Suddenly a sickening scream. A German grabbed a baby from his mother’s arms, held him by his feet, and bashed his head against a brick wall, breaking the baby’s skull in two. Blood was splattered all over the building, the sidewalk. He threw the baby’s corpse to the ground. The sight haunted Renia for the rest of her life.
Renia watched this inhumanity in abject horror. Children witnessed these atrocities and wailed uncontrollably. The ghetto was becoming less crowded as residents were being taken each day, someone from every household. “All the hearts are broken,” she wrote. “It’s a wonder people maintain their sanity.”
*
It was in this context that all the cultural activities in the kibbutz had ceased. This is when the fake passports came in and when Freedom held its meeting, with Hershel at one end of the table and Frumka at the other. This is when the youth groups had to decide: fight or flight. This is when Frumka said no, she would not go. This is when they all decided to join the armed struggle that had begun in Kraków and Warsaw. This is when they decided on defense, revenge, self-respect.
This is when Renia sprang up, ready for action.
Part 2
Devils or Goddesses
They were not human, perhaps devils or goddesses. Calm. As nimble as circus performers. They often fired simultaneously with pistols in both hands. Fierce in combat, right to the end. Approaching them was dangerous. One captured Haluzzenm?deln looked timid. Completely resigned. And then suddenly, when a group of our men got within a few steps of her, she pulls a hand grenade out from under her skirt or her breeches and slaughters the SS while showering them with curses to the tenth generation—your hair stands on end! We suffered losses in those situations, and so I gave orders not to take girls prisoner, not to let them get too close, but to finish them off with submachine guns from a distance.
—Nazi commander Jürgen Stroop
Chapter 12
In Preparation
Renia and Chajka
FEBRUARY 1943
B?dzin was buzzing. From daybreak to the eight o’clock nighttime curfew, the kibbutz and its yard were full of comrades. Neighbors noticed. “We gained the reputation of being people of action,” Renia wrote, proud of their newfound respect, “of people who have taken control over their future and who will know what to do when the time comes.”
Zvi Brandes and Baruch Gaftek, the sole comrade who had military experience, instructed the leaders of the fives, meeting with them and scheming each day. Everyone was taught to use firearms, as well as axes, hammers, sickles, scythes, grenades, and flammable liquids—and to use nothing but their fists. They were trained to fight to the bitter end, to never be taken alive. Renia and the crew collected sharp tools, flashlights, knives—anything that could be employed in battle.
When the first weapons arrived from Warsaw, they were treated as almost holy. Chajka gingerly picked up a gun, energized yet hesitant. Like most youth for whom firearms were so foreign to their upbringing, she worried that it was hot or would go off accidentally. In time, however, she developed confidence. Clinging to her pistol, she saw herself as a true revolutionary, fulfilling a human mission, part of a great historical event.
The PPR smuggled weapons into the ghetto and worked on housing Jews outside Kamionka so that they could fight from the other side. The ZOB trained members to smuggle from the Aryan side; some people went out three times a week. They developed their workshops, and comrades now produced brass knuckles and daggers, studied chemistry, and created bombs, grenades, and bottles filled with explosive materials. They used pipes, coal powder, and sugar. As their skills grew, their homemade bombs became better than the ones they bought.
After working hard all day at forced labor, the comrades spent the nights building bunkers. The Judenrat had no idea: the young, hungry Jews received no external help and were exhausted. “It’s horrifying to see the dwindling, weary faces,” Renia lamented, noting that they also built bunkers for Jews in private apartments, for no fee. The Young Guard members, including David Kozlowski, sketched out the plans, debating for days, “smart like engineers with diplomas.” Where is the best place to build them? How can the entrances and exits be camouflaged?