Resistance (2018) is an award-winning book written by Jennifer Nielsen. The story is about Chaya Lindner, a 16-year-old Jewish girl working as a courier in Nazi-occupied Poland, who eventually takes part in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943. Jennifer Nielsen is an American author who mostly writes children’s and YA fiction. Her works include The Ascendance (2012-2014) series, as well as other historical novels, which have won her critical acclaim and awards. Resistance was named the 2018 Whitney Award Winner for Best Middle Grade Novel of the Year, as well as the Best Overall Youth Novel of the Year. Through Chaya’s story and the context of World War II, Nielsen explores themes such as Varying Responses to Oppression and The Interplay of Community and Heroism During Wartime. This guide is based on the Scholastic Kindle edition.

Content Warning: This book mentions and describes the Holocaust, antisemitism, and wartime violence.

Plot Summary

Chaya Lindner is a 16-year-old Jewish girl living in Nazi-occupied Poland. After the 1939 blitzkrieg that sees Poland fall to Germany, Chaya’s family is moved to Podgorze Ghetto, and Chaya is forced to leave Krakow. Chaya ends up joining Akiva, a former Jewish scout group turned resistance movement; she eventually receives news from Podgorze that her younger sister, Sara, has been taken to a death camp and that her younger brother, Yitzchak, has disappeared. Chaya begins doing courier work, smuggling supplies in and people out of ghettos, and progresses to raiding German trains for supplies. One of the raids fails when a new member, Esther Karolinski, makes a mistake as the lookout, resulting in another member, Jakub, getting shot and injured and causing Chaya to fire her first gunshot at a Nazi soldier. Chaya is furious, and Esther keeps her distance from Chaya afterward.

In 1942, Akiva plans an attack on three cafés in the weeks before Christmas. Chaya and Esther are assigned to the same part of the mission. The attack is carried out as planned, but Nazi soldiers swarm the streets immediately after, forcing Chaya to hide out at a safe house rather than return to the bunker. When she emerges days later, she discovers that the bunker was raided and everyone was arrested or killed. As Chaya plans to flee Krakow, she receives an anonymous message from another Akiva member indicating that there is a new mission that will require Chaya to travel. Before embarking on the journey, Chaya sneaks in to visit her parents in Podgorze one last time. She urges them to escape using forged identification papers that she provides them, but they refuse, their spirit broken after Sara’s death and Yitzchak’s disappearance.

Chaya arrives at the specified location to find that her contact is Esther; under orders from the new leadership of Akiva, she and Chaya are first to travel to Lodz Ghetto and try to start a resistance movement there. Chaya and Esther board a train to Lodz but must disembark when Esther’s words raise suspicion that they are Jewish; they continue their journey on foot and eventually reach Lodz. As soon as they sneak into the ghetto, the starving women inside ambush them, stripping them of their supplies. The scuffle brings soldiers to the spot, and Chaya and Esther narrowly escape capture. Three other teenagers—Avraham, Henryk, and Sara—give Chaya and Esther shelter; they are hiding out as well. However, a raid in the middle of the night forces Chaya and Esther to run again, and Avraham, Henryk, and Sara sacrifice their lives to help the girls escape. Chaya and Esther make their way out of the ghetto, and Esther reveals that the next part of the plan is to head to Warsaw, where the ghetto is preparing for an uprising. Esther has orders to deliver a special package there.

On the way to Warsaw, the girls take shelter in a barn one night, where the Gestapo discover and capture Esther. Chaya manages to rescue Esther from the building where the Gestapo had unsuccessfully tortured her for information; the girls resume their journey, but Esther is greatly weakened. Fortunately, they run into partisans hiding in the forests. Among them is Rubin, a member of Chaya and Esther’s Akiva cell who joined the partisans after the Christmas attack. The partisans shelter Chaya and Esther for the night, treat Esther’s injuries, and safely transport them to Warsaw.

In Warsaw, Chaya learns that Esther is from this city; her brother was a member of the Polish forces who died in the blitzkrieg, and her father ended up joining the Judenrat, the Nazi-appointed Jewish governing council, to save the rest of his family. He had been in charge of providing deportation lists and made a bargain with the Warsaw resistance to smuggle Esther out in exchange for keeping their members off these lists; this is how Esther came to Akiva. Esther and Chaya sneak into the ghetto and join the ZOB, the resistance organized by Mordecai Anielewicz; here, Chaya also reunites with her brother, Yitzchak, who managed to escape Podgorze only to be caught and sent to Warsaw. Chaya, Esther, Yitzchak, and the others work for the next two months, preparing bunkers and weapons for the upcoming German attack. The fighting finally begins on April 19, 1943.

While the first day of fighting ends with the ZOB having the upper hand, they are soon fighting a losing battle, as the Germans bring in plane bombers, flamethrowers, and poison gas. Chaya is shot and injured but continues to fight. Esther finally reveals that she herself is the “package” and has been tasked with smuggling people out of the ghetto. Esther begins to lead a group of people, including Chaya and Yitzchak, out of the ghetto through the sewers. When the group hears a Nazi official pursuing them, Esther goes to meet him, sacrificing her life so that the others can escape. Chaya leads the others to the exit point, where Rubin and the partisans are waiting and help them escape to a safe location. Safe houses are arranged for everyone in the group, but Chaya and Yitzchak decide to join the partisans and continue to fight and resist in whatever way they can.