By Aiden Pink December 5, 2017

When Twitter user @xnulz asked followers whether they could “name a b**** badder than Taylor Swift,” she likely didn’t anticipate that her post would go viral and receive over 10,000 replies.

Name a bitch badder than Taylor Swift ??? pic.twitter.com/AkSyQBUIME

— Nutella (@xnulz) November 10, 2017

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Many of the answers mentioned historical figures of some renown:

Hedy Lamarr. Austrian-Jewish star of prewar nudie pix. Left her abusive, Hitler-loving arms-dealer hubby in ‘30s, became Hollywood star, invented wifi and the Soda Stream in her spare time. https://t.co/QAENTxsaGE

— Alex de Campi (@alexdecampi) December 2, 2017

Hannah Szenes was a paratrooper during WWII from British Palestine, dropped into Hungary to help smuggle out Jews. She was captured and tortured. She never revealed any information to the Nazis. She was executed by firing squad. Her poetry survives. https://t.co/O8I9ZpJ42Y

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) December 4, 2017

Dr. Ruth Westheimer @AskDrRuth was smuggled out of Germany at the start of the Holocaust where her parents were killed. At 4’7” she trained as a sniper by the Palmach & was seriously wounded in action during Israel’s war of Independence. Went on to become a leading expert on sex. https://t.co/TBPMqy3wRw

— RandomNewsFeedThing (@RandomNewsFeedT) December 4, 2017

Other historical figures were more obscure, but no less impressive:

Franceska Mann was a Polish/Jewish ballet dancer who upon arriving at Auschwitz concentration camp stripped naked, started dancing seductively, until an SS officer drew close enough for her to pull his pistol, shoot him dead and wound a second Nazi before being murdered herself. https://t.co/DiuOpYCAgB

— Patrick S. Tomlinson (@stealthygeek) December 3, 2017

Annie Kopchovsky accepted a wager to be the first woman to cycle around the World in 1894 – she was Jewish in a very anti-Semitic era, 5’3”, and hadn’t ridden a bicycle until a few days before the trip. She made it in 15 months, self-funded. https://t.co/hArSposOmj

— Ben Cooper ????????? (@bencooper) December 2, 2017

Vera Atkins, a Jewish woman, got herself a job as an administrator for the Nazis in Romania. She sent all the information she gathered directly to Winston Churchill, then escaped and led the British SOE recruit female codebreakers. https://t.co/4ln326YILb

— Emily Zanotti (@emzanotti) December 4, 2017

Hadar Cohen, a 19-year-old Israeli border policewoman who gave her life for the state of Israel, fighting off 3 Palestinian terrorists equipped with guns, knives, and pipe bombs. Despite being shot in the head, she managed to fire at the terrorists before losing consciousness. https://t.co/I2JrOwrSgM

— The Colonel (@Colonel95) December 4, 2017

And some respondents shared their own family stories:

I had a great-aunt who escaped a concentration camp after being shot and left for dead in a ditch full of bodies and survived the rest of World War 2 living in a refrigerator box in someone’s basement. https://t.co/f5gJvHZtsE

— Brohibition Now (@OhNoSheTwitnt) December 3, 2017

My grandmother escaped Iraq when she was 19 y/o with her baby, after her father was executed for being Jewish, got to Israel where she didn’t speak the language and had nothing but her clothes she was wearing. She had 12 kids in Israel, 50+ grandchildren. https://t.co/bwDxkFlp7o

— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) December 4, 2017

My great aunt Wanda, with a 1 year old at home, Jewish, smuggled herself back INTO Nazi Germany in the boot of a car to rescue her mother. They left on last train out, stopped by border guard who took their wedding rings as payment. Both lived long happy lives in Surrey.

— Meryl O’Rourke© (@MerylORourke) December 2, 2017

Do you have other examples? Let me know by emailing [email protected] or on Twitter, @aidenpink

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’re in the middle of our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we have a very ambitious goal of $127,000 by April 21.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Make a Passover Gift Today!

$90 $180

$360

Other amount