The Hour of the Captured Lionesses.


 April 1943. Warsaw is on fire—literally. The fact that the Ghetto turned into rubble, the air was full of smoke and the smell of the walls being burned. Gunfire echoes, then dies out. There are few women in the city who are Jewish and surrounded by SS soldiers. They are dirty, battered, weary--they still have the eyes.


It was the Ghetto Girls--the ones who carried grenades in their bread baskets and Pistols in their coats. They carried messages by sewers, sneaked weapons over inspection posts, and carried on the struggle a full twenty-seven horrid days. They knew the ending already. The Germans possessed tanks, guns and no quarter. Still, they fought anyway.


And now they are caught, and the Ghetto is gone. The Germans are going to destroy the location, stone by stone, which no one opposed. But here’s the truth—they did. These women made sure of it.


You may read it in their features: not fear, but only indignation. They were aware that the game was fixed but they played it with a lot of intensity. It is what makes them dangerous not their weapons but their unwillingness to bow down.


They were the virgin lionesses of Warsaw. The city was captured, but their resistance was not. There are fights, which you lose and still win.

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