Bawilskaya (née Zvi) Sarra Samuilovna (3 January 1921, Gorodok, Vitebsk Region) , a cashier.
Shortly after her birth, Sarra’s parents moved to Dvinsk. From 1923, she lived in Riga. In 1934, Sara Bawilskaya graduated from Riga City Primary School No. 11 and enrolled in the Public Jewish Gymnasium. However, due to financial difficulties, her family could not afford to continue her education after three years. Until 1940, she worked as a private tutor, giving lessons to younger students.
From 1940 to 1941, Sarra Bavilskaya worked in the accounting and operations department of Military Warehouse No. 260 of the Baltic Military District. In 1941, she completed a ten-year school course at the Latvian People's University. That same year, she was evacuated to the Kalachyovsky District of Stalingrad Oblast, where she worked in the Stalindorf kolkhoz until 1942. From 1942 to 1943, she served as a junior inspector at the Central Statistical Administration in Chesma, Chelyabinsk Oblast. From 1944 to 1945, she worked as a labourer at the Universal cooperative in Kurgan.
In 1945, Sarra Bavilskaya moved to Dvinsk, where her husband was stationed with his military unit. Later that year, she returned to Riga and worked as a translator at the 11th Department of the Prisoner of War Camp Administration until 1946. Between 1946 and 1947, she accompanied her husband to his assigned postings.
From 1948 to 1949, Sarra Bavilskaya worked as a seamstress at the Record artel. Between 1949 and 1956, she was a dispatcher at the Riga Procurement and Supply Base of Glavlesstroytorg. From 1956 to 1959, she worked at the Red Chemist artel. Between 1959 and 1962, she was a cashier at a restaurant at the Riga-1 railway station. From 1962 to 1966, she worked as a cashier at the Daugava restaurant, and from 1966, at Canteen No. 6 of the Public Catering Trust in Moscow District, Riga.
Sara was married to Abram Bavilsky (1917, Vitebsk – 1949), with whom she had two daughters, Miryam Bailvskaya (born 1946, Riga) and Rina Bavilskaya (born 1947, Riga). Her husband, a sapper, participated in the reconstruction of the Daugava Bridge in Dvinsk and was awarded an Honorary Certificate by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Latvian SSR. In 1947, while working at a military warehouse in a unit stationed in Abkhazia, he was arrested for shortages and sentenced to ten years in prison. He died in 1949 from a stomach ulcer in a prison camp in the Komi ASSR.
Bawilskaya’s parents, Samuil Zwi (1896, Dvinsk – 1941?) and Mira Zwi (1897, Gorodok, Vitebsk Region – 1941?), as well as her brother, Moisei Zwi (1930, Riga – 1941?), perished in the Riga Ghetto.
In 1956, Sara Bavilskaya submitted her first request to emigrate to Israel to join her cousin, Mikhail Zwi, who had left Latvia for Palestine in 1932. She was granted permission to emigrate in 1969.
Family:
Abram Bavilsky (1917, Vitebsk – 1949) – husband
Miryam Bavilskaya (born 1946, Riga) – daughter
Rina Bavilskaya (born 1947, Riga) – daughter
Samuil Zwi (1896, Dvinsk – 1941?) – father
Mira Zwi (1897, Gorodok, Vitebsk Region – 1941?) – mother
Moisei Zwi (1930, Riga – 1941?) – brother
Mikhail Zwi – cousin