 Warsaw Jews, approximately 195 were women. A dozen or so months later, of the approximately 367 total Jews in Warsaw, over 211 were women. This number changed radically as a result of the so-called Grossaktion: the mass extermination of the Jewish population – including women, children, and the elderly – at Treblinka. In the first quarter of 1943, the ghetto held approximately 60 people (legally and illegally), the vast majority of whom (approximately 91 percent) were of working age. Of these, only about 15 were women. With one exception, however, women aged 20-29 outnumbered men (approximately 15 percent). [5; 208-209 also 9; 227]

Cywia Lubetkin, co-founder of the resistance movement in the Warsaw Ghetto, was 29 years old on the eve of the uprising. Like many, she felt shame. Because, like few, she survived. She wanted to fight. At a meeting with people like her, a proposal was made: "Let's all go out into the street, set fire to the German warehouses, shoot the murderers until the last bullet is fired." However, common sense prevailed: "We decided to try again and use the break between actions to reorganize our forces." [10; 774] Nineteen-year-old Masza Glajtman co-founded a group of fighters. Its ranks included ten people, three of them women. All of them were housed in barracks, receiving theoretical training in pistol use. They prepared for combat. Perhaps it was this unit that Emanuel Ringelblum mentioned when he wrote: "The three fighters present in the apartment prepared meals and carried out various dangerous missions and orders. Discipline and order were exemplary." [3; 126] ​​Years later, Masha Glajtman herself justified her involvement in the following way: "What kept us going was the desire for revenge." [11; 48]

Her peer was Luba Gawisar. She found shelter on the "Aryan side." But even her "good looks" didn't protect her from danger. A tip from a "friendly" neighbor likely prompted a Gestapo officer and a navy blue policeman to burst into the hideout. They tried to force her to cooperate: "I was only supposed to tell them where the Jews lived." Luck was on her side: "My life instinct told me how to react." [11; 126] She succeeded. She escaped. With Aleksander Kamiński's support, she found a new shelter. Her location was also a point of contact for the Jewish Combat Organization (ŻOB). She herself consistently participated in underground activities, co-organizing arms deliveries to the ghetto. Adina Blady-Szwajger, then 23, also became such an intermediary. She saw no place for herself on the "Aryan side." She desperately wanted to be there and fight. But thanks to Marek Edelman's suggestion – because she had "natural blond hair and blue eyes" and spoke Polish fluently – she began serving ŻOB causes in the Polish part of Warsaw. [7; 136 also 12; 62]

Four women on the eve of the uprising. Young, brave, and courageous, often after the loss of loved ones. Although they held no positions in the underground resistance movement's leadership, they played a leading role in it. A role they chose willingly. Ready to give their lives: "To contribute their small part to the fight for freedom, for human dignity." [4; 178] All of those quoted – despite the German rules – survived.

Women fought. All of them. Each in a different way: as best they could and as best they could. Until the very end of the uprising, and even more often – their own lives. As befits mothers. The uprising broke out: a young woman with a child couldn't leave the building on Niska Street. Their last refuge was the balcony. Until it was engulfed in flames: "She took the child in her arms and threw herself on the pavement." Moments earlier, she had addressed these words to the Germans who were ensuring that none of the condemned men escaped: "For what is happening to us today, you will not be spared punishment." [1; 361] April was drawing to a closet. The uprising was still ongoing. Another young mother hid her two sons in a hiding place in her second-floor apartment. She went, perhaps, to look for food for them. When she returned, only ashes remained of the house. From then on – day after day, from morning till night – she stood facing the ruins and whispered the names of her children. Perhaps believing that she would soon meet them: "One night, when we left the shelter, we noticed her body lying there." That day – witnesses recalled – "Germans were prowling the yard." [4; 198]

They fought as befitted nurses. For example, those from the hospital on Gęsia Street: Blimberg and Rachmanowa. They were very dedicated. From the first hours of the uprising, they helped patients and insurgents alike, only to perish shortly thereafter. First, the building was bombed, then the Germans broke in and began the massacre: "They threw the sick into the flames, murdered newborns by smashing their heads against the walls. In the maternity ward, they ripped open their bellies. Almost the entire hospital staff was burned alive." [1; 271]

They fought as befitted liaison officers. The bunkers were dangerous. Some – fighters and "civilians" – often made their last attempt to escape the ghetto through underground tunnels. Individually and in groups, independently and with the support of "guides." The Germans knew about these attempts – they threw grenades into the sewers, released gas, and blocked exits. Twenty-one-year-old Regina Fuden (alias Lilit) was considered a specialist in "sewer walks." [6; 265] At the end of April, she managed to lead about 40 fighters to the "Aryan side." She returned to the ghetto to help others. She failed. She was killed in a clash with the Germans.

