Frumka Płotnicka | |
|---|---|
 Płotnicka was a leading member of the Z.O.B. in the Warsaw Ghetto and a leader in the uprising in theBędzin Ghetto duringthe Holocaust in Poland. | |
| Born | 1914 |
| Died | 3 August 1943 (age 29) |
| Cause of death | Killed in action[2] |
| Other names | Fruma (Frumke) Plotnitzki (anglicized)[3] |
| Organization | .svg) Jewish Combat Organization (ŻOB) |
| Known for | Będzin Ghetto Uprising leadership |
| Awards | Order of the Cross of Grunwald, Poland |
Frumka Płotnicka (1914 – 3 August 1943) was a Polish resistance fighter during World War II; activist of theJewish Fighting Organization (ŻOB) and member of theLabour Zionist organizationDror. She was one of the organizers of self-defence in theWarsaw Ghetto, and participant in the military preparations for theWarsaw Ghetto Uprising. Following the liquidation of the Ghetto, Płotnicka relocated to theDąbrowa Basin in southern Poland. On the advice ofMordechai Anielewicz, Płotnicka organized a local chapter of ŻOB in Będzin with the active participation of Józef and Bolesław Kożuch as well as Cwi (Tzvi) Brandes, and soon thereafter witnessed the murderous liquidation of bothSosnowiec andBędzin Ghettos by the German authorities.[1][2][4]
During the final deportation action of early August 1943, theJewish Combat Organization in Będzinstaged an uprising against the Germans (as in nearby Sosnowiec). The Będzin-Sosnowiec ghetto uprising lasted for several days even though the SS broke through the main line of defence within hours.[4] Płotnicka died on 3 August 1943 in one of the Będzin bunkers, fighting against the Germans.[1] Posthumously, she received theOrder of the Cross of Grunwald from thePolish Committee of National Liberation in April 1945.[5]
Płotnicka was born in Plotnitsa, a village nearPińsk, during World War I, part of the newly rebornPoland since 1919 after a century of foreignPartitions. She relocated to Warsaw in 1938 to assume a position at the headquarters of the Dror Zionist Youth Movement founded on Polish lands in 1915 in the course of the war withimperial Russia.[6]
Following the 1939invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, Płotnicka undertook underground activities as leader of theHeHalutz youth movement. Using false identities and facial disguise, she travelled acrossGeneral Government territory betweenJewish ghettos in German-occupied Poland. She witnessed theHolocaust trains departing from train stations to undiscloseddeath camps during the extermination of the Jews known as the "Final Solution".[7] As a courier ('kashariyot'), she delivered light weapons procured by theWarsaw Ghetto underground, as well as blueprints, drafted by the headquarters, for the manufacture ofMolotov cocktails andhand grenades.[2] Among the Jewish communities she visited, Płotnicka was referred to as "Die Mameh",Yiddish for "Mom". She relayed the reports of murderous liquidation of so many ghettos that she began to call herself a "gravedigger".[7]
Jews would flock around her from all sides. One would ask her if he should return home [in the German zone of occupation], or continue his way eastward to theSoviet-dominated provinces. Another would come in search of a hot meal or a loaf of bread for his wife and children. They called her 'Die Mameh' and indeed she was a devoted mother to them all. —Zivia Lubetkin[7]
After theGroßaktion Warschau in September 1942 Płotnicka was sent from Warsaw toBędzin inoccupied south-western Poland by theJewish Combat Organization (ŻOB) in order to help the self-defence organization there.[6] The seeds of ŻOB were planted in theWarsaw Ghetto only two months earlier, when theGermanSS headed byHermann Höfle began theroundups of Jews aimed at deporting 254,000 prisoners to the newly builtTreblinka extermination camp.[8] Płotnicka was the first Jewish courier in the Warsaw Ghetto to smuggle weapons from the Aryan part of the city inside sacks of potatoes.[7]
Płotnicka was issued aParaguayan passport issued by theŁadoś Group.[9]
In theBędzin Ghetto, theJewish underground cell was formed in 1941.[1] The ghetto was never surrounded by a wall, even though it was tightly guarded by the German and theJewish Ghetto Police.[4] In March 1941 there were 25,171 Jews in Będzin; this increased to 27,000 after the ominous expulsion of the Jewish community ofOświęcim, the location of theAuschwitz II Birkenau redevelopment. In May 1942 deportations to Auschwitz began with the first transport of 3,200 Będzin Jews loaded ontoHolocaust trains at theUmschlagplatz.[5] On the advice ofMordechai Anielewicz who stayed in Dąbrowa Basin temporarily in mid-1942, Płotnicka, Brandes and the Kożuch brothers, organized a local chapter of ŻOB.[4] On 3 August 1943, during the final deportation action, the partisanslaunched an uprising which lasted for several days.[10] Płotnicka was killed in a bunker at Podsiadły Street on the same day.[5][note 1]
The engravedSyenite commemorative plaque, located at the intersection of Niska and Dubois Streets in Warsaw, is dedicated to her memory. The memorial stone is part of an innercityMemory Trail of the Struggle and Martyrdom of the Jews(pl), inaugurated in 1988, extending from the intersection of Zamenhof and Anielewicz streets to the intersection of Dzika and Stawki Streets. Płotnicka was registered byYad Vashem as a victim ofthe Holocaust in 1957.[11]
Zivia Lubetkin,In the Days of Destruction and Revolt, Israel: The Ghetto Fighter's House, 1981, p. 43. Also in:Antek (Yitzhak) Zuckerman,A Surplus of Memory: Chronicle of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, Berkeley:University of California Press, 1993, p. 156.
all jewish persons living in warsaw regardless of age and sex be resettled in the east.
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