Antisemitism18

What can we do other than resist? (…) It will not be easy to retaliate for their crimes against our people, because every step we take will meet with massive and arbitrary retribution. (…) But the fate of our people on this one is already certain. The sentence has been sealed with the blood of millions of helpless Jews. We can either die with them or try to avenge their deaths. Our vengeance will have to be rampant and merciless.

Jochen Kast (ed.), The diary of the partisan Justyna, Berlin 1999.

Poland, Gusta Dawidsohn-Draenger (1917-1943) Gusta was born in Cracow to an Orthodox Jewish family. In her youth she joined the Zionist youth group Akiva, for whose newspaper she wrote articles and was on the board of directors.

After the outbreak of World War II, she played a key role in coordinating the Jewish resistance against the Nazis. Together with others - among them her husband Shimshon Draenger - she smuggled weapons, organized hiding places and fought with partisans in the surrounding forests. In November 1943 she and her husband were murdered by the Germans. Between January and March 1943 she recorded her extensive memories on a roll of toilet paper in prison.

1943