Resistance

The girls enter the ghetto through broken-down buildings in one of the wild areas surrounding the ghetto that is supposed to be abandoned, but that people use to hide. Secret tunnels connect the buildings, and the girls can hear people hiding in the dark but do not call out so as not to startle them. The resistance built these tunnels, but people have not used them to escape the ghetto, as without friends on the outside, they would not survive very long. Once inside the ghetto, Esther and Chaya decide to wait for the morning before moving into the open.

When they eventually wander out, their presence is noticed almost immediately. Chaya tells the man who accosts them that they are from Akiva in Krakow, showing him the supplies that they have brought. The man introduces himself as Tamir, working with the ZOB, and he happily accepts the girls’ request to join the ZOB; they are inducted into one of the ZOB’s 22 units and assigned the task of digging bunkers. Chaya carries out her duties eagerly, feeling like she is finally where she belongs.

A week after their arrival, Tamir summons Chaya for a meeting with another of the ZOB leaders, a woman named Rachel. They discuss Chaya’s previous work as a courier and ask her for insights on why the attack on Cyganeria Café failed and what ZOB can learn from it. Chaya suggests that it is important for the leaders to have multiple hiding places; having a single bunker makes it easy for the Nazis to target and kill a resistance movement. The only reason Chaya survived is because she had another place to go. She also believes that while Lodz and Krakow will not fight back, there is hope that other places, as well as the underground Polish army, will take up arms against the Nazis if they see what Warsaw can accomplish.

Rachel reveals that they know who Esther is and what her father did; she suggests that Esther be moved out of the ghetto to a safe house, as the people inside don’t trust her. However, Chaya defends Esther’s bravery and loyalty to the cause, insisting that she is an asset. Rachel and Tamir promise to consider Chaya’s input and reveal one last thing: Someone has been waiting to meet Chaya once the meeting ends. A young man is called in, and after a few moments, Chaya finally recognizes her brother, Yitzchak.

Chaya and Yitzchak are thrilled to be reunited. He tells her everything that happened to him in the past couple of years: The day Sara was sent to the camps, he followed to try to sneak her off the train. He didn’t make it in time and had no idea how to get back into the ghetto, so he ran into the woods. A Polish family took him in and hid him for a while; when their neighbors grew suspicious, moved in with a different family. This happened a couple more times until the third family turned him over to the Gestapo, who sent him to Warsaw.

Yitzchak tells Chaya that the Jews in Warsaw used to hold concerts in their homes until very recently. Chaya is surprised, but Yitzchak explains that the Nazis justify their violence by claiming the Jews are less than human; creating art is proof of their humanity, and when Yitzchak sings, it reminds him of who he truly is. Chaya is proud of the great man that Yitzchak is already becoming. Brother and sister vow to fight together against the Nazis, and Chaya takes Yitzchak back to introduce him to Esther.

Every night, Chaya and the others gather around the radio she smuggled from the German tank to listen to the news. One night, they hear about the liquidation of the Podgorze Ghetto, where 2,000 Jews deemed unfit for work were lined up and shot in the streets; the other 8,000 are being shipped to various labor and extermination camps. Chaya is distraught that she was unable to help her parents escape, and she cries in Yitzchak’s arms. When she returns to the group, Rachel and Tamir tell her that they have found a safe house for Esther. Chaya refuses to accept this, saying that she will leave if Esther goes; Yitzchak says that he will too. Rachel and Tamir agree to let Esther stay but tell her that she must prove herself worthy, and she promises that she will.

Chaya continues to work tirelessly over the next few days, digging bunkers and making weapons. She notices that the people around her seem incongruously happy given what is going on around them. She realizes that this is because everyone already knows what the outcome of the coming battle will be; this knowledge brings them peace, and taking action towards that final battle brings them joy.

It has been two months since Chaya and Esther arrived in Warsaw and three months since the Germans’ last attack on the ghetto. During this time, the ZOB continued to accumulate weapons and resources and to build bunkers fortified with air vents and supplies for civilians to hide in. Despite repeated requests for help from the outside, particularly the Polish Underground Army, they only received a few weapons; no one joined them to fight. Finally, on the evening of April 18, a man bursts into the bunker in the Central Zone, announcing the Germans’ arrival. From the rooftops, the lookouts see that thousands of German soldiers have surrounded the ghetto. Meanwhile, the ZOB hurries to move supplies to bunkers and people to their assigned places.

