Women from the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was a courageous last stand against the German occupiers, who were systematically murdering the Jews of Europe. On 19 April 1943, 2,000 Germans entered the Warsaw Ghetto to begin its liquidation.
It was not just men who participated in the resistance work within the ghetto or the uprising itself. Many women from all kinds of backgrounds also played key roles, and some participated in combat.
Below is a collection of stories about women who participated at some level in the Uprising. Some were teenagers, some were mothers. Some acted as messengers or helped smuggle weapons. All demonstrated great strength and courage in the face of unthinkable circumstances.
Read the quick excerpts on each person, and what they experienced in the ghetto and how they participated in the Uprising. Then follow the link to the entire bio.
- Date of birth: 31 October, 1917
- Place of birth: Łódź, Poland
- Date of death: July 1943
- Place of death: Warsaw, Poland
- Occupation: n/a
- Related towns: Łódź, Lwów, Warsaw
Tajtelbaum, Niuta, born Ryfka, alias “Wanda,” “Wanda Witwicka” (31 October, 1917, Łódź – July 1943, Warsaw) – a participant in numerous sabotage operations organised by the Jewish underground. Member of the Polish Workers’ Party (Polish: Polska Partia Robotnicza, PPR) in the Warsaw ghetto, liaison of the Anti-Fascist Bloc (Polish: Blok Antyfaszystowski), deputy commander of the combat unit of the People’s Guard (Polish: Gwardia Ludowa, GL) in the ghetto.
She is remembered as “Wanda with pigtails,” a legendary fighter and author of the following words: “I am a Jew and a communist; my place is among the most active fighters against fascism, in the struggle for the honour of my people, for the independence of Poland, and for the freedom of humanity.”
Photograph courtesy of Jewish Historical Institute
- Date of birth: 5 January, 1920
- Place of birth: Warsaw, Poland
- Date of death: 8 May, 1943
- Place of death: Warsaw, Poland
- Occupation: n/a
- Related towns: Warsaw
Zylberberg, Rachel Lea, also spelt Zilberg, alias ‘Sarenka’ (5 January 1920, Warsaw – 8 May 1943, Warsaw) – member of HaShomer HaTzair, fighter of the Jewish resistance movement under the German occupation of Poland during World War II, participant in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
In January 1942, Rachel resided in the Warsaw Ghetto, where she worked in a tailoring cooperative together with Mira Fuchrer and Tova Frenkel. She lived at 40a Nowolipie Street. From the beginning of her stay in the ghetto, she was actively involved in organising the resistance movement. She would give reports on the scale of the extermination of Jews in Lithuania, including the mass murder in Ponary, and tried to persuade others to put up armed resistance.
Photograph courtesy of USHMM
- Date of birth: 11 November, 1914
- Place of birth: Plotnitsa, Poland (Modern day Belarus)
- Date of death: 3 August, 1943
- Place of death: Będzin, Poland
- Occupation: Ghetto Fighter
- Related towns: Plotnitsa, Będzin, Warsaw
Plotnicka, Frumka (11 November, 1914, Plotnitsa near Pinsk – 3 August, 1943, Będzin) – fighter in the Jewish resistance movement under the German occupation of Poland during World War II, one of the most important emissaries of the HeHalutz and Dror organisations, liaison of the Jewish Combat Organisation (Polish: Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa, ŻOB).
In the Warsaw ghetto, Frumka organized self-defense and resistance. She established contacts with underground organisations on the “Aryan” side, including the Polish Socialist Party (Polish: Polska Partia Socjalistyczna, PPS), and smuggled weapons into the ghetto. In September 1942, she was delegated by the Jewish Combat Organisation to the Zagłębie region, where she organized resistance in the Będzin ghetto in cooperation with the Kożuch brothers and Zvi Brandes.
Photograph courtesy of Jewish Historical Institute
- Date of birth: 3 April, 1918
- Place of birth: Near Pinsk, Poland (Modern day Belarus)
- Date of death: August, 1943
- Place of death: Treblinka, Poland
- Occupation: n/a
- Related towns: Warsaw, Płotnica, Pinsk
Chana (Chańcia) Plotnicka (3 April 1918, Plotnitsa near Pinsk – August 1943, Warsaw) – member of Zionist organizations HeHalutz and Dror, fighter of the Jewish resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II, liaison between the ghettos in Lwów, Białystok, and Będzin. Sister of Frumka Plotnicka.
