Rachel Zilberberg
| Rachel Zilberberg | |
|---|---|
_Zilberberg.jpg) |
|
| Born |
5 January 1920 Warsaw, Poland |
| Died | 8 May 1943 (aged 23) Warsaw, Nazi-occupied Poland |
| Nationality | Polish |
| Religion | Jewish |
Rachel (Sarenka) Zylberberg (5 January 1920 – 8 May 1943; 3 Iyar 5703 in Hebrew calendar) was an underground activist and participant in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. She held a key role in rousing the rebellion. Zylberberg was a member of Hashomer Hatzair, the Zionist-socialist youth movement. After the German invasion of Poland at the onset of World War II, she left the capital for Wilno in northeastern part of prewar Poland (now Vilnius, Lithuania), then returned to Warsaw together with Chajka (Chaikeh) Grossman and was actively involved in the Jewish resistance.
Sarenka (Little Roe deer, or Fawn in Polish) was one of the few leaders who actually reentered the besieged ghetto, rather than flee it. She was among the first to set out on an impassioned journey to spread knowledge of the Nazi plan to eradicate the Jews in the Holocaust. Sarenka confronted her peers repeatedly with this information, until she convinced Mira Fuchrer, Mordechai Anielewicz’ partner, and eventually Anielewicz himself, as well as other leaders of the movement, of the severity of their situation.
In order to reenter the besieged ghetto and rejoin the Hashomer Hatzair Combat Unit, she gave up her daughter Maya, whose later history is unknown. She died in the bunker called Miła 18 beneath the 18 Miła Street in Warsaw, where her name is engraved on a memorial headstone together with those of almost 50 Jewish fighters. Rachel was more familiarly known as Sarenka, which translates into Hebrew as Ofra.
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