Sara Ceder lived in Warsaw with her parents Mania and Sucher and her siblings Mietek and Irena. German troops invaded the city in September 1939, and the Jewish family was subject to persecution. Sucher and Mietek Ceder fled to Białystok. Sara followed them, but was unable to find her father in the city. The family was not reunited in Białystok until the end of 1939.
In Baranowicze (Baranavichy), the family were given Soviet passports. They moved to Simferopol, where Sucher Ceder found work. In 1941 the Germans occupied Crimea and the family fled further east. During this escape, Sara’s father died and Mietek was drafted. The family continued their flight to Uzbekistan. Shortly after their arrival, Sara’s mother and newborn sister Anna also died. Irena contracted malaria and Sara had to engage in illegal trading to provide for her sister. Although she worked in a bakery in Andijan, the sisters did not have enough to eat. As a result, Sara placed her sister in a home for Polish refugee children in 1942. When the home was closed down in 1946, they lost contact. Sara made her way to Munich, where she lived in a Displaced Persons camp. The sisters were reunited in Israel in 1950.