b'BC_5782_2021final_cmyk_Layout 18/8/219:47 AMPage 16Tosia Altman was born in 1919 in Lipno, Poland. Like so many of herJewish contemporaries, she was a Zionist and planned to emigrate toPalestine. She became a leader of the local youth movement at a veryyoung age and had a passionate commitment to its ideals. She wasstudious,butalsooutgoing,energeticandfulloffunavividpersonality.With the outbreak of war, Tosia made her way to Rovno and then toVilna, where she helped organize unsuccessful attempts for Jews toleave for Palestine. She was chosen to go to Warsaw and became one ofTosia Altman. the best of the couriers, carrying messages and contraband betweendifferent areas and organizing discussions. Her fluent Polish, audacityand charm allowed her to escape from a number of close encounters.After resistance leader Abba Kovners realization that the Nazis were planning the exterminationof all of Europes Jews, she began carrying that message to disparate communities, urging themto fight. She continued her travels even as passing as gentile became extremely difficult anddangerous. January 1943 found Tosia in the Warsaw ghetto, where she was one of the leaders of the resistance.Taken captive by the Germans, she was rescued by a member of the Jewish police. When theuprising began in April, Tosia was one of the mainstays of the resistance leadership. When in Maythe Germans discovered her with others in a bunker, they piped in gas. Tosia survived but wasseriously injured. Rescued from the bunker, she took refuge on the Aryan side in a factory. Theloft where she was staying caught fire in an accident, and Tosia, badly burned, died on May 26.'