Jewish Women Partisans: “I was a fighter”

“I was a fighter, I was always a fighter. Jews didnot go like sheep to their slaughter,” emphasizespartisan Eta Wrobel, who began her resistanceactivities immediately after Germany invaded hernative Poland in September 1939. “Fear was notin my dictionary!” declares Greek partisan SarahFortis, who organized one of the only all-femalebrigades to fight the fascists in World War II.

Women partisans like Eta Wrobel and Sarah Fortisrecall their roles in the anti-Nazi resistance withfierce pride. Their boldness is all the moreremarkable given that women were not readilywelcomed into male-dominated partisan units.Guns were the law of the forest, and gunsbelonged to men.

The primary role of a partisan was to take uparms and fight the enemy in guerilla-typewarfare, focusing on military and strategictargets. Partisans killed Nazis and their localcollaborators; they disrupted transportation andcommunication lines to the war front. Theydynamited railroad tracks, enemy power plants

and factories; they held up police stations andstole their arsenals. They operated from hideoutsmade within wild, dense forests or mountainousterrain. This harsh, perilous, combat existence wasruled and populated by men.

Of the approximately 30,000 Jewish partisanswho fought in both non-Jewish and Jewishresistance units in German-occupied Europe, lessthan ten percent were women. Some performedroles traditionally assigned to women: theytended to the sick and the wounded, cooked forand fed the troops, and acted as decoys,smugglers and couriers. Arms-bearing women likeEta in Poland and Sarah in Greece, wereexceptions to the rule. Although their numberswere small and their duties often limited, womencombined courage and savvy with sheer will andluck to become part of the vital infrastructurethat sustained partisan movements across thewar-torn continent. Despite the twin evils ofantisemitic and sexist violence that threatenedtheir survival, Jewish women partisans overcamethe specific and compounded dangers they facedboth as women and as Jews.

From Protected to Protector

The road to the partisans usually began in theghettos and camps, where women were forced todevelop strategies that could help them and theirfamilies survive. Some of these tactics departedfrom socially acceptable convention, such as thesmuggling of arms; others were extensions of thetraditional female caretaking role. Women of allages - mothers, sisters and daughters - used theirwits and their resources to find food, clothing,shelter, information, and valuable contacts fortheir families. Sonia Orbuch’s mother, for example,bribed a policeman with her wedding ring toallow the family to escape the Luboml ghetto inPoland in October 1942. Brenda Senders of Sarni,Poland, found refuge for a younger sister with aChristian farmer and ensured her safety bywarning the caretaker: “My sister is the only oneleft from my family, and you better take care of

Female Jewish resistance fighters inthe forests near Pinsk, c. 1943Source: USHMM

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Study GuideJewish Women in the Partisans

Edited in Consultation with Shana Penn

her. If you betray her, remember -- I'll come forrevenge.” The sister survived. Such strength ofmind would well serve other women whosubsequently made their way into partisan units.

On the whole, traditional gender roles made itharder and thus less common for women toseparate from their families and try to join thepartisans on their own. Women usually chose toremain in the ghetto with their loved ones,whether out of loyalty, fear, or lack of confidenceand skills. It was a hot August day in 1942, whenthe Germans began rounding up the Jews of theSarni ghetto. In the midst of the gunshots,killings, and mayhem, Brenda Senders’s motherpulled her daughter close: “Brenda, you must gointo hiding.” Brenda resisted, “Where am I goingto hide? No. Whatever will be with the family, willbe with me.” But her mother insisted, “No, maybeone of us will survive.” So at her mother’s urging,Brenda was emboldened to escape and take heryounger sister with her.

Some families made a point of teaching girls howto conspire against the Nazis. In the Polish townof Lokow, Eta Wrobel’s father, active in the Polishunderground, taught his 18 year-old daughtersurvival tactics after her mother and six siblingswere killed in one of the first Nazi roundups ofJews in Poland. Eta recalls: “He instructed me tohelp the underground resistance, and constantlyencouraged me. ‘Don’t be afraid. Only you can doit. I order you to survive.’ And that’s what I did.”

“Only boys can go!”

