THE COURIERS OF THE JEWISH
UNDERGROUND IN POLAND
DURING THE HOLOCAUST

by GARY SCOTT GLASSMAN

Abstract | Background | The Couriers | The Fate of Jewish Women in Occupied Poland | Living a Double Identity in Perilous Times | Courier Profiles: Lonka Kozibrodska, and Why Women Were the Couriers | Havka Folman | Frumka Plotnicka…"Die Mameh" | Sima | Gusta Davidson Draenger | Mala Zimetbaum | The Destruction of Crematorium Number Four | What Sustained Them? | Conclusion | Endnotes | Bibliography

Abstract

This thesis is a study of the acts of resistance by the women couriers of the Jewish Fighting Organization in Poland during the Holocaust. It chronicles the couriers' roots in the Jewish youth organizations before the war and then their accomplishments in the Jewish underground during the German occupation. The couriers were essential to the success of the Jewish Fighting Organization, which had branches throughout Poland. Traveling extensively, the couriers smuggled documents, money and guns and were eyewitnesses to the liquidations of Jewish communities. The content of this study was primarily drawn from the memoirs of couriers and also from a variety of other secondary sources.



Gary Glassman teaches world history and women's studies at South Fork High School in Miranda, California. He has an MA in History from California State University at Dominguez Hills and is a Doctoral candidate in Education.

This article is re-printed here with the permission of the author.

© Copyright Judy Cohen, 2002.
All rights reserved.