The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler's Ghettos
Judy Batalion
Map of Poland
Dedication
In memory of my Bubbe Zelda,
and for my daughters, Zelda and Billie.
L’dor v’dor . . . Chazak V’Amatz.
In honor of all the Jewish women of Poland who resisted the Nazi regime.
Epigraph
Warsaw with a weeping face, With graves on street corners, Will outlive her enemies,
Will still see the light of days.
—From “A Chapter of Prayer,” a song dedicated to the Warsaw ghetto uprising that won first prize in a ghetto song contest. Written by a young Jewish girl before her death, published in Women in the Ghettos, 1946.
Cast of Characters
（In Order of Appearance）
Renia Kukie?ka: born in J?drzejów, a courier for Freedom in B?dzin.
Sarah Kukie?ka: Renia’s older sister, a Freedom comrade who takes care of Jewish orphans in B?dzin.
Zivia Lubetkin: born in Byten, a Freedom leader in the Jewish Fighting Organization （ZOB） and the Warsaw ghetto uprising.
Frumka P?otnicka: born in Pinsk, a Freedom comrade who leads the fighting organization in B?dzin.
Hantze P?otnicka （pronounced in English as Han-che）： Frumka’s younger sister, also a Freedom leader and courier.
Tosia Altman: a leader of The Young Guard and one of its most active couriers, based in Warsaw.
Vladka Meed （nee Feigele Peltel）： a Bundist courier in Warsaw.
Chajka Klinger （pronounced in English as Hay-ka）： a leader of The Young Guard and the fighting organization in B?dzin.
Gusta Davidson: a courier and leader of Akiva, based in Kraków.
Hela Schüpper: a courier for Akiva, based in Kraków.
Bela Hazan: a Freedom courier, based in Grodno, Vilna, Bia?ystok. Worked with Lonka Kozibrodska and Tema Schneiderman.
Chasia Bielicka （pronounced in English as Has-ia） and Chaika Grossman （pronounced Hay-ka）： two Young Guard couriers who are part of a ring of anti-Fascist operatives in Bia?ystok.
Ruzka Korczak （pronounced in English as Rush-ka）： a leader of The Young Guard in Vilna’s fighting organization （FPO） and a partisan leader in the forests.
Vitka Kempner: a leader of The Young Guard in Vilna’s fighting organization （FPO） and a partisan leader in the forests.
Zelda Treger: a Young Guard courier based in Vilna and the forests.
Faye Schulman: a photographer who becomes a partisan nurse and fighter.
Anna Heilman: an assimilated Warsaw Young Guard member who takes part in the resistance at Auschwitz.
Introduction: Battle-Axes
The British Library reading room smelled like old pages. I stared at the stack of women’s history books I had ordered—not too many, I reassured myself, not too overwhelming. The one on the bottom was the most unusual: hard-backed and bound in a worn, blue fabric, with yellowing, deckled edges. I opened it first and found virtually two hundred sheets of tiny script—in Yiddish. It was a language I knew but hadn’t used in more than fifteen years.
I nearly returned it to the stacks unread. But some urge pushed me to read on, so, I glanced at a few pages. And then a few more. I’d expected to find dull, hagiographic mourning and vague, Talmudic discussions of female strength and valor. But instead—women, sabotage, rifles, disguise, dynamite. I’d discovered a thriller.