Not all women were encouraged by their familiesto risk escape and engage in clandestineresistance. In October 1942, Meyer Orbuch was inthe Luboml Ghetto in Poland. He had collectedguns and made plans to escape into the woodswith several other young men. His mother beggedMeyer to take his older sister, Sonia, along. Meyerrefused, explaining that, “No girls can go with us.Only boys can go!” Meyer went to the forest, and

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FRANCE

SPAIN

GREAT BRITAIN

GERMANY POLAND

GREECE

AUSTRIASWITZERLAND

ESTONIA

LATVIA

LITHUANIA

PRUSSIA

BELGIUM

NETHERLANDS

DENMARK

ALBANIA

HUNGARY

ROMANIA

ITALY

YUGOSLAVIA

BULGARIA

CZECHOSLOVAKIA

USSR

(USSR)

BELARUS(USSR)

TURKEY

NORWAY

SWEDEN

FINLAND

Gertrude Boyarski

Eta Wrobel

Marisa Diena

Mira Shelub

Sonia Orbuch

Brenda Senders

Sara Fortis

This map depicts approximate partisanactivity of the women featured in thisstudy guide from 1942 to 1944. Theborders of this map are from Europe in1939, before the German and Russiannon-aggression pact.

t

To see video interviews for each womanin this study, as well as additionalbiographical information andphotographs, please go to:

www.jewishpartisans.org/partisans.phpclick on the name of the partisan youwould like to learn more about.

t

You can also see the accompanyingshort film, Every Day the Impossible:Women in the Partisans at:

www.jewishpartisans.org/films.php

Sonia remained with her family in the ghetto. Insuch instances, women who might have wantedto run, could not, and often were murderedtogether with their families. However, in Sonia’scase, she and the rest of her family managed a

treacherous flight during thefinal liquidation of the ghettoand went into hiding.

Other families attempted toescape the ghettos and staytogether. Mira Shelub and herfamily fled the ZdziedociolGhettoin Poland 1942, just asthe Germans began killing offthe ghetto population.Fifteen year-old Sarah Fortisand her mother traveled a12-hour journey by donkey toa remote village in Greece, asthe German occupied theirbeautiful hometown ofChalkis. Marisa Dienafollowed her partisan brotherto a hideout in the Italianmountains, where sheeventually trained otheryoung women in

reconnaissance activities. In each instance,women fled with family when no options otherthan death stood before them.

With the Partisans: Jews andWomen are “Unfit for Battle”

Jewish men and women faced a whole new set ofchallenges once they made contact with partisangroups. Many Eastern European units, composedof ex-Soviet soldiers who were escaped prisonersof war, and male anti-Fascists from nativepopulations, did not accept Jewish fugitives. Theywere even less likely to accept women. For Jewsto join these units, they had to find their ownweapons and ammunition or bring special skillssuch as communications, medicine, or knowledgeof local geography. But the Jews who ran to theforests were civilians, not soldiers, and arrived ata partisan camp with little more than the scantpossessions they could carry when they had fled.Considered too weak, unskilled, and inferior to befighters, Jews were seen as burdens to the unit --and Jewish women were double burdens.

Brenda Senders understood that “the partisansexpect you to bring ammunitions, or they won’ttake you in.” In lieu of arms, Brenda brought akeen familiarity with the local forests; she alsoknew some of the Christian inhabitants, who haddone business with her family and could supplythe partisans with food and shelter. Her father, aforester, had shared his knowledge and love of thewoods with her when she was growing up, andBrenda used this knowledge to beg her way into aSoviet unit: “Take me in. I want to fight.”

Sonia Orbuch and her family were admitted into aSoviet partisan unit on the Ukrainian border, butSonia says they would have been turned away ifher Uncle Tzvi had not been with them. Tzvi hadbeen a scout in the Polish underground and couldoffer the Russians his reconnaissance skills. Thatknowledge saved Sonia, Tzvi, and her parents.

But skilled or not, the partisans mainly regardedJews as liabilities, not as resources, because thepresence of Jews threatened the security of thesecret combat units. The Nazis and theircollaborators hunted runaway Jews tenaciously,and local populations, though they might be loyalto the partisans, would often betray Jews inexchange for food or other bribes. Some partisanunits preferred to kill Jews than harbor them dueto their own antisemitic beliefs.

