Women of Valor: Partisans and Resistance Fighters
Zenia Malecki - Part II
We had schools for the children in the ghetto. We had a choir. We had
theater. We had discussions. It's just unbelievable. Can you imagine? We
wrote poems and songs. We did whatever we could. The mothers were called
to special discussions. I'll never forget what they said, "Now we
are in a cage, but we have to do everything, everything possible that when
the children will come out of the cage, they should be able to fly."
They did everything they could to create a normal atmosphere. A leader
from Warsaw, Jozef Muszkat,10 really taught the women to do everything
for the children, so that they shouldn't feel that they were in a cage. The Resistance had a lot of trouble with the Judenrat. As a matter of
fact, when the Gestapo demanded that the Judenrat give up Witenberg,11
the FPO leaders tried to convince the Judenrat that liquidation will come
anyway, so why should we give away our leader? Abba Kovner's mother lived at the same address as our bakery. She wore
long, old fashioned skirts. I got a skirt from her and I dressed Yizhak
Witenberg as a woman and took him to my room, which we used in emergencies.
Witenberg was hidden in my room, and I was the contact between him and
the staff. I had the key to the room, and we communicated like in a prison.
Three short taps and one long; that was our signal. Then I got the order
that the FPO staff decided to give him up, because they said if Witenberg
will not be given to the Gestapo the liquidation of the entire ghetto will
come. If he will be delivered to the Gestapo, there will be no liquidation.
When I got this order, I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I just couldn't. I went up to my room, to Yizhak Witenberg, and I said, "Yizhak,
the staff decided to give you up." I said, "Look, we will go
up to the attic." The criminal police were downstairs; it was a bright,
sunny day. He dressed himself again, with a scarf; I will never forget
his face. I took him up to the attic even though the criminal police ordered
all the attics to be closed. You hung the laundry in the attics, which
were connected from one building to another, but the connecting doors were
locked. I went up to Mrs. Davidowich and I said, "Oh no, I'm not going
to give it to you." I said, "Please." But she didn't give
it to me. I searched until I found one hole that he could squeeze through
because he was very skinny. I left him up there. When somebody came and
asked, "Where is Yizhak?" I said, "I don't know." I
just couldn't tell them and I couldn't give him up. I couldn't, no. By doing this I worked against the staff of the FPO and I want you to
know that we were very much like soldiers. We had discipline. We had to
obey orders. Witenberg tried to run from one attic to another and the criminal
police found him anyway. It took a whole day. Then I felt guilty that I
didn't follow orders so I wrote a letter to the staff in which I said,
"I committed a crime, so to speak. I didn't follow orders." I
had a small trial, but they understood and didn't punish me. The leaders
of the FPO at that time who were making the decision to give up Witenberg
were Abba Kovner, Abraham Chwojnik, Sonia Madeysker, and Nissan Reznik
and the Judenrat. This was the Witenberg chapter in my life which I think
created my character. I was very young then. Meanwhile, Witenberg's wife, Etel, and younger son were hiding because
she didn't have a yellow Schein.12 Since I was the connection between Witenberg
and the staff, he asked me to go to his wife and tell her that he was all
right. I went in there and she said, "Zenia, I can't take it any more.
All the women are saying, "Nu, nu, did they catch him already? Did
they catch him?" She was sitting there with the child.13 She was a
little woman, slim. She said, "I probably will have a heart attack
here" But she didn't. After Witenberg was taken away,14 Abba Kovner took command15. We had
out meetings. We had also connections with the Polish partisans. Sonia
Madeysker16 looked like a Christian girl and she was very important. She
organized everything. We were trained to work with rifles and we also filled
up bulbs with acid. In case we would have to resist, we planned to throw
the bulbs because we didn't have enough armament. We did everything ourselves.
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