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Sara forced to leave the viliage they were hiding in; had to leave her mother beind and run due to the Nazis finding them. Sara decided to become andarte, she went around and recruited women and girls who wanted to fight, turning them from girls to strong resilent women.

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Sara Fortis born in 1927, Chalkis. She had a sister and a mother in which they all praticed jewish rituals; lighting candles on fridays and attending temples on holidays. Sara and her family had to leave home when the Nazi germans invaded in 1941 looking for jews.

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Sara and her troup on their first mission got Molotov cocktails at the enmy to distract them. The men were impressed by their doing and allowed them to join them on future missions. The ladies did SO much more than just that; Sara’s all-female partisan unit burned down houses, executed Nazi collaborators, and aided the men in a way no group of women partisans had before. Depsite all of the hard work and dedication they did the men took all the credit because in no world could women do that..

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When the Nazi sent an informer to try and capture herafter, she fled. They came after her but they never found her, but they did find her cousin. They raped tortured and brutally murdered her cousin. When sara found out about this she hunted down the man who did that to her cousin and killed him.

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After the war, the andartes fell out of favor with the new Greek government. Sara was arrested but due to her great reputation, she was released shortly after. She then immigrated to Israel, where she met her husband and settled down.

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https://www.jewishpartisans.org/partisans/sara-fortis.

https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/sara-fortiss-biography

the pictures came from google

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Sara Fortis in partisan uniform. Date unknown.

Video still from interview, August 2004

Sara Fortis (born Sarika Yehoshua) was born in 1927 in Chalkis, a small town near Athens, Greece. She never knew her father, who passed away when she was only two months old. Sara and her sister were raised by their mother and they enjoyed a happy childhood. Although they identified as 100% Greek, they also celebrated being Jewish by lighting candles every Friday and attending temple on holidays.

Sara knew it was time to leave her hometown when the Germans arrived in 1941. She had heard about Jews in other small Greek towns being deported by the Nazis and never returning. Sara and her mother escaped to the small village of Kuturla and hid there for a short while. When it was no longer safe for Jews, Sara was told to escape while the villagers agreed to hide her mother. Leaving her mother, Sara decided to become an andarte ( resistance fighter). Wanting to play a significant role in the group, she traveled from village to village to recruit other females who wanted to fight.

Sara formed a band of female partisans that became indispensable to the male fighters, transforming young village girls into women. On their first mission, they were ordered to throw Molotov cocktails to distract the enemy and allow the partisans to attack. Impressed by their skills, the male partisans invited the all-female group to join in many missions. They burned down houses, executed Nazi collaborators, and aided the men in a way no group of females had before. The male andartes were given credit for many missions the women completed, as it was unfathomable that women could accomplish such acts. Often, the women were forced to sleep next to the men, and Sara constantly worried about the women's safety.

Sara became a prominent and well-respected figure in the andartes movement in Greece. By age 18, she was known as 'Kapetenissa [Captain] Sarika.' The Nazis sent an informer to try and capture her, but mistakenly arrested, brutally raped, and murdered her cousin, Medi. Vowing revenge, she tracked down and executed the informer.

After the war, the andartes fell out of favor with the new Greek government. Sara was arrested but owing to her great reputation, she was released shortly after. She then immigrated to Israel, where she met her husband and settled down.

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Born Sarika Yehoshua in 1927 in Chalkis, Greece, Sara Fortis went from village to village recruiting women who wanted to fight. She organized a band of all-female partisans, training young women to become bold fighters. They burned down houses, executed Nazi collaborators, and aided the Greek partisan movement in a way no group of females had before.

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Brenda, one of the recuits thst sara had got, became one of her close friends, brenda was just about the same age when everything happend. August 1942, when the Germans began rounding up the Jews of the Sarni ghetto. In the midst of the gunshots, killings, and mayhem, Brenda Senders’s mother told her “Brenda, you must go into hiding.” Brenda resisted, “Where am I going to hide? No. Whatever will be with the family, will be with me.” But her mother insisted, “No, maybe one of us will survive.” Her mother forced her to go and she did.

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Not all women were encouraged by their families to risk escape and engage in fighting. In October 1942, Meyer Orbuch was in the Luboml Ghetto in Poland. He had collected guns and made plans to escape into the woods with several other young men. His mother begged him to take his older sister, Sonia, along. He refused, because no way could girls do that and fight, he stated “No girls can go with us. Only boys can go!” Most of the families encouraged their boys to go and fight never their girls becuase the women where as they were supposed to stay home and cook, clean, and care.