“The Highest Priority Was ToSave Jewish Lives”

Mira Shelub recounts that antisemitism inpartisan units was a threat to Jewish survival andled to the creation of all-Jewish camps. Herhusband Nochim, whom she met in a Soviet unit,established one such camp in eastern Poland. All-Jewish units, while fewer in number, acceptedJewish women readily. These units often shared adual purpose: to rescue fellow Jews unconditionallyand to sabotage the enemy. “The highest prioritywas to survive and save Jewish lives,” emphasizesEta Wrobel, who helped form a Jewish unit incentral Poland in October 1942. “Sure, we wantedto disturb the Germans so they shouldn’t have iteasy, but I think saving Jews was the mostimportant work. It was my work. In a year and ahalf, we saved about a hundred people.”

Saving Jewish lives was a priority for Jewishpartisan groups, which is why one in four of theirinhabitants were women, compared to the one infifty in non-Jewish units. In Ukraine’s Naliboki

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Sarah Fortis poses for a photo in herGreek partisan uniform. (Dateunknown.) Source: JPEF.

Forest, The Bielski Brigade set up family camps forwomen, children, and the elderly. From 1942 untilthe end of the war, the Bielski camp providedrefuge to more than 1,200 Jews, who assisted inmilitary operations or repaired weapons, madeclothing and cooked for the fighters. Womenmade up 30 to 40 percent of the Bielskipopulation.

Sadly, the very advantage of family camps provedto be their weakest point. By being stationary andadmitting everyone regardless of gender, age orphysical ability, family camps became vulnerableto exposure and attack from both the Germantroops and local people, who shared the Nazishatred of Jews. Gertrude Boyarski’s mother andyounger siblings lived in a family camp whileGertrude, her father, and an older brother livednearby among the partisan units. Gertrude recallsthe last time she visited her mother in the familycamp. A surprise attack by local Nazicollaborators killed many unarmed members ofthe camp, including Gertrude’s mother. Lucky tosurvive the raid, Gertrude ran through the forestto her father’s unit, where she remained until theend of the war.

Women and Men: “Select an officer, life will go betterfor you”

The double threats of antisemitism and sexismseemed a never-ending consequence of the war.Jewish women faced the constant danger ofsexual abuse, rape, and forced abortion in theghettos and camps, where they were targeted bythe Nazis as breeders of an inferior race that hadto be exterminated. The trail of physical andsexual violence followed women into theresistance units. They found themselves corneredand coerced by partisan men, who weredemanding sexual favors in exchange forprotection.

Sonia Orbuch remembers being horror-struckwhen the commander's wife took her aside for aprivate conversation soon after her family arrivedin the Soviet camp: “You’re a young girl, there arevery few women in the partisans, and I wouldadvise you to select an officer. Life will go betterfor you,” the woman said.

The women who were the most vulnerable werethose who operated alone and were usually young

and unmarried. “Be my wife and I will get youinto the unit,” a friend of Gertrude’s fatherpropositioned her. She refused his offer andinstead stood guard duty as an admissions test,succeeding in joining the partisan group on herown.

“It was difficult for a woman in a predominantlymale organization to avoid propositions andadvances by male partisans,” Mira Shelubacknowledges. “The female population was small.Men wanted sweethearts. I was lucky enough tobe protected by my parents. That made all thedifference.” Mira explains that some womenwillingly “chose an officer” because therelationship offered protection and privileges,such as relief from combat assignments, largerfood rations, and more comfortable livingquarters. A man could buy a woman food,clothing, and shelter for her and her family. In araid, a man with a gun could protect a womanand her family.

