Jewish Partisan Community

A place for families of Jewish partisans from World War II to connect and share their stories.

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Helen with her mother Esther before the war.

Helen (bottom right) with two of her cousins from Lida before the war. Her cousins did not survive.

Helen and Esther in Bad Gastein DP camp.

4. Helen with a few friends in a DP camp

3. Helen with friends in one of the DP camps.

First photo taken in this country-Helen, Esther and Helen’s step father, Joe. Esther met him in the DP camp. This is in Passaic, NJ in front of their apartment

Helen and her husband, Harry before they were married.

Helen and Harry’s wedding photo - November 27, 1955

A family photo of Helen and Harry with their children, Rita and Mark

Helen and Esther in front of the Holocaust Memorial in Miami Beach, Florida.

Helen and Harry’s 60th wedding anniversary

Helen’s presentation of her story to a rehabilitation facility in Freehold, NJ

Helen’s granddaughter, Jacqueline’s wedding to Cedric Dana- November 16, 2016

Poland Partisan

Helen Terris

Helen Terris (née Elinka Cyderowicz) was born in Lida, Poland on September 8, 1935, the only child to mother Esther Thurston Cyderowicz (née Esia Thurston), a homemaker, and father Aaron Cyderowicz, a businessman. Before the war, Helen and her family lived a comfortable and privileged life. Her father went...

Community Stories

Poland Partisan

Paula (Koladicki) Burger

The oldest surviving child of Wolf and Sarah Koladicki, Paula Burger was born in 1934 in a small town near Novogrudok, in...

Poland Partisan

Moshe Baran

Born in 1920 in the predominantly Jewish town of Horodok, Poland, Moshe Baran was the eldest of four children. In 1941, when...

Poland Partisan

Freida Szewryn Rubinoff

Freida Szewryn Rubinoff was born on December 12, 1927, in the small town of Lenin, Poland to Chaim and Elka Ziklig Szewryn....

Greece Partisan

Karmen Kakis

Carmen Rousso (née Karmen Kakis) was born on April 17, 1923, in the northern Greek town of Drama. She also spent a...

Yugoslavia Partisan

Zdenka Novak

Zdenka Novak, born Zdenka Steiner in Zagreb, Croatia in 1919, was the sole survivor of her family. She lived a protected life...

USSR Partisan

Alexander Zeisal (Zus) Bielski

Alexander Zeisal “Zus” Bielski was born into the only Polish Jewish family in Stankiewicze. The small village in Eastern Poland (now Western...

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

A place for families of Jewish partisans from World War II to connect and share their stories.

Approximately 30,000 Jews fought back during the Holocaust as Jewish partisans. They fought in organized, armed resistance groups throughout Europe, saving thousands and striking back at their oppressors in countless ways.

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