Heroines we need: Rewriting the Holocaust to unearth female leaders

Zelda Treger was a resistance fighter in disguise. A Nazi and a police officer caught her, after she was denounced as a Jew. The police officer allowed her to live in exchange for gold, but forced Zelda to his apartment. 

 

The police officer’s landlord, however, did not approve of his lady guest and threatened the officer. Zelda managed to escape in the riot that ensued. Nonplussed, she continued on her mission to smuggle weapons into the ghetto. 

Zelda is one of dozens of Jewish women and girls whose real-life wartime experiences are chronicled in The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos by Judy Batalion (William Morrow, 2021). 

Yet, contrary to its title, The Light of Days is not a story but a multi-layered epic, one that rewrites the Holocaust and speaks volumes about the male bias on our past. Contemporary narratives have buried these heroines’ astonishing experiences, and Batalion expertly unearths them. 

In a series of chronological, intertwined narratives, we meet Renia Kukielka, Zivia Lubetkin and other central figures in the Jewish resistance during World War II. They served as frontline combat soldiers, smugglers, kashariyot (couriers), field doctors and more, enduring unimaginable horrors and repeatedly evading death. Batalion develops these characters beautifully, bringing them to life with scrupulous detail based on memoirs, archives, testimonials and more. 

Women were indispensable to the resistance for several reasons. Unlike men, they could not be physically identified as Jews. Women knew how to ask for help and were treated more courteously. They were often given the most dangerous roles, such as stealing gunpowder for a revolt at Auschwitz, because the Nazis would not suspect them.

Many were orphans or the only survivors of their families; they had nothing to lose, their desire for revenge explosive.

Female fighters were divided into two groups. Those who appeared Semitic were hidden and worked behind the scenes. Women with Polish facades embarked on dangerous missions, traveling on false papers to collect and distribute information and supplies. Also chosen for these treacherous roles were public school graduates (often in contrast to their brothers who attended Jewish schools) because they spoke flawless Polish with no Jewish accents. Still, appearance and speech were not enough. Female fighters needed nerves of steel and the ability to act impeccably in “a performance with no intermission.” 

The women’s courage knew no bounds, and they were constantly sacrificing their lives to help others.

Mala Zimetbaum, an interpreter at Auschwitz, used her relative privilege to help other Jews. She escaped, but was caught. At her execution, she slapped an SS man with her hand, bloodied from having slashed her wrists with a razor blade hidden in her hair, and yelled, “I shall die a heroine, but you shall die a dog!”

Documenting the atrocities was also an act of resistance. Gusta Davidson Draenger wrote her memoir in jail on pieces of toilet paper, sewn together with string from prisoners’ skirts, using smuggled pencils. Her fingers crushed by torture, she wrote until she couldn’t and then dictated to the other prisoners. The diary, hidden throughout the prison and smuggled out, survived. Gusta did not.

Alongside the female narratives, Batalion delves into fascinating details of ghetto life: the schmaltzovniks, Poles who blackmailed Jews, threatening to turn them in for money or sexual favors, and the underground salon industry, in which Jews could dye their hair a Polish blond and reverse circumcisions.

The Light of Days is a very difficult read, but it’s hard to put down. Drama abounds and the characters are deeply engaging.

It is also particularly timely.

These women are the heroes we crave: they contradict the widely held notion that Europe’s Jews were passive in the face of extermination; they have the trappings of feminist icons; and their valor is inspiring. Yet, at the book’s core are stark stories of women brutalized beyond humanity who, by their own accounts, simply did what needed to be done. They were the organizers, the communicators, the caregivers. They held everything together – as women have done throughout history.

The Light of Days is published at a time when discourse on rape and sexual assault is more acceptable. As such, it details the specific torture the Nazis inflicted on Jewish women. Had this book been written a few years earlier, it may have been deemed too harsh for public consumption. Now is the time to bring this herstory out of the darkness.

Moreover, The Light of Days comes on the heels of a vociferous debate about Poland’s role in the Holocaust. Although Batalion describes “a Poland of two extremes” – Poles who took great risks to rescue Jews alongside others who were complicit and active in the Nazi genocide – official Poland would not be pleased with some of the book’s depictions. 

The book’s value has not gone unnoticed: Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Partners is producing the film version, with Batalion co-writing the screenplay. It is currently being translated into 18 languages. The Hebrew version is due out in 2022. Batalion has also written a young reader’s version.

Just as Schindler’s List exposed an entire generation to the Holocaust, The Light of Days is required reading for the third generation and beyond. Batalion has forged a critical record for our understanding of this watershed event, one that highlights the need for herstory as an antidote to history.