Those women who didn’t pair off with men fearedthe consequences of their decision to remainunattached. They had no one to help them carrythe heavy loads of wood and water, or prepare thehuge campfires for cooking the partisans’ meals.Serious problems could result if the food was notready on time, and it became an enormous sourceof stress for single women, as Sonia Orbuchrecounts. Every morning, she and the otherwomen were given two short hours to “carrywater, chop the wood, build a fire, prepare thefood, cut, cook, and clean up. If I had no one tohelp me, it was impossible to do the work in twohours… We always worried that if we were notable to perform, we will be thrown out of thepartisans. So you had to deal with it.” Soniaweathered frostbite, hunger and the loss of herloved ones in order to prove her worth and beaccepted by the Soviet partisans.

An estimated 60 percent of the adults in theBielski partisan group lived as couples, and someof the relationships, like Mira’s marriage topartisan leader Nochim Shelub, would last alifetime. Other women coupled with men fromvery different religious and class backgrounds –men whom they would never have met or chosenin a peacetime situation.

Many women, however, had relationships forcedon them, especially in non-Jewish units. Though itwas rarely discussed openly, women had to face

Discussion Questions

1. Which of the women in thestudy guide or film did yourelate to most? Why? Did sheremind you of someone youknow? What was yourconnection?

2. What were the additionalobstacles that Jewish womenhad to overcome as womenand not just as Jews in order tojoin a partisan group? Rankthese in order of difficulty andexplain your choices. Which ofthese obstacles would you findmost difficult to overcome?Why?

3. What were some of thefactors that helped Jewishwomen become partisans?

4. Which, in your opinion, ismore accurate: Jewish womenwere bound by and playedtraditional female roles aspartisans or: Jewish womenbroke with convention andstereotype as partisans. Citeexamples from the text tosupport your argument.

5. What is the poem "Tanya"an account of? How did Tanya'spath to the partisans differfrom the other accounts youhave read? Why wasn't Tanya'sname honored after the war?

6. Do you think that Jewishwomen partisans were ordinaryor extraordinary women – orboth? In other words, was theresomething unique about theseindividuals that enabled themto become partisans or werethey simply ordinary people inan extraordinary time. Supportyour argument with a state-ment from the text.

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the bitter irony that some of them had escapedthe Nazis only to be threatened with rape ormurder at the hands of partisans in non-Jewishgroups.

Not all partisan environs were dangerous forwomen, and some camps punished rape severely.In the Soviet camp where Gertrude Boyarskiworked, the commander protected women fromsexual assault as part of his overall effort toimpose greater discipline in the combat units. “Hetold us to count on him for support,” she recalls.After a Polish girl was raped, the commanderissued a swift punishment. The instigator of theassault was held before all the partisans, andafter his crime was announced, he was shot onthe spot. The commander’s warning to the othermen could not have been more clear.

Once Jewish camps were formed, women becamebetter protected against sexual coercion. FrankBlaichman, leader of an all-Jewish unit, says hefelt duty bound to protect the women. “Therewere many bullies in our group... But I would sayto the women: ‘Don’t be afraid to say ‘No.’ And Itold the men, ‘If you want to have a girlfriend,okay. But to abuse women and then go back onthe partnership – no, you can’t do this.’”

Women’s Work: Caretakers and Couriers

Women played a variety of roles in both Jewishand non-Jewish groups, but primarily theirpartisan activities were extensions of theirtraditional caretaker roles. They were responsiblefor feeding their entire unit, nursing the woundedand the sick, setting up and breaking down camp,doing the laundry, and cleaning and carryingweapons – vital duties that ensured a camp’ssurvival, safety, and ability to function.

Working in a makeshift hospital under theguidance of the only doctor, 17 year-old Soniatreated sick and wounded partisans. Her medicaleducation was as improvised as the hospital, sherecalls. After a few meager days of training, shewas bandaging injured partisans. “You got throwninto the work, whatever it was. You got used toit.”

It was not uncommon for women to act as spies,smugglers, and couriers as well, for they had avery useful gender advantage in these roles – a

female could move about in public more easilythan a male, especially a Jewish man, whoseidentity could be readily exposed. In early 20thcentury Europe only Jewish men werecircumcised. The partisan units recognized andbenefited from this fact.

When young Marisa Diena became the ViceCommander of Information Services in an Italian

partisan group, she enlisted and trained peasantwomen to become courier messangers. “No onesuspected their involvement…” Marisa explains.“We didn’t have all the things that a real armyhas, like communications services. Instead, wehad the peasant girls, who could maintainconnections and pass information back andforth.”

