Justyna’s Diary

Gusta Dawidsohn-Draenger

1943

At that time the apartment at No. 13 was the base for all underground activities. Toward evening, groups of two or three left stealthily, some to take action against traitors and informers within the ghetto, others to seek arms on the outside. A minute before the curfew they returned, out of breath, at times triumphant, at times mortified at having…

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Jewish youth movements anchored underground activity in the ghettos. One young resistance leader, Gusta Dawidsohn-Draenger, wrote on toilet paper about her experience in the resistance as she awaited her death in prison. In this excerpt, she reminisces about celebrating Shabbat with her friends during the war. We can see the importance of the camaraderie and community created by young Jews in the midst of desperate circumstances. These reflections capture the bravery, resilience, and commitment in making resistance against the Nazis the highest form of living. 

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Related Guide

Holocaust and Post-Holocaust Life-Writing and Reportage

1939–1973

Life writing and reportage captured individual Jewish experiences in a period of conflict and uncertainty. 

Related Guide

The Holocaust: Years of Catastrophe

1939–1945

Jewish writing in Nazi-occupied areas documented ghetto life, moral questions, and Jewish identity, while writers in free zones grappled with the unfolding tragedy.

Creator Bio

Gusta Dawidsohn-Draenger

1917–1943

Gusta Dawidsohn-Draenger, whose nom de guerre was “Justyna,” kept a Polish diary in which she documented the saga of the Jewish armed resistance. Born in Kraków to a family of Ger Hasidim, she was a member of the Zionist Akiva youth movement. When World War II broke out, she and her husband, Szymon (Szymek) Draenger, worked underground forging identity documents and publishing Heḥalutz haloḥem, in Polish. Referring to herself in the third person, “Justyna” dictated her diary to her fellow cellmates over a three-month period during her imprisonment in 1943. It was recovered and published after the war.

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