Sophia Baranskaya

Sophia Baransky, holding her daughter Raya, Belorussia, 1948.
IHMEC: courtesy of Emma Gordon.

Sofia (Sophia) Baranskaya lived in a small town near Minsk with her husband, David Baransky, and their children, Misha and Emma. When the war started, Sofia and Misha were interned in the Minsk ghetto, while Emma was evacuated to Siberia with her summer camp, and David was drafted into the Soviet Army. One day while Sofia was at work in the ghetto, Misha was taken to a mobile gas chamber and killed. Sofia later escaped the ghetto and joined the partisan detachment 106, also known as the Zorin partisan unit. Also known as the Zorin partisan unit, in the Naliboki Forest. Sofia was liberated by the Soviet Red Army in July 1944 in Minsk, and the family was reunited in 1945. In 1948, Sofia gave birth to another daughter named Raya. Emma was married in 1956 and moved with her family to Chicago in 1989.

2006.64, Emma Gordon Donor File, Illinois Holocaust Museum, Skokie, IL.

9603 Woods Dr.
Skokie, IL 60077

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Survivors and their families at the Il'ino ghetto memorial, Il'ino, Russia, 2000.