Hanna Honcharenko

The war caught Hanna Honcharenko in Mykolaiv – a woman lived in her own house in the suburb. On August 15, 1941, the city was occupied by German army units, and in the following days, the occupiers began persecuting Jews in Mykolaiv and neighboring settlements. On the eve of the German-Soviet war, 25,280 Jews lived in this seaside town or 15% of the total population. In general, the Jewish community has lived in Mykolaiv since its founding, and throughout the prewar history of the city has made a significant contribution to its economic development, engaging in shopkeeping, handicrafts, or working in shipbuilding. But after the city of Mykolaiv became a part of the newly created Reichskommissariat Ukraine, the fate of local Jewry in the plans of the Nazi administration was decided.

All persons of Jewish origin were required to register immediately and were prohibited to appear in certain urban areas. The occupation administration ordered them to wear insignias in the form of a Yellow Star of David and to work in hard or humiliating jobs.

Soon, the first mass execution took place. Sonderkommando 11a shot 230 Jews, allegedly for disobeying German orders. Executions of Jews among prisoners of war took place near the Stalag-364 concentration camp organized in workers' barracks of Mykolaiv industrial district – Temvod.

In the mid-September 1941, the Jews of Mykolaiv were ordered to gather within the city cemetery, taking with them the essentials – ostensibly for the further resettlement. Those who carried out this order were divided into groups, taken out of the city, to the area of the village Kalynivka, Voskresenske and Horokhivka, to pre-dug trenches or the natural streams and were shot. Sick, disabled, or those who could not survive the transportation were killed on the spot. In total, 5,000 people were killed. In October 1941, on the banks of Inhul River, the occupiers continued the execution of those who managed to escape the mass shootings in September. The murders of Jewish population also took place in other settlements of Mykolaiv area.

Sofiia Rieznikova, a close friend of Hanna Honcharenko, was among the victims of the September shootings. Like thousands of others, she collected her belongings, money, and documents and went to the place indicated in the order, never to return. Before leaving, she left her 9-year-old daughter Olena to Hanna. Hanna lived alone. She lost her husband early and lost all five children, so she gladly agreed to take care of the girl.

When it became clear that the Jewish population of the city had been shot, and the occupiers were now looking for survivors, Hanna Honcharenko, decided to hide the girl. The woman equipped a hiding place for little Olenka in the basement of the closet behind the house. The part of the room, which was closer to the entrance, she threw with the help of construction debris, thus hiding another one, in which the girl was hiding. Olena Reznikova had to spend the next two and a half years in this closet. When the Nazis conducted searches, the girl hid in the basement, she spent periods of calm in the house. Later she had to share a basement with three women who had escaped from a forced labor camp.

Despite the hungry war times, Hanna made an effort to keep Olena well-fed and neatly dressed. In addition, the woman made sure that the girl received at least some education.

Even after the expulsion of the occupiers from Mykolaiv, Hanna Honcharenko and Olena Reznikova continued to live together – two and a half years of trials have combined a girl and a lonely elderly woman.

Hanna continued to bring up Olena as her own granddaughter. Being illiterate, she insisted that the girl received education and continued it after leaving school.

When Olena Rieznikova became an adult and got married, Hanna Honcharenko continued to live with a young couple. She died in 1964 at the age of 85.

On November 5, 2000, Yad Vashem awarded Hanna Honcharenko the honorary title of “Righteous Among the Nations”.