But Himmler had new quotas.
It had been a late night of planning and meetings, but Zivia rushed to get dressed, then went downstairs to examine the scene. The streets were surrounded. A German sentry was posted in front of every house. There was no way to get out, no way to contact the other units. All of yesterday’s scheming was worthless; their battle plans could not be carried out. Would the Germans destroy the ghetto altogether?
Zivia panicked. How could they be so unprepared?
*
Over the past months, despite the massive death toll of the summer Aktions, the ZOB’s progress had stirred hope. As in Kraków, the youth groups were composed of people who already trusted one another and were primed to become secret fighting units. The ZOB recruited new members to add to the several hundred comrades still alive in the ghetto, careful to scour for informers. They reattempted alliances with other movements. Again, they were not able to agree on terms with the better-armed Revisionist group Betar, which formed its own militia, the ZZW （Jewish Military Union）。 The Bund, however, finally acceded to collaborate. Along with the “adult” Zionist parties, they joined the ZOB and formed a new alliance.
With this fresh credibility, the ZOB was able at last to connect with the Polish underground, made up of two rival factions. The Home Army （known in Poland as the Armia Krajowa or AK） was affiliated with the predominantly right-wing government in exile in London. The Home Army had an antisemitic leadership, even though many individual members were liberals who helped Jews. （Jan ?abiński, the now famous zookeeper of Warsaw, was an AK member.） The People’s Army, on the other hand, was affiliated with the Communist group （PPR）， and, at the time, was the weaker of the two factions. The leadership of the People’s Army （Armia Ludowa, or AL） cooperated with the Soviets, and was more willing to collaborate with Jewish ghetto and forest fighters—frankly, with anyone who wanted to topple the Nazis. But they lacked resources.
The Home Army had been reluctant to help the ZOB for various reasons. Its leaders felt that the Jews didn’t fight back; what’s more, they feared that a ghetto uprising would spread, and they did not have enough weapons to sustain a citywide rebellion. They worried that a premature revolt would be detrimental and were hoping to let the Germans and Russians bleed each other before they jumped in. The Home Army had refused to enter into serious discussion with measly youth groups; however, it was willing to meet with the new alliance.
The meeting was a success. The Home Army sent ten mostly functional shotguns as well as instructions for how to make explosives. One Jewish woman discovered a formula for firebombs: take electric lightbulbs collected from abandoned houses and fill them with sulfuric acid.
Hot with fervor, the ZOB began to act broadly. Just as Frumka was sent to B?dzin, members were dispatched across Poland to lead resistance units and maintain foreign connections. （Zivia later mocked herself for being so na?ve as to think that they were not receiving outside help because the world didn’t know.） Rivka Glanz went to Cz?stochowa. Leah Pearlstein and Tosia sought weapons in Aryan Warsaw.
The Bundists strengthened their fighting units. Vladka Meed was approached by the Bund leader, Abrasha Blum, and invited to a resistance meeting. Because of her straight, light-brown hair, small nose, and gray-green eyes, Vladka was asked to move to the Aryan side. The thought of leaving the ghetto, where most Jews toiled in horrific conditions as slave labor, filled her with elation.
One night in early December 1942, Vladka received word that she was to exit with a work brigade the following morning and to bring with her the latest Bund underground bulletin, which featured a detailed map of Treblinka. She hid the pages in her shoe, then found a brigade leader who accepted her 500 z?oty bribe and slotted her in with the group as they awaited inspection at the ghetto wall in the freezing cold. All was well until the Nazi inspecting Vladka decided he didn’t like her face. Or, perhaps, liked it too much. She was pulled out of the formation and directed to a small room lined with splatters of blood and photographs of half-naked women. The guard searched her and made her undress. She just had to keep her shoe on . . .