Hela Schüpper worked as a courier between Warsaw and Krakow. She was once arrested while carrying forged identification but begged to use the bathroom before leaving with the soldiers. There, she flushed all the evidence so they were eventually forced to release her. Hela was later involved in and survived the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising by escaping through the sewers. She died in 2007.
Mire Gola was a courier throughout Poland and a key player in encouraging Akiva to begin fighting back after the ghetto Aktions in Krakow. She was shot to death while trying to escape from Montelupich Prison on April 19, 1943, the same day the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising began.
Rivka Liebeskind was Dolek Liebeskind’s wife. Her courier work focused on finding safe houses and distributing false identification papers. When other Akiva leaders were arrested or absent, she played a key role in keeping the resistance moving forward. She survived the war, and died in 2007.
Vladka Meed was a Warsaw courier and expert smuggler, who brought dynamite, gasoline, and pistols into the Warsaw Ghetto and helped many children to escape. She survived the war and died at age ninety.
* * *
When thrust into a situation as intense and traumatic as war, and facing possible extermination, no two people will respond in the same way. Some will collapse, others will betray, and others will try to ignore the calamity. But in those same circumstances, some will emerge with honor and rise as heroes. However, it is important to note that because of the horrifying and extraordinary nature of the Holocaust, any attempt to judge the actions of anyone through a “normal” lens will likely reflect a poor understanding of just how difficult the circumstances were.
May we never forget. May we live with honor at all times, regardless of our circumstances. And may we choose love, a weapon that will defeat hate every single time.
Love is the resistance.
Jennifer A. Nielsen
2018
Don’t miss Jennifer Nielsen’s acclaimed historical thriller A Night Divided! Turn the page for a sneak peek.
When I want the west to scream, I squeeze on Berlin.
— Nikita Khrushchev, Soviet Union premier, 1958–1964
There was no warning the night the wall went up.
I awoke to sirens screaming throughout my city of East Berlin. Instantly, I flew from my bed. Something must be terribly wrong. Why were there so many?
Although it was a warm morning, that wasn’t the reason for my sweaty palms or flushed face. My first thought was that it must be an air raid — my parents had described them to me from the Second World War. I pulled my curtains apart, expecting the worst. But when I looked out, my heart slammed into my throat. Not even the darkest part of my imagination could have prepared me for this.
It was Sunday, August 13, 1961, a day I would remember for the rest of my life. When a prison had been built around us as we slept.
Lines of Grenzers — our nickname for the border police, the Grenztruppen — stood guard along a fence of thorny wire, in some places higher than their heads, and for as far as my eyes could see. They stood like iron statues with stern expressions and long rifles in their hands. It was obvious that anyone who tried to cross would get far worse than a rip in their clothes. Because the Grenzers didn’t face the westerners on the other side of the fence. They watched us.
It was very clear who they planned to shoot if there was any trouble.
If only I’d looked out earlier. During the night, I’d heard strange noises. Of hammering, heavy footsteps, and hushed conversations from men with sharp voices. But I rolled over and told myself it was only a dream. Or a nightmare perhaps.
If I had looked, I could have warned my family in time, just as our neighbor Herr Krause tried to warn us.
He knew this was coming. Hadn’t he said for years that our government was not to be trusted? That we might salute the flag of East Germany, but that it was really Russia we bowed to? And my father had known.
My father!
As if she had heard my thoughts, from out in the kitchen I heard Mama cry, “Aldous!”
That was his name. And with a final glance out the window, I remembered the reason for Mama’s screams.
My father wasn’t here. Nor was my brother Dominic. They had been in the west for two nights, and were supposed to have come home later today. With an endless row of guns and soldiers between us, the fence just changed that.
I raced from my room and arrived in the kitchen to see my oldest brother, Fritz, holding my mother in his arms as she sobbed on his shoulder. He eyed me and then cocked his head toward the window in case I hadn’t already seen the fence. I only brushed tears from my eyes and wrapped my arms around her back. Maybe she didn’t need me, but in that moment I desperately needed her.
She felt me there and put a shaking hand on my arm. “They’ve done it, Gerta,” she said through her tears. “Worse than anyone ever thought.”
Mama had been a beautiful woman once, but that was years ago. She had come through too much war and famine and poverty to care about the curl in her hair or neatness of her dress. Her blond hair was already turning gray and her eyes bore early wrinkles in the creases. Sometimes I looked in the mirror and hoped life would not be equally hard on me.
“Why now?” I asked. “Why today?”
I looked up to Fritz for an answer. He was nearly six years older than me and the smartest person I knew, next to my father. If my mother had no answers, then surely he did. But all he could do was shrug and hold her tighter as her sobs grew louder. Besides, I already understood more than I wanted to.