Female Jewish partisans with blond hair and blueeyes could “pass” as Aryan. By manipulatingethnic and female stereotypes, they could movearound unnoticed in public – ride buses or trains,hold meetings in parks or cafes – and thustransmit messages, smuggle supplies, or escortfugitives into hiding. They would assume Christiannames and acquire false identification papers. For

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Discussion Questionsfor the Film EveryDay the Impossible:Jewish Women inthe Partisans

1. In her interview, Eta Wrobelsaid: “I was born a fighter. Iwas free.” What do you thinkthis means? How does being afighter connect with the ideaof freedom?

2. For what reasons do youthink women were more easilyaccepted into Jewish partisangroups as opposed to non-Jewish ones?

3. Do you think the womenpartisans in this film wereproud of their actions duringthe war? Would you considerthem to be heroes? Why or whynot?

For bibliographic informationabout this study guide, pleasego to: www.jewishpartisans.org/stu-sources.php

Visit the Jewish PartisanEducational Foundation’swebsite where you can ask apartisan a question. You willreceive a response with oneweek. Click on “Ask a Partisan”at: www.jewishpartisans.org/ask.php.

For more information pleasecontact: Jewish PartisanEducational Foundation2107 Van Ness AvenueSuite 302San Francisco, CA 94109415-563-2244 (tel)415-563-2442 (fax)info@jewishpartisans.org

Sara Ginaite stands guard at the liberation of the Vilna ghetto,1944. Source: USHMM

instance, Sarah Fortis became Sarika, and MarisaDiena became Mara. “My name was changed fromMarisa to Mara. It was not my nickname. It wasmy battle name,” she explains proudly.

Partisan women who took on courier assignmentshad to speak the country’s language fluently andwith no trace of a Yiddish accent. Brenda Sendersspoke Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, and Yiddish.Sarah, who had been raised in a family that shedescribed as more Greek than Jewish, spoke Greekjust like every other native on her island. Italianwas the first and only language for Marisa/Maraof Turin. Young women like these had to think ontheir feet, slip out of risky situations, and neverget caught. Independent and vulnerable, theirundercover work was crucial to partisanoperations and as dangerous as armed battle.Doing this work, women transcended traditionalexpectations of what their role in andcontributions to society should be.

Sarah Fortis, for one, refused to be a caretaker forthe Greek partisan unit she joined. “I told them: IfI am a female partisan, I will have rights, and Iwill do something comparable to what you do.”Eta said she made sure never to wash men’sclothes or cook their meals. “I refused to do it,because I had never done it at home.”

Rule Breakers: Women’sLeadership and FemaleBrigades

Some women partisans were able to bend therigid rules about gender roles. Eta, Sarika, Brendaand Mara fought alongside men. Given theunusual conditions the partisans confronted, anywoman who could use a weapon was needed tofight. Brenda joined a 1600-member Russianpartisan unit in eastern Poland at the age of 17,and she recalls pleading with her unit commanderfor weapons training: “If I was going to die, Iwanted to die with a gun in my hand, fighting myenemy. I wanted revenge.”

Occasionally, women even took an active strategicrole. Sarah Fortis, at her own initiative, single-handedly planned and organized a group offemale partisans, whom she recruited frompeasant villages on the Greek island of Chalkis.She traveled by donkey from village to village andassembled a platoon of a dozen girls, telling themand their families: “Don’t look at the place of thewoman as needing to be at home all the time.Women can also help and have a role inresistance.”

“Capitan Sarika,” as she came to be knownthroughout Greece, taught the girls how tobehave around men. “They all came from homesin which a girl would never speak to a man andsuddenly I was telling them, ‘You're a partisannow.’ It's really difficult for a girl from an isolatedvillage to learn to behave as an equal amongmen. I thought that slowly these girls wouldbecome different by the end of their service. Isucceeded in teaching them that.”

The platoon was constantly on the move, didn’thave a base camp or shelter, slept outdoors, andoften traveled with the male partisans. Theylearned to shoot handguns, torch buildings, andthrow Molotov cocktails as diversionary tactics.