Chana moved to Będzin in early 1942. She returned to Warsaw in March 1943. She was supposed to escape occupied Poland with evidence of the German atrocities against Jews. With the outbreak of the Warsaw ghetto uprising, the plan changed. Eliezer Geller instructed her to deliver letters and an account of the uprising to Będzin. On 20 April, Aron Karmi and Henryk Kleinweiss, fighters of the Gordonia organization, led Chana Plotnicka out of the Warsaw ghetto. On their way to the agreed address at 80 Leszno Street, a German patrol stopped. A shootout ensued. Chana was apprehended by the Germans and deported to the Treblinka death camp[1]; according to another version of events, she was shot dead on the spot
Photograph courtesy of Jewish Historical Institute
- Date of birth: 8 December, 1899
- Place of birth: Lanivtsi near Borshchiv (Modern day Ukraine)
- Date of death: 31 May, 1976
- Place of death: Tel Aviv, Israel
- Occupation: Writer
- Related towns: Lanivtsi, Warsaw, Lwów, Warsaw
Auerbach (Auerbakh) Rachel (Rokhl), Rachel(a) Eiga Auerbach, (8 December 1899, Lanivtsi near Borshchiv – 31 May 1976, Tel Aviv) – writer and poet writing in Yiddish, Polish, and Hebrew, translator, literary critic. She was a representative of the Polish-Jewish literature of the interwar period, one of the leading collectors of Holocaust testimonies, and a prominent researcher of the Warsaw Ghetto.
In mid-1941, Auerbach was recruited by Emanuel Ringelblum to work in the underground archives of the Warsaw Ghetto. She wrote a paper on the operation of the soup kitchen for the Oneg Shabbat organisation, and submitted regular reports on living conditions in the ghetto. Along with Bluma and Hersz Wasser, she was one of the three people associated with Oneg Shabbat who came to survive the Holocaust. Her Letters from the Warsaw Ghetto, preserved in the so-called Ringelblum Archive and published in 2016, are a testimony to that tragic period of Jewish history.
Photograph courtesy of Jewish Historical Institute
- Date of birth: 1920
- Place of birth: Warsaw, Poland
- Date of death: 8 May, 1943
- Place of death: Warsaw, Poland
- Occupation: n/a
- Related towns: Warsaw
Fuchrer, Mira (1920, Warsaw – 8 May 1943, Warsaw) – Zionist activist, a member of HaShomer HaTzair and the Jewish Combat Organisation (Polish: Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa, ŻOB), participant in the Warsaw ghetto uprising, domestic partner of the commander of the uprising, Mordeichai Anielewicz.
During the Warsaw ghetto uprising, Mira Fuchrer fought in the area of the central ghetto alongside Mordechai Anielewicz. They both died on 8 May 1943, in the bunker of the uprising command at 18 Miła Street. This is how Marek Edelman recalled this event: “Anielewicz had a girlfriend, a pretty, bright, warm girl. On 7 May, he brought her to our place, at Franciszkańska Street. On 8 May,1943 he shot her and then himself at Miła Street.”
Photograph courtesy of Jewish Historical Institute
- Date of birth: 29 December, 1921
- Place of birth: Warsaw, Poland
- Date of death: 21 November, 2012
- Place of death: Phoenix, Arizona
- Occupation: n/a
- Related towns: Warsaw
Meed, Vladka, also known as Władka Meed, Władysława Międzyrzecka, née Feigele Peltel (29 December 1921, Warsaw – 21 November 2012, Phoenix, Arizona) – member of the Bund, liaison of the Jewish Combat Organisation (Polish: Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa, ŻOB), activist of the Jewish Coordination Committee (Polish: Żydowska Komisja Koordinacyjna).
During the preparations for the Warsaw ghetto uprising and after its outbreak, Feigele smuggled weapons, explosives, and petrol for the production of Molotov cocktails. She used a Kennkarte issued for Stanisława Wąchalska, the deceased daughter of Władka’s trusted Polish collaborator Anna. She also helped deliver money, clothes, and information to the few surviving insurgents from the Warsaw ghetto who had gone into hiding in the surrounding forests and joined the partisan movement.
Photograph courtesy of USHMM
- Date of birth: 10 April, 1922
- Place of birth: Radzymin, Poland
- Date of death: 18 June, 2008
- Place of death: Tel Aviv, Israel
- Occupation: n/a
- Related towns: Radzymin, Warsaw
Kossower, Szoszana, alias Emilia Rozencwajg, Marylka, ( 10 April, 1922, Radzymin, Poland - 18 June , 2008, Tel Aviv, Israel) - member of Betar, resistance movement activist during World War II, liaison of the Home Army and the Jewish Military Union on the "Aryan" side. She took part in the Warsaw Uprising.
Szoszana Kossower helped several people get out the ghetto, among them Zionist writer Rubin Feldschuh (alias Ben Shem) with his family or Rachel Auerbach. In August 1943, she organised the escape of Emanuel Ringelblum from the labour camp in Trawniki in cooperation with Second Lieutenant of the Home Army Teodor Pajewski.
