Mira Fuchrer (born 1920 in Warsaw, died May 8, 1943 in Warsaw) – member of the Jewish Combat Organization, heroine of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. From an early age, she was a member and activist of the Zionist organization Hashomer Hatzair, where she likely met Mordechai Anielewicz, who later became her life partner.
Shortly after the outbreak of World War II, she and Anielewicz left for Vilnius, returning to Warsaw in January 1940. From November of that same year, they were confined to the Warsaw Ghetto. Mira worked there in a small tailoring cooperative with Tova Frenkel and Rachel Zylberg. From the beginning, she was active in the Jewish Combat Organization as a liaison for the command. In this capacity, she also traveled to other ghettos in occupied Poland.
During the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, Mira fought in the Central Ghetto, alongside Mordechai Anielewicz. On May 8, 1943, in the uprising's command bunker at 18 Miła Street, she committed suicide along with some of the other fighters there.
By decision of President Bolesław Bierut on April 19, 1948, she was posthumously awarded the Silver Cross of the Virtuti Militari. Her name appears on a commemorative obelisk erected in 2006 at the foot of the Anielewicz Mound, along with the names of 50 other insurgents whose identities have been established.
Sara Biderman (born 1920 or 1923 in Warsaw, died 1972 in Israel) came from a poor, traditional Jewish family in Warsaw. She attended a Jewish school where instruction was taught in Polish. Before the war, she applied for admission to architecture studies but failed the exams. During her studies, she met Helena Balicka , with whom she became friends. Before the ghetto was closed, she visited the Balicki family to say goodbye to Helena, who later visited her in the ghetto. Biderman became involved in the underground resistance. She did not leave the ghetto, although she had a birth certificate. She left the ghetto at the end of April 1943, during the ongoing uprising. She reached the Balicki home, where she was helped. She stayed there for a time, but she did not adhere to the rules of the underground and left the house frequently. Following the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising, Sara joined the 3rd Battalion of the People's Army (AL), and after the uprising, she was sent to Germany for forced labor. After the war, she spent some time on a kibbutz in Łódź, then left for Palestine.
Tosia Altman (born Tova Altman on August 24, 1918, in Lipno; died on May 26, 1943, in Warsaw) – although she came from an Orthodox family, her parents provided her with an education in Polish and Hebrew. At the age of 11, she joined Hashomer Hatzair. She eventually became an instructor and homeroom teacher. She also edited the Hebrew-language newspaper "Hanavadim." She planned to emigrate to Palestine, but these plans changed after she was appointed to the Hashomer Hatzair command in Warsaw in 1938.
From the beginning of the German occupation, she was involved in organizing the Jewish resistance movement, including the underground structures of Hashomer Hatzair in the General Government. As a liaison, she traveled throughout occupied Poland and organized self-defense groups, including in the Vilnius Ghetto. In 1941–1942, she visited the ghettos in Grodno, Białystok, Częstochowa, and the Dąbrowa Basin. Based on these visits, she compiled reports on the situation in the closed districts there.
She corresponded with other members of Hashomer Hatzair, raised funds for the organization's activities, and obtained false documents. As a liaison, she visited numerous cities in occupied Poland, including Kraków, Białystok, Łódź, Grodno, Częstochowa, and Lviv.
In the second half of 1942, she joined the Jewish Combat Organization. She operated on the so-called Aryan side, smuggling weapons into the ghetto. She returned to the ghetto a few days before the outbreak of the uprising. She was one of the few hiding in the bunker at 18 Miła Street who managed to escape the German raid on May 8, 1943.
She returned to Warsaw a few days later to hide with other members of Hashomer Hatzair in a celluloid film factory in Warsaw's Praga district (10, 11 Listopada Street). On May 24, 1943, a fire was accidentally set at the factory. Eight Jewish fighters died in the blaze. Three others, severely burned, managed to escape to the roof. Tosia Altman was among them. Unfortunately, she died from her wounds.
