Review of Resistance by Jennifer A. Nielsen

Chaya Lindner is a Jewish girl who joins the Resistance in Poland during World War II. Because of her more “Aryan” features, she can “pass” as Polish, and therefore works as a courier, smuggling news and food into the Jewish ghettos, and helping smuggle out Jews whenever possible. After an attack on a café goes terribly wrong for her cell of partisan fighters, Chaya is on her own for months until finally reuniting with Esther, another member of her resistance cell. The two girls leave Krakow for the Warsaw Ghetto, following orders to help with the Jewish uprising there. Told from the perspective of a young resistance fighter, Jennifer A. Nielsen’s Resistance, on the 2019 Lone Star list, is a brutal look at the realities of the Holocaust in Poland.

Image

Image of Resistance by Jennifer A. Nielsen. O'Brien, T. (2018). [Cover image of Resistance]. Retrieved from https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/resistance-jennifer-a-nielsen/1127731138#/

Evaluation

One technique Nielsen uses to engage the reader is to draw a line in the sand. In October 1942, Akiva, Chaya’s resistance cell, raids a train station outside of Krakow. Esther, a newcomer to the group, is tasked with keeping watch, but she fails to alert the resistance members of an approaching soldier. One resistance member is shot, the others barely escape, and Chaya is seen, making her known to the enemy. At the end of the chapter, Chaya is understandably upset with Esther: “The last words I spoke to Esther were ‘Don’t ever ask me to trust you again’” (Nielsen, 2018, p. 54). Chaya makes it clear that she can never trust Esther, but savvy readers understand that Esther is going to play a key role in the rest of the novel. Later, when the attack on the Cyganeria Café results in most members of Akiva being arrested or killed, Chaya and one other member survive. The reader knows that survivor is Esther, and that the two girls will be paired together to continue their fight against the Nazis. From the moment Chaya tells us she can’t trust Esther, we know that a relationship between the two girls will be key to their survival.

The setting is perhaps one of the strongest elements in Nielsen’s Resistance. Set in Poland in 1942 and 1943, the novel takes us into the Jewish ghettos, big cities, small villages, and forests populated by partisan fighters. We struggle with Chaya and Esther as they walk from Krakow to Warsaw, and as they sneak in and out of the ghettos of Lodz and Warsaw. In the ghetto at Lodz, Chaya describes the building where she and Esther take refuge with three young people: “The top floor of the building had a dusting of snow from visible holes in the ceiling, and the draft was brutally cold” (Nielsen, 2018, p. 133). The reader can imagine the decrepit building and frigid temperatures. After escaping from Lodz, Esther and Chaya make their way through small villages and forests, finally arriving in Warsaw, where “whole buildings…had been leveled to the ground during the Blitzkrieg [and] some of the back streets [were] still impassable with debris” (Nielsen, 2018, p. 245). Their goal, though, is to join the Jewish resistance within the Warsaw ghetto. Once they make it in through secret tunnels, Chaya sees the overcrowded ghetto, home to 70,000 Jews, with her own eyes: “Most of the trees had been felled for their wood, and the ghetto walls were a constant reminder that this place was, and always had been, a kind of prison” (Nielsen, 2018, p. 259). The place and time are absolutely essential to the novel, and Nielsen does an excellent job of bringing the ghettos of Poland to life for the reader so that we can imagine Chaya’s world.

Nielsen also uses unexpected insights to connect Resistance, a World War II story, to current issues that we are still facing in our modern world. Throughout the novel, the reader understands that the hatred against the Jews is what is fueling the war. Esther is especially frustrated, murmuring, “I remember my father saying that he’s finally come to believe the world had moved past its hatred of Jews, and then this happened” (Nielsen, 2018, p. 160). Esther is convinced that as soon as people forget the stories of the Holocaust, the vicious cycle will start all over again. Chaya assures her that enough people will survive to tell the stories and that humanity will not forget. Even in the novel’s afterword, Nielsen honors the Jewish fighters of the resistance, writing, “and may we choose love, a weapon that will defeat hate every single time. Love is the resistance” (Nielsen, 2018, p. 385). In today’s world, where we are divided and hate continues to be a huge problem, it is essential for us all to remember what hate has done to humanity in the past. We must move forward with love, compassion, and tolerance for others who are different.

Response

Before reading Resistance, I knew a good deal about World War II and resistance fighters in France, but I was not familiar with the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. I learned a lot about the Polish Resistance and especially couriers and their roles. I was utterly compelled by Chaya’s story and her perseverance in the face of incredible danger. My life experiences are so far removed from what Chaya confronts, yet her insistence on remembering the past and importance of resistance line up perfectly with my views of the world. I strongly believe that we must remember the sins of the past so that we don’t continue to repeat the same awful history; if modern leaders would remember where hate has taken us time and time again, we might be able to focus more on helping others than building walls to keep people out. When we ignore the evils that are right in front of us, we allow for the perpetuation of hate. Resistance compellingly addresses things that I care much about; as Chaya writes, “I wanted a world in which no blood must be spilled. A world free of hatred that made a fight such as this unnecessary” (Neilsen, 2018, p. 299). In our world, where attacks on mosques, churches, and synagogues are much too common, we need to remember that tolerance and understanding are key, and without that, we allow hatred to bloom and blood to be spilled. I thought Resistance was a fantastic reminder to all of us, young and old alike, that we must remember and learn from the atrocities in our shared past.

Conclusion

Jennifer A. Nielsen’s Resistance is a remarkable story of the young resistance fighters in Poland during World War II. As Nielsen weaves her narrative, she makes the story relatable by drawing a line in the sand that sets up the protagonist to work with someone she’s not sure she can trust. The setting of the story, World War II Poland, is essential to the plot, and Nielsen’s unexpected insights tie the historical work in with modern-day issues. I really enjoyed Resistance and would recommend it to students aged 12 and up. Fans of Alan Gratz’s Refugee will especially find this novel compelling. 4 stars.

Citations

Gratz, A. (2017). Refugee. New York, NY: Scholastic Press.

Nielsen, J. A. (2018). Resistance. New York, NY: Scholastic Press.

O'Brien, T. (2018). [Cover image of Resistance]. Retrieved from https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/resistance-jennifer-a-nielsen/1127731138#/