“In the beginning the girls would giggle, 'Ooh, willwe hold that gun?' After a month went by, it waslike they were completely different girls,” Sarikasays proudly. “They took it more seriously than Idid.”

Sarika was concerned that after the war, the girlsin her brigade would not be taken back into theirvillages, which had strict rules defining a woman’sproper place. But they were all accepted, as wastheir Capitan because the villagers were proud of

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The short film, Every Day the Impossible: Jewish Women in thePartisans, narrated by Tovah Feldshuh, was produced as aneducational tool to compliment this study guide. The film featuresrare archival footage and interviews from several of the womenhere. Please note that this film and the accompanying study guidecontain frank discussions of sexual abuse of women within theharsh conditions of life within the partisan units. It is suggestedthat educators be prepared to address these issues with theirstudents in the way most appropriate for their learningenvironment.

For educators who wish to present this 15 minute film, it issuggested that the film be viewed before using this study guide.Discussion questions based on this film can be found on page fiveof this guide.

In addition, The Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation (JPEF) hasproduced a 7-minute film to serve as an introduction to the Jewishpartisans. The film is entitled: The Partisans: Unsung Heroes of theHolocaust, narrated by Ed Asner. Both films may be viewed at:www.jewishpartisans.org/films.php, or a DVD can be requested byemailing: dvd@jewishpartisans.org.

them. Many of the women’s lives, however, wentback to the same sexist configurations as beforethe war, and in some cases things were a littledifferent.

Marissa Diena was the third resistance fighter inher family. The Italian Fascists had arrested herolder brother in 1943, and a year later heryounger brother was gunned down and killed inthe mountains. Marissa joined a communist groupcalled the Garibaldi Brigades, which hid in themountains but worked in the towns, foothills, andplains below. Because gas was rationed, Marissatraversed the area by bicycle, working as acommunication link with the partisans.

“Young people like me didn’t know how to doanything. We weren’t soldiers. I was a little girlwho’d just left school, but I understood that togive information, I needed to have contacts wherethe enemy was, where the Germans and ItalianFascists were. So I rode my bicycle everywhere.”

Like Sarika in Greece, Marisa was a Jewishteenager playing a leadership role in a non-Jewishpartisan group. Unlike Eastern Europe, whereantisemitism was the rule and the local

population did not commonly harbor Jews, Sarikaand Marisa had never experienced antisemitismprior to World War II, and neither felt persecutedby her fellow partisans for being a Jew. Each wasmore sensitized to gender and class inequalities inher culture than to antisemitism. Not only wereboth girls accepted by their respective non-Jewishpartisans, they were rewarded for their abilities.

Heroes and Heroines: “Stayingalive was a full-time job”

The partisans hid by day and fought or traveled bynight. They lived off the land and foraged for foodand clothing. They slept in makeshift dugoutsduring the bitter winters, and under the stars inthe summer – “The trees, the sky, the pine needleground were our summer home,” Mira recounts.They begged local farmers or peasants for food,horses, and supplies, and if they were refused,they resorted to force and stole whatever wasneeded. They lied, cheated, and stole, Etaacknowledges, because “We had to!”

The physical conditions people faced – freezingtemperatures, lack of clothing and food, frostbite,lice, and diseases – were equal opportunityhardships. They affected men and women equally.Still, as Marisa emphasizes, the partisansrepresented “the best possible means for survival.”

“Was it possible for everybody to fight and getout to the forest and survive? No it wasn’t,” Soniaacknowledges. “This is the price we paid, but wepaid it gladly.” Jewish women willingly paid itbecause, as Eta says, “We knew we had ourdestiny in our own hands. We were free to smellthe fresh air. But it was hard, let me tell you. Itwas a full-time job just to stay alive.”

More Information onthe Jewish Partisans

The Jewish Partisan EducationalFoundation recommends theseresources for further information

Books

• Fighting Back: LithuanianJewry's Armed Resistance tothe Nazi by Dov Levin

• Defiance by Nechama Tec

• The Defiant by Shalom Yoran

Films

• 8 short films about theJewish partisans, producedby JPEF and narrated by EdAsner, Tovah Feldshuh, andLarry King, can be viewedonline at:www.jewishpartisans.org/films.php.

