Shvalbe (Shvalbe) Sara-Sonya Gavrilovna (10.01.1904, Dvinsk ― ?) ― physician, participant in the Spanish Civil War. In 1924 she left for Czechoslovakia and enrolled at the medical faculty of Prague University; as a third-year student she was forced to interrupt her studies for lack of funds, returned to Daugavpils, and worked as a nurse for three years. She became a member of the Communist Party of Latvia. In 1929 she again left for Prague, where she soon became a member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. In 1934 she graduated from the university with a medical degree, and a year later, after completing a special course, received the qualification of dental physician. In late January 1937 she arrived in Spain, where she took part in the civil war on the Republican side. She arrived in Barcelona on 30 January 1937. She worked as a physician at the surgical hospital in Albacete, and then in the medical unit of the 11th International Brigade. She worked less as a dentist than as a surgeon, treating the wounded. In October 1938 she was head of the medical unit at a surgical hospital. In January 1939 she crossed the Spanish-French border, and ended up in the Oloron camp. In September 1940 she made her way to Vichy, where she received a Soviet passport at the Soviet embassy. For a time she worked with the children of Soviet embassy staff. After the Soviet Union severed diplomatic relations with the Vichy government, she was arrested and deported to one of the camps in northern France. The Soviet embassy secured her release, and she left occupied France. She had to travel by car through northern Italy, the Balkans, Turkey, and the Caucasus. She did not reach Moscow until 7 August 1941. During the war she worked as head of a department at an evacuation hospital in Ufa. In April 1945 she returned to Latvia, and worked until her retirement at the medical-sanitary unit of the VEF plant production association.

Source: Vater E. The Jews of Latvia in the Struggle against Nazism. Tel Aviv, 2004; Fighters of Latvia in Spain. 1936―1939. Memoirs and Documents. Riga: “Liesma,” 1970.

I. Rochko