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{{Short description|Polish-American ophthalmologist and memoirist (1923–2021)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2021}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Sabina Zimering
| image              = Sabina Zimering.png
| caption            = Zimering in 2019
| birth_name         = Sabina Szwarc
| birth_date         = {{birth date|1923|02|24}}
| birth_place        = [[Piotrków Trybunalski]], [[Second Polish Republic|Poland]]
| death_date         = {{death date and age|2021|09|06|1923|02|24}}
| death_place        = [[St. Louis Park, Minnesota]], U.S.
| occupation         = Ophthalmologist, memoirist
| spouse             = {{marriage|Ruben Zimering|1950|2012|reason=died}}
| children           = 3
}}
'''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.<ref name=":4" /> She had a sister, Helka, and brother, Nathan. They lived in [[Piotrków Trybunalski]]. The family spoke both [[Yiddish]] and Polish in the home<ref name=":4">{{Cite web|title=Sabina Szwarc|url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/id-card/sabina-szwarc|access-date=September 19, 2021|website=encyclopedia.ushmm.org|language=en}}</ref> and attended synagogue and celebrated holidays, but did not keep kosher, a source of conflict with Sabina's Orthodox grandparents.<ref name=":3" />{{rp|34–35}} Her father had a small coal business that struggled in the 1930s' depression, but an autodidact, he spent Saturdays taking his daughters for pastries and reading the cafes' free copies of Yiddish and Polish newspapers.<ref name=":3" />{{rp|26}} Her mother was an educated woman from an affluent Russian family, and both parents placed great emphasis on education.<ref name=":3" />{{rp|27}} They had opposing politics, however, as Sabina's father was a [[Socialism|socialist]] who hoped a reformed Poland would be a safe homeland for its Jewish residents, while her mother was more [[Zionism|Zionist]], feeling his confidence was misplaced and Jews needed to seek safety in Israel.<ref name=":3" />{{rp|37}}
Sabina initially attended a Polish public school and though Jewish students were exempted from [[Catholic theology]] lessons, she was bored by the free time and joined her classmates studying the [[catechism]], which proved useful knowledge later on.<ref name=":3" />{{rp|26}} She next enrolled in a private Jewish [[Gymnasium (school)|gymnasium]] as her mother, despite the expense, insisted on giving her an education similar to what she had received; she graduated at 16 shortly prior to the [[invasion of Poland]] in 1939.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|last=Varon|first=Jeremy|title=The New Life: Jewish Students of Postwar Germany|date=2014|publisher=Wayne State University Press|isbn=978-0-8143-3962-6|language=en}}</ref>{{rp|26–27}}
=== 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 Church in Poland|Catholic Poles]] and escape to Germany.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|date=March 27, 2004|title=Dr. Sabina Zimering's memoirs come to the stage|url=https://jwa.org/thisweek/mar/27/2004/sabina-zimering|access-date=September 19, 2021|website=Jewish Women's Archive|language=en}}</ref> 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 movement in World War II|Polish resistance]].<ref name=":0" /> The mother was sent to a concentration camp and a daughter was almost executed.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|date=February 26, 2010|title='Hiding in the Open': Play based on Minnesota woman's memoir about hiding from the Nazis returns to the History Theatre stage|url=https://www.twincities.com/2010/02/26/hiding-in-the-open-play-based-on-minnesota-womans-memoir-about-hiding-from-the-nazis-returns-to-the-history-theatre-stage/|access-date=September 19, 2021|website=Twin Cities|language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":1" /> Szwarc's brother, Nathan, survived [[Buchenwald concentration camp]] but witnessed their father die two days before liberation. Her mother was murdered in a [[gas chamber]] at the [[Treblinka extermination camp]]. In total, of 50 to 60 extended family members, seven survived.<ref name=":1" />
Szwarc had not been especially religious before the war, and was even less so after, asking, "if there was a God, where was he?"<ref name=":3" />{{Rp|page=167}}
== Career ==
After the war, Szwarc traded in her Polish identification papers to restore her identity and with American support, she and her sister got an apartment in [[Regensburg]].<ref name=":3" />{{rp|95}} An opportunity arose to resume her education and she soon relocated to Munich,<ref name=":3" />{{rp|95}} becoming one of a few women and Jews to attend Munich Medical School, completing her M.D. in 1950.<ref name=":1" /> For Szwarc, as with other Jewish student survivors, the postwar years were marked with what historian [[Jeremy Varon]] called "liberating abandon", with outdoor adventures, canoeing and scaling mountains, and participating in the broader trend of reappropriating former Nazi sites of note, for instance with student trips to [[Adolf Hitler]]'s former compound at [[Berchtesgaden]], gleeful to be alive and now occupying the hotel rooms that had so recently hosted [[Gestapo]] and top Nazi generals.<ref name=":3" />{{rp|177}} Szwarc also dealt with isolation and [[antisemitism]] at school, with just a few Jewish students enrolled among Germans who at times demonstrated resentment toward them.<ref name=":3" />{{Rp|206–208}}
