b'BC_5782_2021final_cmyk_Layout 18/8/219:47 AMPage 24Ruzka Korczakwas born in 1921 in Bieslko and grew up in Plosk. When her familysfinancial situation worsened, she left school at age 14 in order to work, but continued toread and to study on her own. Like many of her Jewish contemporaries, she joined aZionist youth organization. Soon after the German invasion of Poland, she determined tojoin the movement and made the dangerous journey to Warsaw and on to Vilna in 1939.There she became great friends with Vitka Kempner (see the calendar entry for May2022) and joined the FPO. In a Vilna library, she discovered a Finnish pamphlet onbombmaking that became the instruction manual for the resistance fighters.In September 1943, Ruzka was one of the last to leave the Vilna ghetto. Escaping withother Jewish partisans through the sewers, with Ruzka carrying the partisans archives,Ruzka they made their way to the forest, where they established a camp that was coordinated withKorczak in that of non-Jewish partisans. Ruzka managed camp logistics, looking after food, healthVilna after the services and laundry. Knowing how tough and determined she was, Abba Kovner choseliberation. her to go with four men, carrying explosives, arms and gear, to blow up a train. Theysucceeded, killing fifty German soldiers and destroying a cache of weapons.She later wrote in her memoir: I recall that in the first operation we felt that the entire fate of the femalesex depended upon us. After the liberation of Vilna in July 1944, Ruzka and her companions returned there and began directing theirefforts at helping survivors get to Palestine, where she emigrated herself. She, Vitka Kempner and AbbaKovner joined the same kibbutz. Ruzka was active in the survivor community and in publishing testimoniesand research about the Holocaust, writing a memoir,Flames in the Ashes. She married and had three children,dying in 1988.'