Sonia Orbuch: Becoming a Partisan

• How did experiences during the Holocaust impact young people’s identities?

Students will be able to:

• Identify the roles Sonia that assumed during the Holocaust from ages 14 to 19
• Analyze and discuss the expectations that were placed upon Sonia in these roles 
• Classify the different obstacles Sonia faced in each of these roles
• Better understand the challenges of becoming part of a partisan group

• Prior to playing the video clips, introduce Sonia Orbuch by having students read Sonia Orbuch’s biography.
• Show and discuss the video “Joining the Partisans” or follow along with the transcript available immediately below the video if you are unable to project video in your classroom. Ask students: 
  • Why did the family take the risk to meet the partisan group?
  • Did they have a different choice at the time?
  • According to Sonia, why was her uncle valuable to the partisans?
• Show and discuss the video “Partisan Life” or follow along with the transcript available immediately below the video. When Sonia reflects on the possibility of being killed, what do you think she means by dying as a “fighter” and “not because she was born a Jew”?
• Show and discuss the video “Life on the Front Lines” or follow along with the transcript available immediately below the video. Ask students to consider these questions: 
  • In what ways was Sonia adapting to life as a partisan?
  • By this time, what role has she taken on as a member of the partisans?
• Before showing the final video, explain to students that some time has passed in Sonia Orbuch’s story, and in the next clip she speaks about why she thinks she had the strength to bear the harsh conditions the partisans endured. Then show and discuss the video “Killed as a Fighter, Not Because I am a Jew,” or follow along with the transcript available immediately below the video. Ask students:
  • How has Sonia changed since she first met the partisans in the forest?
  • What can you point to as evidence of how she has changed?

Working in small groups, have students use the Role Chart graphic organizer to document the roles Sonia Orbuch took on between the ages of 14 and 16. Three evident roles students might choose are teenager living at home under the German occupation, teenager living in the forest alone with her parents, and teenage becoming a Jewish partisan. Students may identify other roles she assumed, as well, and add them to the chart. (See below for an example.)

Reconvene as a class and have groups share their charts and discuss similarities and differences between them.  

As a teenager living at home under Nazi occupation, here are some the Expectations, Obstacles, and Risks that Sonia faced:

EXPECTATIONS Placed on Sonia

• She can persist, even in great fear
• She can emotionally handle watching loved ones get taken away in the trucks

OBSTACLES Sonia Must Have Faced

• Avoiding being picked up by the truck
• Figuring out when to into hiding

RISKS Sonia Must Have Taken

• By staying at home, she can be detected more easily and potentially be deported

Remaining in their small groups, have students choose one quotation and consider how Sonia’s identity shifted over the five-year period, using the associated discussion questions that follow:

• To avoid possible torture and interrogation in the event of capture, Sonia carried two hand grenades: “One for the enemy, and one for myself.”
  • From what you have learned about Sonia’s life over this short time period, when do you think she began to identify herself as a partisan?
  • What are the implications of her deciding to take her own life before being captured? Do you think this was for self-protection, for the protection of others, or for other reasons?
• “I was not alone, and if I was going to die, I was going to die as a fighter, not because I was born a Jew. I was going to die as a fighter, and that is what kept us going.”
  • Sonia is speaking about herself only, using “I,” until the end of the statement, when she uses the word “us.” What do you think this might reflect about her changing perception of her own identity and roles?
  • How and why do you think Sonia’s perception of herself shifted from being a victim of circumstance to being a fighter and member of a resistance group?
• “I was eager to have children as soon as possible. I felt it was a statement of defiance to show that the Jewish nation lives on.”
  • What is the message Sonia wants to share with the world by having a child?

To conclude the lesson, return to Sonia’s biography and focus the discussion on the shift in Sonia’s identity that began when the Soviet partisans changed her name.

In her memoir, she recalls how it happened:

“Registration was simple: In the open air, a man holding a notebook briefly queried each of us and recorded our responses. When I gave my name as Sarah, he shook his head in disapproval. ‘Here, there are no Sarahs,’ he stated. ‘You will be called Sonia,’ and he wrote that down. I couldn’t object and wasn’t even sure I wanted to. I already felt like a changed person, and the new Russian name fit my new life . . .”

(From Here, There Are No Sarahs, 2009, by Sonia Orbuch and Fred Rosenbaum.)

• Tell students: Consider the relationship between your name and your identity. Based on the quotation above, what impact did changing her name have on Sonia’s identity? Why do you think it mattered? Why do you think she kept the new name after the end of the war?