• Come and See, a film aboutRussian partisans. Last 45minutes contains violencenot appropriate for moststudents. Available for rentalin some independent videostores, and available in VHSand DVD throughAmazon.com.

• The Partisans of Vilna, a filmby Aviva Kempner, availablefor rental in VHS, in someindependent video stores.

• Resistance: Untold Stories ofthe Jewish Partisans,available for purchasethrough PBS.org.

Websites

• www.jewishpartisans.org

• www.ushmm.org/outreach.jpart.htm

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Brenda Senders, a Jewish resistance fighter with a Polishpartisan unit that conducted ambushes and other acts ofsabotage against the Germans. Rovno, Poland c. 1944.Source: JPEF.

T A N Y A

by Peter Medvinsky

To the sacred memory of Tanya Marcus and all known and unknown martyrs and heroes of the Holocaust

The man who entered my compartment on that trainCrossing the winter-gripped UkraineLooked twice my age, but strong and tough;The kind whose war-time youth was rough;He said “Hello,” then paused a bitAnd took his seat.

The train was crawling; we were looking outside;Another town was in sight;A park, a church, a monument To a Resistance fighter hanged…“They honor heroes,” I said,And turned my head.

The man looked grim, a muscle was twitching on his face:“Young man, I fought in those days;Killed murderers, was stabbed, was shot;Had friends: a brave, daring lot;The most courageous of them allWas a young girl.

I first met Tanya in the fall of 41;Kiev had just been overrun;I was a soldier, had to hide;The partisans were hard to find;Tanya and her Resistance friendsSaved me from death.

I wish I had,” the man continued, “the wordsTo tell you what a girl she was;Her gentle beauty to describe;Her magnetism; her love of life…And no photos of herSurvived the war.

Then came the day all Jews were ordered to report;Most obeyed, Tanya did not;I saw that eerie march of death:Graybeards, cripples, women, babies…The laughing Nazis machine-gunned them,Every one.

I did not see Tanya smile ever since that day;“For us is left only one way,”She said and soon began the hunt;Forged documents, a small handgun…A one girl army she becameAfter that day.

When Tanya struck, her blows stunned the Nazi gang;The ones she killed were of high rank;Gestapo dogs were running wild;They searched for many days and nights;Even SS-men from BerlinWere flown in.

She was betrayed. We tried to save her, but we failed.We later learned that in the jailThey tortured her beyond belief;Death came to her as a relief.She was just twenty. Not a wordThey got from her.

After the war I met some high-ups and, in vain, Urged them to honor Tanya's name;They made it as plain as they could:“Jewish last names don't sound good;”This is the world that we live in -Cruel and mean.”

The man got off the train and vanished in the night;But not before leaving behind,With me: his last look, long and hard;The memories that I must guard;The fire that has not ceased burningIn my heart.

Copyright © 2002 2003 by Peter MedvinskyAll rights reserved

Peter Medvinsky is a U.S. poet of Russian/Jewish background. Hehas lived in the U.S. since 1981 and has been writing poetry since1998. His poetry has been published in many U.S. Anglo-Jewishperiodicals and abroad. Write to Peter Medvinsky atpmpoetry18@fastmail.fm

©2009 Jewish Partisan Educational FoundationRevision no: 9.09

THIS STUDY GUIDE MADE POSSIBLE BY THE EPSTEIN/ROTH FOUNDATION, THE CONFERENCEOF JEWISH MATERIAL CLAIMS AGAINST GERMANY-RABBI ISRAEL MILLER FUND FOR SHOAH

RESEARCH, DOCUMENTATION AND EDUCATION,THE RICHARD AND RHODA GOLDMAN FUND,THE RITA J. & STANLEY H. KAPLAN FOUNDATION, INC., THE RIGHTEOUS PERSONSFOUNDATION,THE WALTER AND ELISE HAAS FUND, THE JPEF GEVURAH SOCIETY.

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