Resistance

Chaya recalls her life and the incidents that took place between September 1, 1939, and April 22, 1941. During this time, Chaya lived in Krakow with her family: her parents, her younger brother (Yitzchak), and her younger sister (Sara). On Chaya’s 13th birthday, Germany attacked Poland and changed the capital from Warsaw to Krakow. With the occupation came new rules, beginning with the mandatory registration of all Jews, which facilitated their relocation to isolated ghettos.

In 1940, Chaya’s family received news that they would have to relocate to Podgorze District. However, a member of the Judenrat, the Jewish governing council, also informed them that Chaya—like most of the city’s Jewish residents—would instead need to leave Krakow entirely. A devastated Chaya packed her bags and left in search of asylum elsewhere.

Three days after leaving Krakow, Chaya wandered past a farm in Kopaliny and remembered that it was run by a young couple, Shimshon and Gusta Draenger, who had been the leaders of Chaya’s Jewish scout group, Akiva. The Draengers took Chaya in unhesitatingly; over the summer more Akiva scouts arrived seeking shelter, and the growing group became a family. The news from other parts of Poland continued to worsen, with Jews being shot in the streets or herded onto trains and disappearing forever. Dolek, another Akiva leader, brought this news to the farm. Like Chaya, Dolek had more Polish features, allowing him to move around the country without raising suspicion.

In the summer of 1942, Dolek brought Chaya the news that eight-year-old Sara was taken on a train to Belzec, one of the Nazi death camps; Yitzchak, then 12 years old, disappeared the same day. Later that night, Shimshon called on all the Akiva members at the farm to join other resistance groups and disrupt the worsening Nazi activity. Chaya unhesitatingly agreed to join the resistance and trained to be a courier. Within a month, she completed her first mission inside Lublin Ghetto, and her tasks have since continued to increase in danger and difficulty.

Inside the Tarnow Ghetto, Chaya meets her contact, a boy named Fishel, who takes her to meet a young mother with typhus. She hands Chaya a five-month-old baby girl, the “package” that Chaya will be smuggling out of the ghetto. They lower the baby, drugged with sleeping pills, into the bottom of the bag (a mesh cut-out will allow her to breathe) and then pile the shawls on top of her. Chaya slips back out of the ghetto and makes it to a nearby church, where a Catholic priest takes the baby from her.

Mid-October of 1942, Akiva relocates to the Podgorze Ghetto; the farm has become too unsafe for them, with the neighbors beginning to notice their activity. Chaya’s parents are there too, and she visits them occasionally, though she chooses to stay with the rest of the Akiva members so that she can continue her work. Chaya gives her parents forged papers with Polish names, but they refuse to use them to escape; Chaya’s mother still holds out hope that Yitzchak is alive and will eventually return. Sara’s death and Yitzchak’s disappearance have broken their mother, and Chaya’s father tries to offer her hope, even if it is false.

Shortly after Akiva’s move to Podgorze, Dolek arrives with instructions for Akiva to organize themselves into cells of five. Chaya’s cell consists of Rubin, a slightly older boy; Jakub, a couple years younger; and two other girls, Hanusia and Meriam, the latter of whom is also an experienced courier. Chaya receives orders to begin raids on German storehouses.

Chaya’s cell sets out to conduct its first raid on a German train that is passing through the Bochnia countryside. Chaya must climb onto the moving train, find a boxcar with supplies, and then drop off three boxes—one every five minutes. Hanusia is stationed the farthest away, at the endpoint of the mission, guarding the wagon they will use to transport the stolen supplies. Jakub, Rubin, and Meriam wait at the three drop points along the trail. Chaya manages to offload crates of canned soup, potatoes, and military field supplies before safely jumping off herself. The mission is a success, and Chaya finds herself awaiting the next raid, eager to do more.

