Free Resistance by Nechama Tec

continuously to the spotless appearance of the kitchen. Leah showed an overall willingness to do favors for her Polish coworkers. She had hoped to win their support through her accommodating attitudes and extensive work.
    One day on her way home, she met Tuwia Szengut, whom she remembered from their prewar participation in Hashomer Hatzair, the leftist Zionist organization. Currently he was known under the Polish name Tadek. He explained that through underground channels he had heard about her living and working in Warsaw and had decided to reconnect. He told Leah that he belonged to anunderground in Tarnow, made up of young people eager to fight the Germans. They needed guns. Then, almost casually, Tadek suggested that perhaps here Leah would steal a gun for them. The German hospital in which she worked had offered her such opportunities.
    Leah remembered that at this point she began to shake. Was it Tadek’s request that she should steal a gun? Was it the strong wind? Or was it simply the fact that she was not wearing a coat? Tadek noticed this and decided it was because of the lack of a coat. He would find her one. Indeed, when they met several days later, a coat was hanging on his arm. Although it was too big, it was warm. Leah was grateful and touched.
    At their next meeting, Tadek did not even mention the gun. But by now Leah was preoccupied with the idea of appropriating one for Tadek’s group. She knew enough to understand that possession of one gun could lead to the acquisition of more. She also realized that this could end as a suicidal gesture. At the same time, she could not help but see that getting them a gun could make a huge difference in the lives of these young Jews. She continued to vacillate between her desire to steal a gun and fear for her life. Leah was well aware that with the many military men around her, there were ample opportunities, but she had no idea how to do it. “Yes gun” and “no gun” became Leah’s obsessions. They inevitably translated into sleepless nights. The brief walks between Leah and Tadek continued, and though Tadek did not refer to the gun again, Leah was hardly able to think about anything else. Yet she did not dare to mention it to Tadek nor to anyone else.
    Then one morning at work, as Leah was moving from the kitchen to the bathroom, she passed next to a few empty rooms. Some of these rooms were being used by recovering German soldiers, others by some German guards. The place was silent. Without thinking, Leah entered an unoccupied room and walked over to a closet. When she opened the door of the closet, she saw a pistol. It was as if it had been waiting for her. She took it and placed it under her dress, and then quickly moved into the bathroom. When she locked the door behind her, she was both happy and miserable. What should she do now? She looked around. By standing on the toilet seat, she found she could look through a small window in front of her. The window opened with a gentle push out onto a roof. She took off her underwear, wrapped the gun into it, and placed it on the roof.
    Leah left the bathroom, forcing herself to act normally. She resumed her place and work in the kitchen. She was silent, but she usually was. She knew that she had to remove the pistol from the roof. When it was her turn to dispose of potato peels, she went outside. Assuring herself that no one was around, she retrieved the gun. She knew that she had to act quickly. In the back of the hospital was a door that led to the hospital grounds. The door, rarely used, was surrounded by all kinds of tall weeds and thick grass. Leah pushed it open and put the gun, still wrapped in her panties, into the thick growth, where it was lost next to the tall weeds and grass. Leah returned to the kitchen.
    After half an hour she became aware of a commotion. An announcement came that there had been sabotage and that all employees would be searched. She knew that no one would suspect her;