Sabina Zimering

Sabina Zimering (née Szwarc; February 24, 1923 – September 6, 2021) was a Polish-American ophthalmologist and memoirist known for sharing her experiences during the Holocaust. Born in Poland, she survived the Holocaust living in Germany under an assumed identity as a Catholic Pole. After the war, she resumed her studies and earned a medical degree at Munich Medical College, one of the only women and Jewish students to do so. She immigrated to the United States to join what family remained after the Holocaust, and practiced ophthalmology. In 2001, she published her memoirs, Hiding in the Open: A Holocaust Memoir, which has twice been adapted as a play.

Early life Sabina Szwarc was born February 24, 1923, to a Polish Jewish family. and attended synagogue and celebrated holidays, but did not keep kosher, a source of conflict with Sabina's Orthodox grandparents.

During the Holocaust That year the Szwarcs were sent to the Piotrków Trybunalski Ghetto. Szwarc's family friend and former schoolteacher, Kazimiera Justyna, a Roman Catholic, provided Szwarc's family with her own identification paper and those of her daughters, Danka and Mala Justyna. This allowed Szwarc, her sister, Helka, and her mother to masquerade as Catholic Poles and escape to Germany. The sisters worked as maids at hotels frequented by Nazi officers, including the Maximilian Hotel in Munich for three years. Kazimiera, Danka and Mala Justyna were caught as members of the Polish resistance. At the insistence of her family, Zimering authored the book, The memoir was adapted to a play in 2004 by Hayley Finn and in 2010 by playwright Kira Obolensky.

Personal life Szwarc immigrated to Minnesota in 1949 she married her former medical school classmate, Rueben Zimering. The Zimerings lived in Minneapolis. They had six children.

In 2011, Zimering visited Poland to show her two daughters her life during the Holocaust. She died in her sleep on September 6, 2021, in her St. Louis Park home.