Forgotten Until Now, These Female Resistance Fighters Lured Hitler’s Soldiers to Their Deaths

The Forward
April 13, 2021

More than a decade ago, Judy Batalion accidentally stumbled upon a Yiddish-language book in the British Library. Published in 1946, the book comprised a collection of memoirs of “ghetto girls,” young Jewish women who revolted against the Nazis in Poland. These women tricked the Gestapo into carrying their luggage filled with contraband, hid revolvers in teddy bears, flung Molotov cocktails, and bombed German supply trains. They flirted with Nazis, bribed them with whiskey and pastry, and shot and killed them. They carried out espionage missions for the Red Army, organized a militant group of anti-Nazi Germans, and were bearers of the truth about what was happening to the Jews. Delving deeply into archives in North America, Poland, and Israel, Batalion uncovered long-overlooked memoirs and testimonies, conducted personal interviews with their families, and wove these narratives together into her recently-released book, “The Light of Days.”

Before the war, many resistors had been members of Polish-Jewish youth groups. These movements which had promoted collectivism, socialism, intellectualism, and peace transformed into underground militias in the ghettos. Members had to grapple with the age-old question: fight or flight? And if fight, how? For whom? Why? What was the point in a few Jewish kids attacking the most powerful army on earth?

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