After immigrating to the United States, she learned English and earned a Minnesota medical license.<ref name=":1" /> She married Rueben Zimering and took the license exam on the [[Due date (pregnancy)|due date]] of their first child. She worked part-time at the [[University of Minnesota]] Student Health Service for ten years.<ref name=":1" /> After her children became old enough to attend school, she worked there fulltime as an [[Ophthalmology|ophthalmologist]] for another ten years.<ref name=":1" />
Zimering opened her own ophthalmology practice where her proficiency in the [[Polish language]] was useful when treating [[Eastern Europe]]an patients. Zimering was a medical practitioner for 42 years. She retired in 1996.<ref name=":1" />
In her 70s, Zimering became a memoirist and traveled the United States to speak about the Holocaust.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|last=Read|first=Katy|date=September 18, 2012|title=Sabina Zimering, Holocaust survivor and doctor, dies at 98|url=https://www.startribune.com/sabina-zimering-holocaust-survivor-and-doctor-dies-at-98/600098582/|access-date=September 19, 2021|website=Star Tribune}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=April 29, 2001|title=Story untold for 50 years is finally revealed to class|pages=62|work=Star Tribune|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/85579625/story-untold-for-50-years-is-finally/|access-date=September 19, 2021}}</ref> At the insistence of her family, Zimering authored the book, {{Cite book|title=Hiding in the Open: A Holocaust Memoir|publisher=North Star Press of St. Cloud|year=2001|isbn=978-0-87839-171-4|language=en}}<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Maas|first=Susan|date=July 2004|title=Physician's memoir inspires play at history theater. Sabina Zimering, M.D., has found rewards in putting her holocaust memories into words|journal=Minnesota Medicine|volume=87|issue=7|pages=8–9|issn=0026-556X|pmid=15311631}}</ref> The memoir was adapted to a play in 2004 by Hayley Finn and in 2010 by playwright [[Kira Obolensky]].<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite news|date=April 17, 2015|title=A hopeful tale from the Holocaust|pages=A4|work=Marshfield News-Herald|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/85579689/a-hopeful-tale-from-the-holocaust/|access-date=September 19, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Royce|first=Graydon|date=March 26, 2004|title=War stories|pages=E1|work=Star Tribune|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/85579725/war-stories/|access-date=September 19, 2021}}</ref>
== Personal life ==
Szwarc immigrated to [[Minnesota]] in 1949<ref name=":2" /> to join her siblings. In 1950,<ref>{{Cite news|date=October 10, 1950|title=Marriage license applications|pages=15|work=The Minneapolis Star|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/85579921/marriage-license-applications/|access-date=September 19, 2021}}</ref> she married her former medical school classmate, Rueben Zimering. The Zimerings lived in Minneapolis. They had six children.<ref name=":1" /> Rueben died in 2012.<ref name=":2" />
Zimering lived in [[St. Louis Park, Minnesota]].<ref name=":0" /> One of the Polish Catholic daughters who allowed her to use her identification papers was jailed after the war for allegedly being anti-communist. Zimering sent her medication for tuberculosis and advocated for her release from jail.<ref name=":0" />
In 1979, Zimering's [[Adath Jeshurun Congregation|Adath Jeshurun Synagogue]] honored the Polish sisters for risking their lives to save Zimering's family.<ref>{{Cite news|date=October 19, 1979|title=Synagogue to honor Polish sisters|pages=13|work=The Minneapolis Star|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/85579860/synagogue-to-honor-polish-sisters/|access-date=September 19, 2021}}</ref>
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.<ref name=":2" />
== References ==
{{reflist}}
== External links ==
* {{Vimeo|id=5479713|title=Sabina Zimering…a memoir of courage}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Zimering, Sabina}}
[[Category:1923 births]]
[[Category:2021 deaths]]
[[Category:Polish emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:20th-century Polish Jews]]
[[Category:American people of Polish-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:Nazi-era ghetto inmates]]
[[Category:American ophthalmologists]]
[[Category:Polish ophthalmologists]]
[[Category:20th-century American women physicians]]
[[Category:20th-century American physicians]]
[[Category:20th-century Polish physicians]]
[[Category:American women memoirists]]
[[Category:21st-century American women writers]]
[[Category:21st-century Polish women writers]]
[[Category:Jewish women writers]]
[[Category:Jewish American memoirists]]
[[Category:People from St. Louis Park, Minnesota]]
[[Category:Physicians from Minnesota]]
[[Category:Writers from Minnesota]]
[[Category:University of Minnesota people]]
[[Category:People from Piotrków Trybunalski]]
[[Category:Yiddish-speaking people]]
[[Category:21st-century American Jews]]
[[Category:21st-century Polish physicians]]
[[Category:Jews from Minnesota]]