Holocaust Resisters: Sara Fortis by

Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation

sherryleeklug — 2025-03-28 19:05:20 UTC

Admin, C. (2017, November 2). Sara Fortis. Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation. https://www.jewishpartisans.org/partisans/sara-fortis

Birth

sherryleeklug — 2025-03-29 13:07:41 UTC

Sara Fortis was not her biological name; she was born with the name Sarika Yehoshua to her mother and father in 1927. The location of her birth in Chaklis (also spelled Chalcis) which is a town near Athens, Greece. Unfortunately, her father passed when Sara was two months old, so therefore she never knew him.

Sara was born in Chalcis

sherryleeklug — 2025-03-29 13:10:23 UTC

A Happy Childhood

sherryleeklug — 2025-03-29 13:30:53 UTC

Despite her father passing away, Sara's mother still managed to raise her two daughters. Though they were 100% Greek, they also identified as being Jewish. They celebrated Jewish culture by visits to the temple on special holidays and lighting candles on Fridays.

Leaving Home

sherryleeklug — 2025-03-29 13:49:42 UTC

Sara and her mother left their hometown when the Germans arrived in 1941. (there is no mention of what happened to her sister) They had heard of Jews being deported from towns near them and decided to move to a village called Kuturla. After living here for a short while, it became unsafe. Sara escaped while her mother stayed behind and was hidden by the locals. While looking for a new place to hide, Sara was invited to join the resisters.

A New Mission

sherryleeklug — 2025-03-29 14:06:55 UTC

Sara agreed to joining the resisters (also called an Andarte) As a natural leader, she wanted to play an important role in the resistance group. She traveled from village to village, recruiting girls to fight against the Nazis. After a while she gathered enough girls that they became a necessity to the male groups. This women resistance group transformed naive village girls into strong independent women.

sherryleeklug — 2025-03-29 14:09:54 UTC

Sara trains her army of women

sherryleeklug — 2025-03-29 14:15:07 UTC

Proving Their Importance

sherryleeklug — 2025-03-29 14:32:22 UTC

At first, the men would not allow Sara and her group of girls to fight alongside them, so they had to prover their worth. Thankfully after the first mission they were invited to join the men. This mission involved throwing Molotov cocktails which distracted the enemy and allowed other partisans to attack. The men were impressed and allowed the female group to participate in most missions. These included burning down the houses of Nazis and killing Nazi collaborators.

sherryleeklug — 2025-03-29 14:33:31 UTC

Not Enough Credit

sherryleeklug — 2025-03-29 15:18:09 UTC

Sadly, even though the women worked so hard to prove that they were tough, people still believed that women were not capable of executing dangerous missions. As a result of this mentality, the men were given the credit of the missions that were actually performed by the women.

Sara trains her army of women video

sherryleeklug — 2025-03-29 15:20:43 UTC

JPEF Interviews. (2013, May 21). Sara Fortis - Sara trains her army of women [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHey1R9CJ1M

Almost Captured

sherryleeklug — 2025-03-29 15:34:21 UTC

Sara became such an important part of the resistance (by the age of 18 she was called 'Kapetenissa [Captain] Sarika.') that the Nazis sent an informant to capture her. He mistook Sara for her cousin, Medi. Medi was arrest, raped and murdered. Sara was furious and eventually found the man that killed her cousin and murdered him out of revenge.

sherryleeklug — 2025-03-29 15:34:43 UTC

A Change of Government

sherryleeklug — 2025-03-29 15:37:35 UTC

When the Greek government changed, the resisters were disliked and as a result, Sara was arrested. But because she had such a good reputation, she was released shortly after being arrested.

sherryleeklug — 2025-03-29 15:38:25 UTC

Moving On

sherryleeklug — 2025-03-29 15:43:33 UTC

After being released, Sara moved to Isreal, where she met her husband.

Sara Fortis' Biography

sherryleeklug — 2025-03-29 15:50:08 UTC

Sara Fortis’s biography. (2016, May 13). Facing History & Ourselves. https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/sara-fortiss-biography

Fear Was Not in My Dictionary: The Revolutionary Work of Sara Fortis

sherryleeklug — 2025-04-07 23:21:21 UTC

Sara Fortis's Biography

sherryleeklug — 2025-04-07 23:22:42 UTC