Botwinska, Adela (b. 1904)

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Botwinska, Adela (b. 1904)

Polish-Jewish political activist and nurse. Born Adela Weinraub in Podwoloczyska near Tarnopol, Russian Poland, in 1904.

Experienced the destruction of her hometown and a bloody pogrom (1915); joined Zionist youth movement and immigrated to Palestine (1926); became a nurse and was active in trade union activities (1927–37); traveled to Spain to join nursing staff of the International Brigades during Spanish Civil War (1937); returned to Palestine (1940); worked as a nurse for British forces in Cairo (1941–46); returned to Poland (1947); an ardent Communist, wished to participate in the creation of a "People's Poland," but experienced anti-Semitism and returned to Israel disillusioned (1969).

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