They fought, as befits daughters. Eleven-year-old Hena Kuczer (Krystyna Budnicka) survived with her sister and parents in the bunker on Zamenhofa Street until September. Then came the time to escape—through the sewers. Not everyone was able to: "My parents didn't have the strength—they stopped under a sealed manhole, and with them my twenty-three-year-old sister Pola, who refused to leave them alone." They remained in the sewers forever. [10; 810] She survived.

They fought like their compatriots. Franciszka Rubinlicht saw a sixteen-year-old girl armed only with Molotov cocktails. She threw herself from a balcony onto an approaching tank. In her postwar testimony, she emphasized: "With success, because she destroyed it, dying along with its crew." [1; 276] Perhaps this was the tank Stefania Szochur (Staszewska) saw on her way to the Umschlagplatz?… In the last days of April, thirty-six-year-old Helena Sterling defended herself in a bunker on Nowolipki Street. When she ran out of ammunition, she "threw herself at her executioners with a whip and hit one of them in the face." [1; 358] Moments later, she was murdered. Simultaneously with the fighting, the Germans were razing the ghetto to the ground. The so-called "twos" stood against them. These were fighters. With remnants of ammunition in an empty building at Miła 40, Masha Glajtman and Majloch Perelman waited for the arrival of the "arsonists." This "duo" not only managed to defeat the enemy, but also obtained much-needed weapons and explosives. They returned to Miła 18 at night.

Women fought. Even Jurgen Stroop, who so despised the Jewish population, did not fail to mention women several times in his reports written during the uprising as those who always accompanied the "combat groups" and whose attitude "incited new resistance." He gave examples, emphasizing: "Women fired pistols held in both hands. It often happened that they had pistols and hand grenades hidden in their trousers, which they later used against soldiers from the SS, police, and Wehrmacht military units." [8; 37 – 38] Perhaps for the "executioner of the Warsaw Ghetto," Małka Zdrojewicz Horenstein and Bluma and Rachela Wyszogrodzkie symbolized such women?… He included their photograph: "Women with weapons..." – taken on May 13th, immediately after the Germans "captured" the bunker where they were hiding and moments before they were driven to the Umschlagplatz – in his report summarizing the fighting in the ghetto. Bluma was shot, Rachela gassed in Auschwitz, Małka survived Majdanek…

The actions of the young Jews undoubtedly blended madness with courage, and determination with faith in the wisdom of such resistance. A reassessment of attitudes and views occurred. Life at all costs was replaced by the price the Germans were expected to pay for fighting the Jewish rebels. This uprising was unique in many respects. Not only because it occurred. And not because it lasted so long. Not solely because it was doomed from the start, and its Jewish participants were doomed to death. It was unique because of those who participated. Shame had as many faces as Germans or members of ethnic groups participated in the suppression of the uprising. Heroism had as many faces as Jews in the ghetto at the time. This included women…

Dr. Paweł Wieczorek

Edited by Anna Kilian

Photo: Bundesarchiv

Bibliography – chronological order:

1. B. Mark, The Struggle and Destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto , Warsaw 1959;

2. E. Ringelblum, Chronicle of the Warsaw Ghetto , Warsaw 1988;

3. E. Ringelblum, Polish-Jewish Relations during World War II , Warsaw 1988;

4. Memoirs from the Warsaw Ghetto. Fragments and Regimes , ed. M. Grynberg, Warsaw 1988;

5. R. Sakowska, People from the closed district , Warsaw 1993;

6. W. Bartoszewski, Z. Lewinówna, This one is from my homeland , Warsaw 2007;

7. GS Paulsson, The Hidden City. Jews on the Aryan Side of Warsaw (1939 – 1945) , Kraków 2007;

8. J. Stroop, The Jewish residential district in Warsaw no longer exists , Warsaw 2009;

9. SD Kassow, Who Will Write Our History? The Hidden Archives of Emanuel Ringelblum , Warsaw 2010;

10. B. Engelking, D. Libionka, The Warsaw Ghetto. A Guide to a Non-Existent City , Warsaw 2013;

11. A. Grupińska, Continuously in a Circle , Wołowiec 2013;

12. Z. Waxman, Women of the Holocaust , Poznań 2019.

Paweł Wieczorek – PhD in Humanities. Specialization: contemporary history. Collaborations: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, the Jewish Historical Institute, and the Jewish Social and Cultural Association in Poland. Winner of the Jewish Historical Institute's M. Bałaban competition for the best doctoral dissertation (2014). Participant in the international research project "Pogroms against Jews in Polish Lands in the 19th and 20th Centuries" (2013-2016). Author of articles and books. Research interests: Polish-Jewish relations after 1945, Jewish social and political movements, national and ethnic minorities in Poland, the Cold War, totalitarianism.