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Sonia Shainwald Orbuch (born Sarah Shainwald, May 24, 1925 – September 30, 2018) was an American The Holocaust educator. During the Second World War, she was a Jewish partisans in eastern Poland.
Orbuch hid in the forests of Poland with her family during the Second World War. She joined a group of Soviet partisans, being renamed Sonia in case she was captured, and helped fight against the Germans. After the war, she returned home, where she met her future husband. After having a daughter in a refugee camp in Germany, the family eventually emigrated to the United States.
She spent the rest of life in public engagement, speaking about her experiences and in 2009, published her autobiography, Here, There Are No Sarahs: A Woman's Courageous Fight Against the Nazis and Her Bittersweet Fulfillment of the American Dream.
In exchange for her uncle's knowledge of the area, Soviet partisans accepted them and renamed Sarah as Sonia to sound more Russian.Her son Paul called it her "nom de guerre". They lived in a forest camp and joined the partisans in acts of sabotage and resistance; she was drafted into the Red Army in 1944. During one of the family's periods of hiding, her mother died from typhus. While there, she learned how to give assistance to the wounded, despite having no previous medical training.
She recounted her experiences in her public talks Sonia Orbuch, Bay Area woman who fought Nazis as a girl, dies at 93. Carl Nolte, San Francisco Chronicle, October 9, 2018. Retrieved November 6, 2018. and in 2009, published her autobiography Here, There Are No Sarahs: A Woman's Courageous Fight Against the Nazis and Her Bittersweet Fulfillment of the American Dream which was co-authored with Fred Rosenbaum.
Before she died, Orbuch reflected on the extent of Jewish resistance: "Was it possible for everybody to fight and get out to the forest and survive, no it wasn't. My brother did not survive, my uncle did not survive" but nevertheless she felt the "every person in the ghetto fought in their own way."
Orbuch died on September 30, 2018. Her obituaries were published around the world, including in the United States, Asia, and Europe.
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Categories: 1925 Births, 2018 Deaths, Jewish Female Partisans, Jewish Partisans, Jewish Polish Writers, Jewish American Women Writers, 20th-century Polish Jews, Polish Emigrants To The United States, Polish Autobiographers, Polish Women In World War Ii Resistance, Polish Resistance Members Of World War Ii, People From Wołyń Voivodeship, Polish Female Soldiers, American Women Autobiographers, American Women Non-fiction Writers, Jewish American Non-fiction Writers, People From Liuboml
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