Akiva’s activities continue to evolve and grow within the ghetto. Dolek takes Meriam for a mission up north and returns with a new member for Chaya’s cell: a young girl named Esther Karolinski with “every possible look and mannerism to radiate her Jewishness” (47). Chaya does not want someone as shy and inexperienced as Esther to join their cell, but Dolek insists; Esther too chimes in, claiming that she is up to the task and asking Chaya to trust her. The group leaves to raid a train station near Krakow. They slip into one of the parked train cars, and Chaya assigns Esther to stand guard as the group gathers supplies. However, when Jakub jumps out of the train car with his collection, he is shot and injured; to save their lives, Chaya retaliates by shooting at the approaching Nazi, and the soldier goes down.

Even as a horrified Chaya contemplates what she has done, she and the others must drop everything and run for their lives; other soldiers have begun to approach. Chaya and Esther hide and narrowly escape discovery, eventually rejoining the others. Jakub is injured, and their raid has been unsuccessful; furthermore, this station will be more heavily guarded henceforth, preventing any hope of a return. Soldiers will also know to watch for a girl matching Chaya’s description. A furious Chaya tells Esther, “Don’t ever ask me to trust you again” (53).

Akiva’s numbers continue to grow. Alongside their resistance activities, they continue to uphold Jewish traditions as best as they can, such as celebrating Sabbath together. Following one such Sabbath meal in November, which Chaya later comes to dub the “Last Supper,” Dolek lays out plans for their next attack, which they will carry out before Christmas. Chaya hopes that she will not be paired with Esther for this; following their failed raid, Esther has remained as far away as possible from Chaya, barely speaking to her. Dolek speaks to the group, inspiring them to fight for their “three lines of history” (57), which will explain that the Jewish youth did not accept their fate without resistance. Chaya resolves to live and die by this.

Akiva plans an attack on three cafes frequented by Germans in Krakow. The attack will occur around Christmas time, as the Germans will be holiday-shopping, taking a break from the war. Chaya’s cell, including Esther, will attack Cyganeria Café.

Chaya makes her way down to the cafe on the assigned day. Other Akiva members have individually arrived and blended into the surrounding crowd; Esther is the last to arrive, walking up beside Chaya. At seven o’clock, Dolek begins the attack, throwing hand grenades through the café’s front window; the others follow suit. Chaya and the others begin running as they hear someone barking German orders, but Chaya cannot get to the Akiva bunker due to the soldiers swarming the streets. She manages to get to one of the safe houses instead, deciding to wait out the night there. However, she spends three nights inside, and no one from Akiva arrives. Terrified about what may have happened to the others, Chaya finally leaves the safe house on the fourth day to go look for them.

When Chaya makes it to the bunker, she finds it empty and riddled with bullet holes; she realizes that whoever made it back here has probably been arrested or killed. She returns to the safe house and stays in hiding for a month before deciding that she must move or risk the neighbors growing suspicious. As she packs her things, she discovers a note that was recently slipped under the door. It details how Akiva continues to fight despite their losses and asks her to meet a friend at a particular place the next day, saying that she ought to come prepared to travel. Revived by the knowledge that the resistance continues, she decides to do as the note says, wondering whom she will meet the next day.

Chaya decides to visit Podgorze Ghetto one last time before leaving Krakow, and she takes with her food supplies hidden underneath blankets. She manages to enter but is stopped by an OD, a member of the Jewish police, who takes the blankets for himself and his family; luckily, before he can discover the food supplies underneath, a Nazi soldier calls to him and he reluctantly lets Chaya go.

Chaya distributes the food, saving a couple of cans of soup for her parents. She again urges her parents to leave the ghetto, but her mother believes that the ghettos are safer than the world outside, and her father does not want to disabuse her of this notion, fragile as she is. Chaya feels upset and frustrated, wondering why her parents refuse to fight to live, at least for the sake of their remaining daughter. Chaya’s father asks her about the attack on Cyganeria Café and whether she was involved with it, or with Akiva, both of which Chaya denies. After hugging her parents for what seems like the last time, Chaya leaves the ghetto, prepared to set out on her mission the next day: “Quite possibly, it would be a mission from which I was not expected to return” (77).