Eva Lassman Memorial Writing Contest first-place middle school winner: ‘Legacies of Resistance’ by Xitlali Ramirez

By Xitlali Ramirez

Xitlali Ramirez won first place in the middle school division of the 2024 Eva Lassman Memorial Writing Contest for “Legacies of Resistance: Sara Fortis and Sonia Orbuch.” The eighth-grader at Libby Center was advised by Andrew Olmsted.

‘Legacies of Resistance: Sara Fortis and Sonia Orbuch’

Do you know what a hero is? When people imagine heroes, they often picture fictional superhero characters like Spider-Man or Captain America. However, real-life heroes do not have superhuman abilities or fantasy backstories; they are simply people willing to put themselves in harm’s way to protect and save others. During the Holocaust many ordinary people became life-saving heroes, not with magical powers, but through dangerous, hard work. Women like Sara Fortis and Sonia Orbuch were prime examples of heroes during the Holocaust era who fought against all odds and risked their lives to save others. Despite their many differences, both women struggled and sacrificed for the same noble cause.

Fortis, a young Greek girl, became an andarte, or a resistance fighter, and joined with numerous other girls to fight back against oppressive Nazi rule in a partisan group. Thousands of miles away from Sara, a similarly young Orbuch joined a partisan camp where she learned to administer first aid to partisan fighters to support their revolts. Both girls contributed massively to the saving and freeing of Jewish people in their own ways.

Fortis, a Jewish girl who lived with her mother and sister in Greece, was only 14 when the Nazi regime invaded her hometown of Chalkis and forced her family to flee. Sara and her mother sought refuge in Kuturla, where they hid from potential deportation.

Nazi invasion drastically changed Sara’s small village lifestyle, forcing her to leave behind her home, everything she had grown to love, and any sense of stability she had. The Nazis took away Sara’s entire life, forcing her to enter one of fear and hiding.

Eventually, she even lost her mother at the hands of the Nazi invasion. In Kuturla, conditions quickly became unsafe for Jews like Sara and her mother, so Sara was advised to escape the village while she could.

Her mother, however, stayed in Kuturla where the villagers agreed to hide her. At that moment, the Nazis had taken everything from Sara; she lost her home, her family, and her ability to exist peacefully. The Nazi invasion stripped Sara of her life and her joy, warping her world beyond recognition.

As such, Sara became bitter with the horrible people who had torn apart her and several others’ lives. Sara’s resentment motivated her to stop running and instead begin to recruit several girls to fight back against the Nazis. Together, they became a powerful partisan group who took back their lives and saved many others.

For their first job, the women aided male partisan fighters by distracting enemy forces. The women’s extraordinary efforts during this mission were recognized by the men who then invited them along on several other missions where the team made history, working hard to rebel like no other group of women had. Nazi forces quickly recognized the sheer power of Sara and her partisan group as they continuously defeated and killed Nazi collaborators. These executions by Sara and her team indirectly saved countless Jewish lives and had a massive impact, forever securing Sara as a true hero in these times.

While Sara took a front-seat fighting position in her rebellion, other people such as Orbuch chose a different approach. Orbuch, originally known as Sarah Shainwald, had her life grind to a halt when Nazis invaded her hometown in 1941 . She was 16 years old. All 8,000 Jews in the town of Luboml were forced to leave behind their lives and move into a tiny, fenced-in ghetto. Within these fences, residents were treated horribly.

Sonia and other girls no longer attended school, but instead spent their days doing intense physical labor under the threat of beatings by Nazi guards if they did not. Sonia and the 15 people she had been living with then caught wind of news that Nazis were coming to kill everyone in the ghetto, so they hid in their cramped house for two days. Growing fears of violence led Sonia and her family to escape the hostile town and seek refuge elsewhere.

They fled to a nearby forest, where they hid for a year, braving harsh weather and poor conditions. Eventually, they contacted a partisan group, and while none of Sonia’s family could assist in the fighting, Sonia’s uncle had valuable knowledge about the area, which prompted Sonia’s family to join the partisan camp. Each family member was assigned a job; Sonia was taught to treat wounded soldiers, a position she embraced, happy to aid the fight against the Nazi rule that she had wanted revenge on for so long. With time, Sonia became a fighter, guarding the camp and going out on missions to plant landmines on Nazi train tracks. Sonia’s revenge assisted in the downfall of the Nazi regime which saved thousands of lives and made Sonia a hero to be remembered.

Seeing the stories of such heroes has provided me with an important lesson I will carry with me through life. Though Sara and Sonia had differences, one thing they had in common was their selflessness and determination. In a time of need, both girls bravely stood up to fight for their and other’s freedom, refusing to give up on their cause even when things proved difficult. I have learned through them that it is essential to be the change you want to see in the world; it does not take special abilities, only hard work, and motivation. As proven by my study of the Holocaust, humans are capable of disgusting, truly evil things, and it is part of my responsibility as a person to act to prevent such extremism from developing.

They were two influential women in history who fought hard and became revered heroes. Fortis was a young girl who refused to go down without a fight and created a rebellion movement of her own to exact revenge on her oppressors. She refused to continue the cycle of fear and escape that she had been forced into by the Nazis. Orbuch escaped captivity and survived with her family off natural resources in the woods, then joined a partisan group where her quest for revenge began.

Though both supported the revolts against Nazi rule in different ways, they both saved many lives. Neither had supernatural abilities or magic powers, simply perseverance and strength. Yet they made a massive impact on the world. While they may not be superheroes, Fortis and Orbuch are real-life heroes who deserve to be commemorated for years to come.