When the Germans invaded Latvia in 1941, few Jews left Riga—their news had been censored for years so they didn’t know how the Nazis were treating Jews elsewhere in Europe. Shura Erenshtein, however, fled Riga for Uzbekistan on the last available train with her parents, four siblings, and three nieces and nephews. Two of Shura’s…
Read MoreNina Petrova was 48 years old when Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, far beyond the age of conscription. Yet Nina, who’d raised her daughter on her own and was now a grandmother, clearly considered age as insignificant when it came to combat. She joined the Red Army as a sniper of the 284th…
Read MoreLida Bakieva’s loyalty, raw determination, quick thinking and sense of humor made her a sniper to fear and admire. This dark-featured young woman from Kazakhstan was just seventeen when she married nineteen-year-old Satai Bakiev a few months before the war. Satai was conscripted as soon as the Germans invaded Russia. Lida, a Young Communist League…
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Oh, this army life, they all think we’re a bunch of prostitutes, and it’s so offensive for a modest girl to see all this. -Roza Shanina, November 18, 1944 Of all the female snipers I came across while working on The Night Sparrow, Roza Shanina has resonated most with her remarkable fortitude and with the…
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