Those who had a Jewish social circle where they could be “out” lived a double identity but ultimately fared better psychologically because they had a “backstage”—a rest from their constant performance and time to recharge. Friends who appreciated their strength fed their confidence at playing a “front stage” role. Most passers were not affiliated with any organization, but some were recruited by the Polish underground, which assumed they were non-Jews. These women lived in a “city within a city, the most underground of all underground communities,” wrote Basia Berman, a leader of rescue efforts. “Every name was false, every word that was uttered carried a double meaning, and every telephone conversation was more encrypted than the secret diplomatic documents of embassies.”
In this constant pageant of deception, Vladka and the Jewish rescue committee had become a family. Many Poles helped them, not for money but out of Christian morals, anti-Nazi sentiment, and sympathy, offering Jews jobs, hiding places, meeting spots, bank accounts, food, and testimony to their non-Jewishness. The resistance members had to avoid landlords who became suspicious of visitors; they aimed for places where they could hide documents under floorboards and install concealed safes for money. In one such flat, two nails protruding near the front door were actually a clandestine doorbell—comrades placed a coin between them, setting off a current and a bell. Inka and Marysia rented an apartment that became a main meeting spot. Each floorboard and nook contained hidden documents and cash. A record player muffled sound, vodka was consumed, and the neighbors assumed they were prostitutes, hosting endless streams of men.
Another hub of activity was Zivia’s melina. She looked too semitic to go out on the street. After years of relentless, life-or-death activity, Zivia now had a lot of time on her hands. To be in hiding was to be cooped up with people who you didn’t necessarily choose to live with, or even like. The world outside “was filtered through others” and every knock on the door sent you panicking to a shelter. Antek brought back detective novels to help her pass the time, but her guilt and depression ballooned. She busied herself with obsessive housekeeping and letter writing, especially as she desperately wanted to share her advice. Having seen the death toll in Warsaw, Zivia pleaded with the B?dzin group to flee instead of fight; she begged Rivka Glanz to run to the partisans. But she also refused to leave her people, and so she stayed put in Warsaw.
Zivia began to work for ?egota, becoming a main administrator in charge of distributing money and fake documents. She corresponded, managed budgets, and once again dispatched “Zivia’s girls” on around-the-clock missions to connect, inform, and protect Jews. She also sent out girls to look for fighters who were in trouble and, once in a while, to locate couriers who’d mysteriously gone missing.
Chapter 21
Blood Flower
Renia
JULY 1943
The B?dzin ZOB heard Zivia’s pleas and made a plan. People who looked Aryan would travel to Warsaw by train. The others would be smuggled to Warsaw on a bus, to be arranged by Antek. Forged documents for the travelers came in via couriers from Warsaw—but only a few. The remaining visas would be ready to collect when Renia and Ina Gelbart came to town. By now, Renia and Ina had pulled off several trips together, carrying money, weapons, and instructions in their bras, bags, belts.
Ina left one evening, armed with addresses, money, and items for the counterfeiter. Renia left the next morning, with the same items as well as Rivka Moscovitch. The twenty-two-year-old Rivka, the last survivor of her B?dziner working-class family and a committed Freedom girl, had fallen ill and needed to be sheltered while she recovered. Rivka had a Christian face, as well as a visa and a document for crossing the border. She’d wanted badly to stay and fight. But the group insisted that she heal and then help them find hiding spots in Warsaw. Finally, they convinced her that she was too sick to handle the coming days, and Rivka packed a valise of personal items.
Renia had told Ina to meet her at an assigned place in the city. She and Rivka traveled by train disguised as Wanda and Zosia, two Polish girls taking a trip to the big city. On the inside, two Jews on the brink of murder, risking their lives to help save others. The entire time, Renia kept chanting prayers in her head, in her heart, pleading that they would be able to cross the border peacefully.