Eta Wrobel

Eta Wrobel (December 28, 1916 – May 26, 2008) was a Polish-born American memoirist, Yiddish language activist, and a commander of a Jewish partisan unit in Poland during World War II.

Early life Eta was born on December 28, 1916, in Łuków, Poland, to a middle-class family of ten children. She was a valedictorian of her high school and her father, Pinchas Ben Chaim Chajit, was a businessman.

World War II After Poland was taken over by the Nazis, Eta started working as a clerk at a employment agency, where she forged false papers for Jews. One day her pregnant older sister, Mara, was shot dead by Gestapo agents. She also worked as a cleaner, passing on overheard information to resistance members, and at a restaurant in Łódź, where she stole weapons from Nazi patrons when they hung up their coats. The stolen guns were then smuggled back to partisans in Łuków. Following this, she also became a sort of surgeon for the unit.

Later and personal life Wrobel was the only member of her family to survive the war.

Wrobel had four children and nine grandchildren.

Books My Life My Way: The Extraordinary Memoir of a Jewish Partisan in WWII Poland (2006); co-written with Jeanette Friedman