Zivia Lubetkin (, , ,

nom de guerre A ''nom de guerre'' (, 'war name') is a pseudonym chosen by someone to use when they are involved in a particular activity, especially fighting in a war. In Ancien régime, ''ancien régime'' Kingdom of France, France it would be adopted by each n ...

: Celina; 9 November 1914 – 11 July 1978) was one of the leaders of the Jewish underground in Nazi-occupied

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

and the only woman on the High Command of the resistance group Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa (ŻOB). She survived the Holocaust in German-occupied Poland and immigrated to

Mandate Palestine The Mandate for Palestine was a League of Nations mandate for British administration of the territories of Palestine and Transjordanwhich had been part of the Ottoman Empire for four centuriesfollowing the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in Wo ...

in 1946, at the age of 32.

Biography

Pre-World War II

Zivia Lubetkin was born in Byteń in the

Grodno Governorate Grodno Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') of the Northwestern Krai of the Russian Empire, with its capital in Grodno. It encompassed in area and consisted of a population of 1,603,409 inhabitants by 1897. Gro ...

of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

(present-day

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

). She joined the Labor Zionist Movement at an early age. During her school years, Lubetkin was educated in Hebrew by private tutors. In her late teens she joined the

Zionist youth movement A Zionist youth movement () is an organization formed for Jewish children and adolescents for educational, social, and ideology, ideological development, including a belief in Zionism, Jewish nationalism as represented in the State of Israel. Yout ...

Dror, and in 1938 became a member of its Executive Council. In August 1939, she attended the twenty-first

Zionist Congress The Zionist Congress was established in 1897 by Theodor Herzl as the supreme organ of the Zionist Organization (ZO) and its legislative authority. In 1960 the names were changed to World Zionist Congress ( ''HaKongres HaTsioni HaOlami'') and Wor ...

as a delegate of the Eretz Israel Labor bloc. After

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

and later the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

invaded Poland in September 1939 she made a perilous journey from the Soviet occupied part of the country to

to join the underground there.

World War II

In 1942, Lubetkin helped found the

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...

Zionist Anti-Fascist Bloc. This would be the first resistance organization in the Warsaw Ghetto to confront the German forces in combat. She also, as one of the founders of the ŻOB, served on the Warsaw Jewish community's political council, the Jewish National Committee (Żydowski Komitet Narodowy; ŻKN), and also served on the Coordinating Committee, an umbrella organization comprising the ŻKN and the non-Zionist

General Jewish Labour Bund The General Jewish Labour Bund in Lithuania, Poland and Russia (), generally called The Bund (, cognate to , ) or the Jewish Labour Bund (), was a Jewish secularism, secular Jewish Socialism, socialist party initially formed in the Russian Empire ...

(Bund), that sponsored the ŻOB. During her years of underground activities, the name ''"Cywia"'' became the code word for Poland in letters sent by various resistance groups both within and outside of the

Warsaw Ghetto The Warsaw Ghetto (, officially , ; ) was the largest of the Nazi ghettos during World War II and the Holocaust. It was established in November 1940 by the Nazi Germany, German authorities within the new General Government territory of Occupat ...

. She was one of the leaders of the

Warsaw Ghetto Uprising The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the 1943 act of Jewish resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto in German-occupied Poland during World War II to oppose Nazi Germany's final effort to transport the remaining ghetto population to the gas chambers of the ...

and one of only 34 fighters to survive the war. After leading her group of surviving fighters through the sewers of Warsaw with the aid of Simcha'' "Kazik"'' Rotem in the final days of the ghetto uprising (on 10 May 1943) she continued her resistance activities in the rest of Warsaw outside the ghetto. She took part in the Polish

Warsaw Uprising The Warsaw Uprising (; ), sometimes referred to as the August Uprising (), or the Battle of Warsaw, was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance movement in World War II, Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from ...

in 1944, fighting in the units of the Armia Ludowa. Though the Jewish forces would be devastated by the Germans, Lubetkin and several others survived by taking refuge in a hospital that was willing to hide them. On 1 March 1945, she attempted to immigrate to Palestine with partisan leader Abba Kovner. This move proved unsuccessful as the only available route was blocked, causing Lubetkin to return to Warsaw. Lubetkin was issued a Paraguayan passport by the Ładoś Group.

