Resistance by Nechama Tec Page A

her gratitude for the many things she had learned from her membershipin these groups. She was convinced that these contacts had given her something to believe in. She also felt that through these organizations she became more intellectually active, able to form new and vibrant friendships. As a member of the Jewish Scout organization, Leah appreciated the ties she had made with some Polish Scouts and continued to cherish her memories of these friends. Before and during World War II, some Polish Scouts were supportive of their Jewish counterparts, often under most trying circumstances.
    Among those who returned to their homes after the German invasion in 1939, which, as we have seen, created a mass exodus, many were Jewish youths, members of various Zionist organizations. Leah’s grandmother, remembering World War I, comforted whoever would listen that they had nothing to fear from the German occupation. Reality, of course, proved otherwise.
    Singled out for early and vigorous assaults were members of the Polish elites, which was part of Hitler’s plan, as Ian Kershaw has put it, to deprive the Polish intelligentsia of any chance “to develop into a ruling class.” 4 For example, in Krakow, the entire faculty of Jagiellonian University was invited to come to a large assembly hall. All faculty members were asked to appear on November 6, 1939, to discuss issues related to the start of the new academic year. After the distinguished faculty reached the designated place of assembly, the German police invaded the hall. Without any explanations, the police pushed the waiting faculty, 106 in all, out of the hall and into vehicles and disappeared with them. When information reached students and family—the rumor was that they had been taken to Sachsenhausen and Dachau—seventeen were already dead. 5
    The Central Welfare Council (Rada Glówna Opieku ń cza, or RGO) headed by Jerzy Roniker, worked incessantly to help. Roniker knew that the Germans defined Polish officers, some of whom were returning home, as elites and ordered them to register with the authorities. As mentioned earlier, the newly created Polish underground warned these officers what this meant and told them to conceal their identities. By not revealing their military past, many Polish officers survived; these underground warnings saved lives. 6
    The focus of oppression, of course, soon became the Jews, who early on were targeted for progressive degradation that led to the construction of ghettos. By October 1940, the Germans completed the construction of the Warsaw ghetto, and by November 15th, it was sealed, meaning that its Jewish inhabitants could not enteror leave the area unless they had special permits. 7 Officially, the death sentence applied to any Jew who left or entered the ghetto in an unauthorized way. The death sentence also applied to Gentiles caught helping Jews.
    Like most ghetto inhabitants, Leah Silverstein’s family had settled in dilapidated apartments. One was assigned for her father and his family, and the other was allotted to Leah and her grandmother. Asked to describe the Warsaw ghetto, Leah’s unhesitating assessment was that it was “hell on earth.” Over 300,000 Jews were crowded into a small neighborhood: “Eventually, these rundown spaces had to accommodate about half a million Jews. Similarly, the amount of food allotted to the ghetto inmates was way below the subsistence level. All ghetto inmates were exposed to dirt, hunger and a range of debilitating conditions, including the spread of deadly diseases. . . . Occasionally, Jewish inmates were driven from their dwellings to the public baths, for the so-called de-lousing.” 8

    FIGURE 5.1 Leah Silverstein poses holding a bicycle at the Hashomer Hatzair Zionist collective in Zarki. (U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Leah Hammerstein Silverstein)
    Like others, Leah tried to renew her past associations. She elaborates: “In the