Building plans arrived via couriers from Warsaw, where the bunkers were feats of engineering: underground corridors ran several kilometers long, spanning the length of the ghetto and terminating on the Aryan side. Main tunnels led to tributary tunnels with lighting, water, radios, food, and stashes of ammunition and explosives; each knew the password to their squadron’s bunker. “Such ingenuity,” Renia recorded. In B?dzin, dugout entrances were to be carved out in ovens, walls, closets, sofas, chimneys, and attics. Walls were built around entire rooms to camouflage them. The comrades dug tunnels with their bare hands. Hiding places were set up in staircases, stables, firewood storehouses. Jews considered how to stage rooms so that it looked like the inhabitants had left in a hurry. Electric lighting, water, radios, benches, small ovens, toast for those with stomach ailments—everything was planned for.
When the time came, all they would have to do was enter their well-stocked bunker. They were ready.
*
All this zeal led to an episode of resistance—within the Jewish community. In February 1943 the Jewish militia needed more men. Renia knew that this meant the deportation was imminent. The militia would be the ones herding their fellow Jews to the trains, and it wanted six male Freedom comrades to join its forces. Laundry work, which the comrades had continued to do in Kamionka, was now suspended. The Judenrat sent the kibbutz a summons saying that the men were to appear and collect their white hats. If not, their Zonder permits would be confiscated, and they would be deported to a camp in Germany.
The Judenrat had already sent a few boys from the ghetto to Germany; none had returned. Regardless, the comrades absolutely refused to be part of what they called the Jewish Gestapo. They were willing to lose their work papers; they would never help Nazis take Jews to death camps. When the boys did not show up at their assigned time, a militiaman arrived at the kibbutz with an order from the Judenrat president to confiscate their Zonders. They duly handed them over, even though getting caught walking around without papers meant being sent to forced labor or death. Despite this forfeiture, the next day, the Jewish police surrounded the kibbutz armed with clubs and an order to deport the summoned boys to Germany. The policemen blocked the door and checked identity papers.
That’s when two Freedom boys jumped out the window. Militiamen ran after them; the boys punched them and continued to flee. The remaining comrades hollered, “Damn the militia!” They would never let the police snatch their members! The deputy commander ordered the militiamen to beat them all and take the remaining boys hostage until the escapees turned themselves in. Renia stared at the clash, stunned.
Frumka worried that someone was going to get killed in the scrimmage, or worse, that the Germans would arrive and kill everybody. “No one will be taken hostage,” she declared. She ordered those on the list to go to the office. The young men obeyed, and the entire kibbutz followed them along the packed street to the bus. Then one of the boys, “strong as an ox,” escaped from the police’s grasp and started running. A brawl of clubbing and punching ensued between the militia and the kibbutz, with a female member, Tzipora Bozian, severely injuring several militiamen. The beaten commander ordered his men to board the bus. “We’ll drive to the gendarmes’ office,” he commanded. “They’ll tear into these people.” The ghetto residents watched, and when they realized that not all Jews were afraid of the police, the crowd broke into applause. Renia was flushed with pride.
Frumka, however, feared that if the German gendarmes found out about this, they’d all be finished. She began to calm the militia’s commander and his troop, negotiating with them to keep silent. They respected her, and so acquiesced, but on the condition that they take hostages in exchange for the escapees. The summoned men boarded the bus with three hostages: Hershel Springer, his brother Yoel, and, Frumka. She had volunteered herself. Renia watched, impressed and frightened, as the vehicle drove off.
The higher commander heard about this skirmish and, that night, ordered that the kibbutz be locked and the members confined to the courtyard. Frumka and Hershel returned, thankfully, but told them that because they’d humiliated the militia and its commander, all the men would be sent to Germany. That night, Renia and her comrades sat outside under the stars. Sympathetic neighbors came by to invite them in, but Frumka forbade it. She wanted to show the militia that they could handle spending a night outdoors, despite the danger of being outside after curfew, despite the roaming Nazi guards. Throughout the night, militia came by, but only to check that the lead seals on the doors were still fastened.