International Women’s Day 2024
To commemorate International Women’s Day 2024, we remember those women who fought in the resistance during the Second World War. We remember their contribution to partisan efforts and honour their memories. Read about a selection of these women below:
Faye Schulman (née Faigel Lazebnik) was a photographer from Lenin, Poland, who lost her parents, sister and brother when the town's ghetto was 'liquidated'. She was one of just 26 people who survived - the Germans ordered her to take photographs of the massacre. Schulman secretly made copies of these photographs for herself.
Serving in the Molotova Brigade, she documented her experiences through over 100 photos. She said, “I want people to know there was resistance. Jews did not go like sheep to the slaughter. I have pictures. I have proof.”
Sonia Orbuch (née Sarah Shainwald) was one of the 8,000 Jews living in Luboml, Poland prior to the war. She was just 16 when the town came under German occupation. She changed her name to Sonia to hide her Jewish identity. When the Nazis began to murder the Jews living in the Luboml Ghetto, she and her parents fled to the nearby forests. They joined up with a Russian partisan group and Sonia quickly learned how to lay mines on enemy train tracks. To avoid possible capture and torture, she always carried two hand grenades - “One for the enemy, and one for myself,” she explained. Reflecting on the Holocaust, she stated, “Was is possible for everybody to fight and get out to the forest and survive? No, it wasn’t (…) but every person in the ghetto fought in their own way.”
Leah Johnson (née Leah Bedzowski) was 18 when the Germans arrived in her hometown of Lida, Poland. After a short stint in hiding, she and her family were forced to relocate to the town’s ghetto. With the help of Tuvia Bielski, of the famed Bielski Brigade, the Bedzowskis escaped the ghetto and fled to the forests. They remained with the Bielski Brigade for the duration of the war until liberation. Speaking to students after the war, Leah urged, “Fight for your rights. Know who you are.”
Marisa Diena was born in Turin in 1916. Upon the Nazi occupation of the city, Marisa fled to the mountains to join the partisans. She enlisted and trained other young women to become spies and couriers for the partisans, riding around the countryside on bicycles and collecting information from local informers. Her unit of partisans created local community committees to distribute rations and support the war-torn towns and villages. Marisa rose to the position of Vice Commander for Information Services in her unit. This unit liberated Turin from the Nazis in April 1945.
Brenda Senders was born in 1925 in Sarni, Poland. The Germans invaded the town in 1941, forcing Brenda and her family into a ghetto. Someone managed to smuggle a scissors into the ghetto, helping Brenda and her sister to escape. The two lay in hiding for several months before Brenda connected with a large Soviet-backed unit, made up of 1,600 people. Her keen familiarity with local forests convinced the unit to take her in. She left her sister with a local peasant, warning him, “If you betray her, remember - I will come for revenge.” Brenda learned how to shoot and conduct ambushes, targeting German bases. She proudly recalled, “We didn’t let [the Nazis] rest day or night.”
Sara Fortis (née Sarika Yehoshua) was born in 1927 in Chalkis, Greece. She realised she had to leave her hometown upon the arrivals of the Germans in 1941. Sara and her mother fled to the village of Kuturla, remaining in hiding for a time. When it was no longer safe in Kuturla, Sara was told to escape and the villagers agreed to hide her mother. Sara formed an all-female band of resistance fighters, transforming young girls into women. Their first mission was to create Molotov cocktails to distract the enemy and allow the partisans to attack. Often, male partisan bands were given the credit for Sara’s unit’s attacks, as it was considered unfathomable that women could accomplish such acts. Sara became a prominent figure in the Greek resistance movement, known as ‘Kapetenissa (Captain) Sarika’ by the age of 18.
Eta Wrobel was born in 1918 in Lokov, Poland, the only one of her family of 10 to survive the Holocaust. Her work in the resistance began when she started to forge identity papers for Jews in her work at an employment agency. In 1942, the Lokov Ghetto was ‘liquidated’, but Eta and her father managed to escape into the local woods. She helped to organise an all-Jewish band of partisans that comprised 80 people. At one point, Eta was shot in the leg - with no other recourse, she dug the bullet out with nothing more than a knife and a shot of vodka to sterilise the wound . Her unit set land mines and targeted German supply lines. When the Germans left Lokov in 1944, she returned home and was asked to become the town’s mayor.
Faye Schulman (1919 - 2021)
Sonia Orbuch (1925 - 2018)
Leah Johnson (1923 - 2019)
Marisa Diena (1916 - 2013)
Brenda Senders (1925 - 2013)
Sara Fortis (1927 - )
Eta Wrobel (1918 - 2008)
