In January 1941, 14-year-old Sonja Borus left her family in Berlin. Her parents entrusted her to an aid organization that was to take her to British Mandatory Palestine. However, she did not have permission to enter the territory, and thus was stranded with another 40 refugee children in Zagreb.
After the German invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, the caretaker Josef Indig took the children to Lesno Brdo, in Italian-occupied Slovenia. There, Sonja Borus began to write a diary. Due to incessant partisan fighting, the group fled to Nonantola in Italy. The Delasem aid organization rented a villa for them there. However, when German troops invaded Italy in September 1943, the children were once again in danger. Sonja Borus was hidden first in an abbey’s seminar rooms and later in the home of Father Arrigo Beccari. In October 1943 the children were able to flee to Switzerland. Sonja Borus was placed in an internment camp and then a children’s home in the Rhône Valley.
In June 1945, she finally reached Palestine. Sonja Borus was the only member of her family to survive. In Palestine, she adopted the name Shoshana Harari.
Children and teenagers with their caretakers outside Villa Emma in Nonantola, 1943. Source: Bejt Lochamej haGeta’ot, Kibbuz Lochamej haGeta’ot
Swiss refugee identity card for Sonja (Sala) Borus, issued January 15, 1944. Source: Schweizerisches Bundesarchiv Bern