It is the evening before Passover, and Chaya, Yitzchak, Esther, Tamir, and some other fighters are crowded into a bunker. Despite the circumstances, every bunker holds the Seder. They attempt to rest before the meal, but at 2:00am, are woken by the sound of a tank’s gun firing. Tamir issues the call for all armed Jews to begin the fight.

Chaya and Esther are positioned together on the third floor of a nearby building. Chaya spots the Jewish police among the SS troops marching in, and Tamir tells her that the OD had no choice; those who refused to participate were shot dead. The initial column of soldiers is mostly troops from Ukraine and Lithuania; the ZOB waits until the Germans enter shortly before dawn and opens fire, shooting at them and dropping grenades.

The Germans are ordered to retreat, and Tamir orders the ZOB to stand down and move to the lower levels of their buildings, as the Germans will target windows when they return. Sure enough, the returning German soldiers shoot wildly at the windows, while the ZOB, now safely positioned in secret tunnels underneath the streets, continues to shoot at the soldiers and roll grenades underneath their feet from tiny holes constructed for this purpose. The Germans are forced to retreat for a second time within half an hour. Not one of the ZOB has been injured, but they know it is a matter of time, as the Germans will eventually return with even more reinforcements. The ZOB gives orders for its members to scavenge from the bodies of the dead Germans, but Esther cannot stomach this and asks Chaya if they can find some other way to help. Accordingly, the girls head towards where Yitzchak is positioned.

Chaya and Esther join Yitzchak, and shortly after, more soldiers come marching into the ghetto; once again, they are mostly Ukrainian troops and the OD. One of the fighters angrily asks Esther if her father ordered these troops in. Chaya attempts to console Esther, but she describes how joining the Judenrat was a “choiceless choice” for her family’s survival. Esther herself made her own “choiceless choice” in leaving the ghetto and joining the resistance, as she refused to be used as a pawn against her own people.

The ZOB manages to scatter the advancing troops into a retreat yet again, but this time they return with three tanks. Esther and other fighters throw Molotov cocktails towards one of the tanks, causing it to explode, and the ZOB’s guns and grenades take care of the soldiers hiding behind the other tanks. The Germans retreat again and the ZOB fighters wait for further orders.

Tamir arrives with the radio and informs them that the Germans have left for now; only one of the ZOB’s fighters is dead. On the radio, the group listens to the Germans discussing the situation in Warsaw; though they have rejected using an aircraft bomber at the moment, they are replacing their commander. Chaya worries that eventually a plane will be sent to bomb them, which would effectively end their fight.

The Germans return by noon with a mass of troops running in and out of formation, shooting and retreating quicker than the ZOB can pick them off. Another mass of troops comes later in the afternoon, and the ZOB continues to try and scatter them with grenades, Molotov cocktails, and whatever else they can find. Suddenly, Tamir orders everyone off the rooftops, and Chaya sees that the Germans have sent in a plane. They rush downstairs with all the supplies they can gather and see the spot the plane is targeting, which the Germans are leaving as fast as possible. As the fighters evacuate, Tamir sets fire to a warehouse so as not to leave anything for the Germans to scavenge.

Even as the explosion hits, Chaya, Esther, and Yitzchak manage to enter one of the bunkers. Its occupants tell them that the Germans found the hospital in the ghetto and killed everyone as revenge for the uprising. Yitzchak begins to sing in honor of the dead, and others join in; the bunker sings song after song, which helps ease the pain.

At night, a note is dropped into the bunker informing them of the Germans’ departure and inviting those inside to come out and see something important. They emerge to see the Polish and Jewish flags flying from the roof of a building in Muranowskie Square, large enough to be visible across Warsaw. Esther remarks that she had forgotten what it felt like to be free. Despite the fighting around them, the Germans don’t control them anymore, as the ZOB has lost its fear of death: “No matter how this ends, history will recognize today for its greatness” (265).