Vampire Weekend's Surprising Jewish Stories
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Nazis shot her dead as she saved the lives of a group of partisan fighters.
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On this day, 1943, Zofia Yamaika died protecting her partisan unit’s retreat from a Nazi attack. Born in Warsaw, Poland in 1925, she was raised in an affluent and distinguished Hasidic family. This period in Poland was marked by a rise in antisemitism, particularly in political and educational spaces. Early on, Zofia witnessed the growing tension between Poles and Jews in Warsaw. She joined Spartacus, a communist club run by students that spoke out about the growing presence of fascism in Poland.
After Germany invaded Poland, Zofia wasn’t able to attend school or participate in student activities. She ignored the Nazi ban of Spartacus and continued the club’s activities. In a city swarming with German armed forces, Zofia and other Spartacus members secretly distributed anti-fascist posters and leaflets across Warsaw.
Zofia and her family, along with 450,000 other Warsaw Jews and Polish refugees, were forced into the Warsaw ghetto. Zofia continued working with underground resistance despite the unbearable conditions in the ghetto. Ties to Spartacus allowed her to connect with partisans who trained and taught her how to use a pistol. She wanted to escape and fight with these communist partisans but doing so put her parents in danger.
It was in July of 1942 that Germans began deporting Jews from the Warsaw ghetto to the Treblinka death camp. Zofia and her parents were deported, but she managed to escape by jumping off the train and pretending to be dead. Zofia ran into the forest and joined resistance fighters near the city of Radom. These partisan fighters lived in camps in the forests and traveled frequently and lightly as they fought back against Nazis.
Zofia remained in the forest with a partisan group of 50 until February 9th, 1943, when they were attacked by 300 Nazis. She and two Polish resistance fighters offered to cover while the rest of the group retreated. She let Nazis approach until they were 8 feet away from her, and only then she fired at them with a machine gun.
Unfortunately, Zofia’s position was overtaken and she, along with the two other Polish fighters, were killed by the Nazis. She was 18.
