Domnykiia Zurer

Mykola and Domnykiia Zurer and their four children lived in the village of Staryi Irzhavets in the Poltava region. Mykola was a Jew by origin. He converted to Christianity to marry Ukrainian Domnykiia Lytovchenko. The Zurers were hardworking people and had a tidy farm. In the winter of 1930, they were "dispossessed": they were kicked out of the house, all the property was confiscated, even children's shirts and a bag of beans, which the mother tried to hide among the children, were taken away. Domnykiia with children survived the winter at the neighbor’s place. Mykola went to Kharkiv to look for work, he got a job at the building of the “Rot-Front” cinema and soon took his family to the city. The Zurers settled near the cinema in a barrack-type house on 41 Plekhanovska Street.

At the beginning of the German-Soviet war, the eldest daughter, Nadiia, who had just graduated from Kharkiv University, was evacuated with the Kharkiv Electromechanical Plant. The son Hryhorii graduated from the school and entered the Sevastopol Naval School of Coastal Defense. The family learned about his fate only in 1947: "Missed in action in February 1942."

The younger daughters, schoolgirls Liubov and Vira, stayed with their parents. On the night of October 24, 1941, Kharkiv was occupied by German troops. On December 14, the city commandant issued an order addressed to the Jews of Kharkiv. All the Jews had to move to the barracks of the Tractor and Machine-Tool Plants by December 16. It was said that from there they would be taken to work in other cities. Domnykiia suggested to go to the barracks all together: "We are not afraid of any work!". But Mykola did not allow it. In order not to endanger his family, he went to the ghetto himself, although he was baptized. "Stay!" He said. "I'll get a job and pick you up," recalls Liubov Sushko, the daughter of Domnykiia.

The whole family accompanied him to the Tractor Plant. On the way to the barracks, Jews were robbed, and the elderly people and children were often shot on the spot.

Domnykiia visited her husband every day. And once she returned home with a sad little girl dressed in a coat with a red collar. It was 10-year-old Nonna, the daughter of Liza Zamska, with whom Domnykiia worked together before the war. They met in the barracks.

The Zamskyis bribed the guards, gave their daughter family photos as a keepsake, and sewed valuables collected by the family into the collar of her coat. Liza asked Domnykiia to take her daughter out: "Just take her out, and we will come in a day or two ...". But they did not have a chance to.

Domnykiia Zurer took the girl out of the ghetto at the end of December 1941. When she returned to the Tractor Plant a few days later, she found neither her husband nor the Zamskyis: the barracks were empty ...

On December 27, 1941, the liquidation of the ghetto began. Under the pretext of being sent to work in the Poltava region, the Nazis took Jews to Drobytskyi Yar and shot them there. More than 10,000 people were killed. Among them were Mykola Zurer and 17 members of the Zamskyi family.

Nonna, whom Domnykiia began to call Svitlana, was waiting for her parents, but no one came. Silent, with a sad look, she did not laugh, did not play ... Only once, when Liubov and Vira Zurer got and decorated a Christmas tree for the New Year to entertain the child, the little girl's face lit up with joy.

With each knock on the door, the girls hid Svitlana in the closet, or in the bed behind large pillows. Once one of the neighbors, whom the Zurers did not trust, saw the child:

"And who is there?" Domnykiia immediately replied: "This is the daughter of my brother, Oleksii!". "But, he has a son!" - the neighbor kept pushing on"- recalls Liubov Sushko.

The rumors spread, and soon a policeman came to the Zurers with a demand to extradite a "little Jew." He was the husband of Liza Zamska's cousin. He saw Domnykiia coming out of the ghetto with Nonna.

"She has gone for a long time, I gave her away," Domnykiia replied.

The same evening, she took Svitlana to her sister, who lived at the other end of the town. But there she was recognized by a woman who not so long ago brought food to hers to the barracks.

Henceforth Domnykiia and her daughters were in danger. "My mother didn't sleep at night, she turned black, she lost weight… She was very worried about her family because the whole family could be executed… My mother couldn't find a way out," Liubov Sushko recalls.

Domnykiia brought Svitlana to a familiar Khrystych family. She gave them all the valuables sewn in the collar of the girl's coat as payment for rescue. Until the end of the war, Svitlana worked as a domestic worker at the Khrystyches place.

As for Domnykiia and her daughters, they decided to return to their native village in the Poltava region. In March 1942, they walked 350 km in two weeks.

"But my mother's heart bled for Svitlana," Liubov recalls. "So my mother went on foot to visit Svitlana and brought her some food." It was difficult for Svitlana to stay at the Khrystyches’ place, but she could not take the girl to the village of Domnykiia. "Svitlana, whatever you do, you have to live… I can't take you with me. Everyone knows that our father was a Jew,” Liubov recalls her mother's words.

Many years later, Svitlana said to her rescuer:

"Domnykiia, I have learned to do everything in the world, I do not regret that I lived like that!".

After the war, Svitlana was found by her father's brothers, who had returned from the front, and she started a new life. However, she kept in touch with Domnykiia Zurer, considering her as a relative. On June 20, 1995, Yad Vashem awarded Domnykiia Zurer the honorary title of "Righteous Among the Nations."