Gavartina (Gawartina) (née Zabezinskaya) Sonya (born 16 March 1924, Riga) – hairdresser.

In 1937,Sonya Gavartina completed seven years of schooling at a Riga secondary school and enrolled in the Riga Sports School, while also working at the “Sarkanais Rīts” factory. In 1941, she was evacuated to the Kirov Region with fellow students of the sports school. In 1942, she relocated to Leninabad in the Tajik SSR, where she worked as a therapeutic exercise nurse at Hospital No. 4453. In Leninabad, she met Khaim Gavartin (born 1914), a native of Latvia, and married him in 1942. In 1943, the hospital where she worked was transferred to Dniprodzerzhynsk. From there, she and her husband returned to Riga in 1944. Until 1960, she was a homemaker. In 1960, she began working as a ladies’ hairdresser for the municipal services association “Laimdota”. She stopped working in 1975.

Gavartina’s parents, Izrail Zabezinsky (1896–1941) and Riva Zabezinskaya (née Potashinskaya) (1896–1941), her sisters Anya Zabezinskaya (1922–1941) and Dora Zabezinskaya (1925–1941), and her brother Natan Zabezinsky (1930–1941) were executed in Riga in 1941. Her brother Grisha Zabezinsky (1920–1942) was reported missing in action in 1942.

In 1977, Sonya Gavartina emigrated with her husband to Israel, joining their daughter, Rina Zilber (née Gavartina) (born 1951).

Family:

Khaim Gavartin (born 1914) – husband
Isa Gavartin (born 1945) – son
Rina Zilber (née Gavartina) (born 1951) – daughter
Leiba Zilber (born 1948) – son-in-law
Izrail Zabezinsky (1896–1941) – father
Riva Zabezinskaya (née Potashinskaya) (1896–1941) – mother
Grisha Zabezinsky (1920–1942) – brother
Anya Zabezinskaya (1922–1941) – sister
Dora Zabezinskaya (1925–1941) – sister
Natan Zabezinsky (1930–1941) – brother