b'BC_5782_2021final_cmyk_Layout 18/8/219:47 AMPage 28Zelda Treger was born in Vilna in 1920, joining a Zionist group in her youth.After the German occupation in June 1941, her Aryan good looks allowed herto leave the ghetto, passing as a Christian. She managed to obtain false paperswhile working for a farmer. Seven months later, after becoming ill she returnedto the ghetto, where she joined the FPO and became a courier.When the ghetto liquidation began, she was instrumental in ferrying out some150 resistance fighters to begin their journey to a forest 120 miles away. SheZelda Treger. arranged for weapons to be taken in coffins to a cemetery for collection bypartisans. At the time of the final liquidation, she and Vitka Kempner guided theremaining FPO members through the sewers to where they could leave for a closer-by forest. Zeldamade eighteen trips between the forest and the city to obtain weapons, medicine and information,and had numerous close calls on those highly dangerous routes. She used whatever ruse she couldthink of, pretending to be a peasant visiting her grandmother, or acting mentally disturbed. On one occasion recounted by Judy Batalion in The Light of Days, her identity was discovered by aNazi soldier and a Lithuanian policeman. She got the Nazi drunk in the home of a Christian friendand got him to leave by persuading him that she would give him money the next day. The soldier theninsisted Zelda go home with him, but when they got there, his landlord made a ruckus because he wasnot allowed to bring girls home. In the confusion, Zelda managed to hide and escape.After Vilnas liberation, Zeldas work continued. She smuggled refugees to safety and helped survivorsleave for Palestine. She arrived in Palestine in 1946 with her husband, a resistance fighter. She hadtwo children, taught kindergarten, opened a delicatessen, and lived in Israel until her death in 1987.'