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Sara Fortis was born in Chalkis, a small town in Athens, Greece. She was born in 1927 and sadly never knew her father for he died when she was two months old. Because of this, both she and her sister were raised by their mother. Also, even though Sara and her family were 100% Greek, they still celebrated being Jewish by lighting candles every Friday as well as attending temple on holidays.

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Photo taken from an interview with Sara Fortis. 

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Photo taken from an interview with Sara Fortis. 

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The Germans arrived in 1941. Sara knew she had to get out of her hometown after hearing about Jews in other small towns in Athens being deported and never returning. Soon, she and her mother escaped to the small village of Kuturla and hid there for a short amount of time. Kuturla wasn't safe for long so Sara decided to leave the town and the villagers agreed to hide her mother.

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"Fear was not in my dictionary"

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Sara Fortis in her nurse's uniform. Sara was a nurse before she fled her hometown to avoid the German's.

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Sara Fortis in her nurse's uniform. Sara was a nurse before she fled her hometown to avoid the German's.

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After leaving her mother, Sara Fortis decided to become an andarte (resistance fighter). She rode a donkey from village to village recruiting other females who wanted to fight. Sara brought together a group of female partisans that became essential to the male fighters. Together, the male and female fighters worked and went on many missions.

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Sara Fortis and her group of partisans' first mission included hurling a series of Molotov cocktails in a specific area where the male partisans planned to attack. The men were extremely impressed with their skills and invited the females to go on many other missions with them. Also, the men were credited with most of the female group's resistance acts for it was unthinkable that a group of young girls could be so ferocious and menacing.

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Sara Fortis in a truck, waving goodbye to the camp. 

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Sara Fortis in a truck, waving goodbye to the camp. 

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Sara's group of men and women didn't just do one mission, they did multiple. Together they burned down houses, executed Nazi collaborators, and aided the men like no other group of women had ever done before. Also, even though the men and women were allies, Sara Fortis still worried about the women's safety because they had to sleep next to the men. This is true, however, even in the face of challenges, Sara continued to succeed.

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This is a clip taken from an interview with Sara Fortis. In this short clip, she talks about how she trained and turned young village girls into strong women. She explains how she was only given handguns and how managing the girls was her responsibility.

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Sara Fortis - Sara trains her army of women

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Sara Fortis was granted great recognition over time. She became a well-respected figure in the andartes movement in Greece and by the age of eighteen, she became known as Captain Sarika. "If anyone needed something, they would say 'tell Captain Sarkia and she'll take care of it.'"

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Though it was good that Sara Fortis became very popular, there were also some downsides. For example, this new popularity made Sara become known to the enemy as well. The Nazis sent an informer to murder Sara but ended up capturing her cousin who was a school teacher named Menti Moshowitz. Seeking revenge, "she hunted down the collaborator and executed him herself."

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At the end of the war, the Andartes lost the support of the new Greek government. Sara continued her work as an activist but she was soon arrested. Despite this, her great reputation got her out of jail relatively fast. After this, she decided to settle down in Israel where she met her husband.

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“Fear Was Not in My Dictionary: The Revolutionary Work of Sara Fortis.”  History Guild, History Guild, 9 June 2024, https://historyguild.org/fear-was-not-in-my-dictionary-the-revolutionary-work-of-sara-fortis. Accessed 4 March 2025

“Sara Fortis.” Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation, Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation, https://www.jewishpartisans.org/partisans/sara-fortis. Accessed 4 March 2025

“Sara Fortis.” Holocaust Encyclopedia, Holocaust Encyclopedia, https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/sara-fortis. Accessed 4 March 2025