Chasia Bornstein-Bielicka: One of the Few: A Resistance Fighter and Educator, 1939-1947

Chasia Bornstein-Bielicka grew up in Grodno, Poland, part of a typical Jewish family, absorbing both Jewish and universal values. During the German occupation of Poland, Chasia enlisted in the combat resistance and was sent to Białystok on its behalf. There, masquerading as a simple Polish girl, she became a liaison with the partisans, moving ammunition, medicines, food and information to the Białystok forests. Together with other women colleagues, she also gathered intelligence about the positioning of German forces, enabling the Red Army to eventually conquer Białystok without loss. When the war ended, Chasia was chosen to represent Hashomer Hatzair in Poland at the movement’s first post-Holocaust convention in France. She then embarked on a new chapter in her life: opening the first children’s home of the Koordynacja for the Redemption of Jewish Children in Liberated Poland. For a year and a half, Chasia migrated with the children along the route of the Bricha to Germany, France, and then on the clandestine immigrants’ ship Theodor Herzl to Israel.