A place for families of Jewish partisans from World War II to connect and share their stories.
1944ish-boris-near-swencian Boris 1918-chasia-only-known-photo 1945ish-boris-esther-chaim-pesia-fohrenwald 1945ish-boris-fohrenwald 1946-boris-fohrenwald 1946-david-esther-boris-in-fohrenwald 1946-esther-and-pesia-germany 1947-esther-boris-fohrenwald 1947-pesia-david-esther-in-fohrenwald 1947-boris-esther-chaim-david-fohrenwald 1948-chaim-pesia-in-israel 1949ish-boris-esther-germany 1950-pesia-and-zev-worona-in-israel 1954-boris-at-his-grocery-store-in-washington-dc 1954-esther-at-her-grocery-store-washington-dc 1958ish-harold-boris-esther-david-larry-jochai-in-los-angeles 1960ish-boris-pesia-chaim-with-family-los-angeles 1960ish-esther-boris-pesia-zev-in-los-angeles 1966-esther-son-harold-boris-in-los-angeles 1970s-esther-and-boris-claremont-california 1980s-boris-esther-and-kimi-claremont-california 1981-boris-grandson-kyle-claremont-california (1) 1982-lova-pesia-boris-in-claremont-california 1989-granddaughter-ariella-boris-claremont-california 2018-pesia-in-santa-barbara-california 2022-pesia-and-great-great-nephew-harrison-in-culver-city

Boris Jochai


Boris Jochai was born in early 1922 in the small village of Swencian, Poland. He lived with his parents, Chaim and Chasia, and his younger siblings, Lova, Dudke, and Pesia. A third of Swencian’s population was Jewish, and it was a vibrant, interconnected community. Boris’ father was a tanner...

Read More
Community Stories

Ruth Resnik


Ruth Kaplow (Raschka Kaplowitz) was born in 1924, in the town of Krivitz, Belarus. Her mother, Genya, passed away in 1928 and...

Read More

Oscar (Osher) Borecki


Oscar, aged 12, escaped the ghetto twice and fled into the forests when his native shtetl Novogrudok in Belarus, was destroyed by...

Read More

Rita Gurwitz Yelgin


Rita Gurwitz Yelgin was born on June 21, 1921, in Slonim, Lithuania, and grew up in Grodno, Poland. She lived with her...

Read More

Eugene Katz


Eugene (Zalman) Katz was born in the small village of Dzisna in eastern Poland on January 6, 1925. He lived with his...

Read More

Sonya Oshman (Gorodinsky)


Born in 1922, in Novogrudok, Poland, Sonya Gorodynski, was the oldest of five children born to Abraham and Tamara Gorodynski. Her father...

Read More

Lisa Reibel (Kusnher)


A Young Girl Escapes the Novogrudok Ghetto: A Jewish Partisan Story of Survival Lisa Reibel was born to Hinda (Bloch) and Nachum...

Read More
The biographies on this site are compiled from testimonies, recollections, transcripts, memoirs, and biographies of Jewish partisans, their children and their grandchildren.