Tajtelbaum Niuta, born Ryfka, alias “Wanda,” “Wanda Witwicka” (31 October 1917, Łódź – July 1943, Warsaw) – a participant in numerous sabotage operations organised by the Jewish underground. Member of the Polish Workers’ Party (Polish: Polska Partia Robotnicza, PPR) in the Warsaw ghetto, liaison of the Anti-Fascist Bloc (Polish: Blok Antyfaszystowski), deputy commander of the combat unit of the People’s Guard (Polish: Gwardia Ludowa, GL) in the ghetto.

She was born in a traditional Jewish Hasidic family as Ryfka Taitelbaum. Her father, Icek Majer Taitelbaum, was a factory owner from Łódź.[1.1]

According to all available sources, Niuta was a member of the GL special task force, responsible for carrying out assassination attempts on German officers. Her brothers in arms recounted that she used her youthful, innocent appearance to sneak a gun into the most dangerous places. She was alleged to have personally shot several Gestapo officers, although it has yet proved impossible to ascertain their exact number and identity. Rumour in the ghetto had it that she once entered a German office dressed in a peasant’s shawl, with a chip basket in her hand. Without arousing any suspicion, she approached an SS officer claiming that she wished to discuss a “personal matter.” She then shot him with a revolver and quickly fled the scene. According to another story, after a failed assassination attempt on a Gestapo officer, she disguised herself as a doctor, found him in a hospital room, and shot him on the spot.[1.2]

On the day after the outbreak of the Warsaw ghetto uprising, the GL special task force – comprising Niuta Tajtelbaum, Franciszek Bartoszek (“Jacek”, commander of the group), Jerzy Duracz (“Felek”), and Zygmunt Bobowski (“Zyg”) – took part in a successful operation near Krasińskich Square known as the “action at Nowiniarska Street.” The task force targeted Waffen SS soldiers firing at Jewish insurgents concentrated in the area of the brushmakers’ workshop.[1.3]

Bibliography

• Grupińska A., Odczytanie listy. Opowieści o powstańcach żydowskich, Wołowiec 2014.
• Gutman Y., The Jews of Warsaw, 1939 - 1943: Ghetto, Underground, Revolt, Bloomington 1982.
• Mark B., Powstanie w getcie warszawskim na tle ruchu oporu w Polsce. Geneza i przebieg, Warszawa 1953.
• Mark B., Walka i zagłada warszawskiego getta, Warszawa 1959.
• Pocalun G., Dania – wspomnienia Geni Pocalun [online] https://dzismis.com/2016/04/01/wspomnienia-geni-pocalun/ [accessed: 5 Mar 2021].