16. A Teenager Blowing up the SS
Sorkine joined the local Resistance at age seventeen. Her father stumbled upon her stash of weapons, so she arranged false identity papers to get him out of the country and out of her hair. She told him she would go with him to Switzerland, but at the border, bid him adieu, handed him over to a guide, then turned around and returned to the fight.
As part of her resistance work, she stashed and transported weapons and money, often beneath the Germans’ noses, and created and supplied fake documents. She also guided fugitives to the French border and safety beyond in Switzerland or Spain. Her charrges included freedom fighters and opponents of the Nazis, as well as Jewish children. Sorkine also participated in direct actions, such as planting explosives – one of her bombs went off in a Paris movie theater attended by SS members.