The fence was only the beginning. It had just divided my life in half. And nothing would ever be the same again.
My deepest thanks to Tami Rich, Historian & Cultural Heritage Advisor, for her careful and sensitive review of the manuscript, and for her numerous insights on the facts of the story.
I would also like to extend profound gratitude to my editor, Lisa Sandell, and agent, Ammi-Joan Paquette, for your intelligence, support, and thoughtful feedback to help shape and mold this story into what it is today. You are gifts to me, personally and professionally, and I look forward to many more stories yet to come.
Throughout the research and writing of this book, my family patiently listened to my ideas and all that I was learning, and encouraged me to continue, as they always do. Thank you, and brace yourselves—more research is on its way!
Finally, I hope readers everywhere will recognize that this story is possible only because of the heroic efforts of many Jewish people who actually lived in this time and place, and accomplished in real life what I’ve only written about from the comfort of my home. I make no judgments upon anyone for the choices they had to make. I only offer my deepest respect, gratitude, and honor. I hope this book adds to the “three lines of history” that you so deserve, and more.
Jennifer A. Nielsen is the acclaimed author of the New York Times and USA Today bestselling Ascendance trilogy: The False Prince, The Runaway King, and The Shadow Throne. She also wrote the New York Times bestselling Mark of the Thief trilogy: Mark of the Thief, Rise of the Wolf, and Wrath of the Storm; the stand-alone fantasy The Scourge; the historical thriller A Night Divided; Book Two in the Horizon series, Deadzone; and The Traitor’s Game, the first book in a series of the same name.
Jennifer collects old books, loves good theater, and thinks that a quiet afternoon in the mountains makes for a nearly perfect moment. She lives in northern Utah with her husband, their three children, and a perpetually muddy dog. You can visit her online at www.jennielsen.com.
Also by
JENNIFER A. NIELSEN
THE ASCENDANCE TRILOGY
The False Prince
The Runaway King
The Shadow Throne
THE MARK OF THE THIEF TRILOGY
Mark of the Thief
Rise of the Wolf
Wrath of the Storm
The Traitor’s Game
A Night Divided
The Scourge
Deadzon
e, Book Two in the Horizon series
Copyright © 2018 by Jennifer A. Nielsen
All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920. SCHOLASTIC, SCHOLASTIC PRESS, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
While inspired by real events and historical characters, this is a work of fiction and does not claim to be historically accurate or portray factual events or relationships. Please keep in mind that references to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales may not be factually accurate, but rather fictionalized by the author.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Nielsen, Jennifer A., author.
Title: Resistance / by Jennifer A. Nielsen.
Description: First edition. | New York : Scholastic Press, 2018. | Summary: In 1942 sixteen-year-old Chaya Lindner is a Jewish girl living in Nazi-occupied Poland, a courier who smuggles food and documents to the isolated Jewish ghettos in southern Poland, depending on her forged papers and “Aryan” features—but when a mission goes wrong and many of her colleagues are arrested she finds herself on a journey to Warsaw, where an uprising is in the works.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017057212 | ISBN 9781338148473
Subjects: LCSH: Jewish girls—Poland—20th century—Juvenile fiction. | Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)—Poland—Juvenile fiction. | World War, 1939-1945—Underground movements—Poland—Juvenile fiction. | World War, 1939-1945—Atrocities—Poland—Juvenile fiction. | Warsaw (Poland) —History—Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, 1943—Juvenile fiction. | Poland—History—Occupation, 1939-1945—Juvenile fiction. | CYAC: Jews—Poland—Fiction. | Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) —Poland—Fiction. | World War, 1939-1945—Underground movements—Fiction. | World War, 1939-1945—Poland—Fiction. | Warsaw (Poland)—History—Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, 1943—Fiction. | Poland—History—Occupation, 1939-1945—Fiction.
Classification: LCC PZ7.N5672 Re 2018 | DDC 813.6 [Fic] —dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017057212
First edition, September 2018
A note to readers: While some of the dialogue spoken by real historical figures in this text, including Aharon “Dolek” Liebeskind, Gusta Draenger, Shimshon Draenger, and Mordecai Anielewicz, was actually spoken by these men and women, and recorded in various volumes, the author has also created portions of it. Among other sources, the author employed extensive research in the archives of Yad Vashem (yadvashem.org) and a book written by Gusta Davidson Draenger, titled Justyna’s Narrative, published by University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst, 1996.
Additionally, German, Polish, and Yiddish words will be italicized upon their first appearance in the text.
Cover art © 2018 by Tim O’Brien
Cover design by Christopher Stengel
e-ISBN 978-1-338-14849-7
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.
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