Q: Why did Natan Sharansky call you “a Five-Star General of Students and Housewives?”
Natan Sharansky was referring to the time after he applied to emigrate. His activity led him to be arrested and he was held in pre-trial isolation for almost a year. He had recently married and his wife was forced to leave the Soviet Union. She went to the UK as well as the United States, where she led demonstrations on his behalf.
In one of the encounters with the KGB interrogators, they showed him a film. On the film was a march of students and housewives led by Sharansky’s wife Avital. In a very negative and cynical way, the KGB said to Sharansky “Look, you think that you are going to be freed, Sharansky? Look who is leading. The only ones who care about you are a band of students and housewives!”
https://www.jewishinspirationatyourfingertips.com/2021/10/22/interview-with-pamela-braun-cohen/
Elise Brodersen
