Brenda Senders photograph

Brenda Szyr Senders was born on Aug. 20, 1925, near Sarny, Poland. She was the eldest of four children (three daughters and a son). After the invasion of Poland in 1939, the Soviet Union occupied the region of Brenda's hometown. Though she witnessed the deportation of many anti-Communist Poles and Jews by the Soviets, life continued as normal for her until the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. Almost immediately afterward, Jews were deported to ghettos. A ghetto was created in Sarny, and Brenda and her family were forced to move there. After being sent into hiding by her mother, Brenda was discovered by the Germans. She escaped, however, and fled to Belarus and eventually joined the partisans of General Naumov. She remained with this group until 1944 as a cavalry soldier. Of Brenda's family, she and one of her sisters survived; her mother, father, brother, and one sister died in the ghetto.