Postwar life

Following the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Lubetkin was active in the Holocaust survivors community in Europe, and helped organize the ''

Bricha Bricha (), also called the Bericha Movement, was the underground organized effort that helped Jewish Holocaust survivors escape Europe post-World War II to the British Mandate for Palestine in violation of the White Paper of 1939. It ended w ...

'', an organization staffed by operatives who helped Eastern and Central European Jews cross borders en route to

by illegal immigration channels. She herself immigrated to Mandate Palestine in 1946. She married Yitzhak Zuckerman, the ŻOB commander, and they, along with other surviving ghetto fighters and partisans founded

Kibbutz A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...

Lohamei HaGeta'ot and the Ghetto Fighters' House museum located on its grounds. In 1961, she testified at the trial of captured Nazi

war criminal A war crime is a violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for actions by combatants in action, such as intentionally killing civilians or intentionally killing prisoners of war, torture, taking hostage ...

Adolf Eichmann Otto Adolf Eichmann ( ;"Eichmann"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. ; 19 March 1906 – 1 Ju ...

. Her two children, Shimon (b. 1947) and Yael (b. 1949), were born on Kibbutz Lohamei HaGetta’ot. Lubetkin lived there for the remainder of her life, dying on 11 July 1978. Her granddaughter, Roni Zuckerman, became the

Israeli Air Force The Israeli Air Force (IAF; , commonly known as , ''Kheil HaAvir'', "Air Corps") operates as the aerial and space warfare branch of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). It was founded on May 28, 1948, shortly after the Israeli Declaration of Indep ...

's first female fighter pilot in 2001. In the 2001 television film '' Uprising'', she was portrayed by English actress Sadie Frost.

Writings

* Lubetkin, Ziviah. (sic) ''Die letzten Tage des Warschauer Gettos''. pp. 47, illus. Berlin: VVN-Verlag, 1949 (from:

Commentary (magazine) ''Commentary'' is a monthly American magazine on religion, Judaism, Israel and politics, as well as social and cultural issues. It is currently headed by John Podhoretz. Founded by the American Jewish Committee in 1945 under Elliot E. Cohen, e ...

, New York). Also in: ''Neue Auslese.'' ed. Alliierter Informationsdienst, Berlin, no. 1, 1948, pp. 1–13 * Lubetkin, Zivia. ''Aharonim `al ha-homah''. (Ein Harod, 1946/47) * Lubetkin, Zivia.
Bi-yemei kilayon va-mered
' (In the Days of Destruction and Revolt). Pp. 127. Tel Aviv: HaKibbutz HaMeuchad, 1953. ** -------------
In the days of destruction and revolt
' translated from Hebrew by Ishai Tubbin; revised by Yehiel Yanay; biographical index by Yitzhak Zuckerman; biographical index translated by Debby Garber. Pp. 338, illus. Tel Aviv: ''Hakibbutz Hameuchad'' Pub. House: ''Am Oved'' Pub. House, 1981

Notes

References

* Gutman, Israel, Zivia Lubetkin, in the ''

Encyclopedia of the Holocaust The ''Encyclopedia of the Holocaust'' (1990) has been called "the most recognized reference book on the Holocaust". It was published in an English-language translated edition by Macmillan in tandem with the Hebrew language original edition pub ...

'', New York: Macmillan (1990), vol.3, pp. 914–915
Transcript: Zivia Lubetkin's testimony at the war crimes trial of Adolf Eichmann
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lubetkin, Zivia 1914 births 1978 deaths People from Ivatsevichy district People from Slonimsky Uyezd Belarusian Jews Polish emigrants to Mandatory Palestine Jews from Mandatory Palestine Israeli people of Belarusian-Jewish descent Polish women in World War II resistance Polish socialists Jewish socialists Polish Zionists Warsaw Uprising insurgents Kibbutzniks Polish female soldiers Polish soldiers Jewish Combat Organization members Ładoś List Jewish women writers Labor Zionists Warsaw Ghetto Uprising insurgents