Kushnir Hanna, Ivan and Klavdiia

Hanna Kushnir lived with her four children in the village of Yaltushkiv, near the town of Bar in Vinnytsia region. The village came under the control of the Nazis on July 15, 1941. During the period of occupation, which lasted until March 1944, about 8 thousand civilians were shot in the district center and its surroundings, and 2 thousand people were deported to Germany. The greatest atrocities of the occupiers were aimed at the Jewish community, which at the beginning of the Second World War numbered 10 thousand people in the city of Bar alone. On the territory of the district, 11 ghettos and 6 settlements were created in the places with the largest population of Jews: in the city of Bar, the village of Yaltushkiv, Popivtsi, Mateikiv, Verkhivka, Balky, Prymoshchanytsia, etc. The Yaltushki ghetto was one of the largest in terms of the number of slaves in Ukraine. Jews lived there not only from the village Yaltushkiv, but also from the surrounding villages. This settlement had mainly Jewish residents and was also known for its synagogue with a park. The prisoners of the ghetto were forced to work hard, draw yellow circles on their clothes and wear yellow six-pointed stars; they were not allowed to go outside the fenced area. On August 19–20 and October 15, 1942, mass executions took place: almost all prisoners were executed – more than 1,400 people. Few were lucky enough to escape: some of them managed to escape to the Romanian occupation zone; and local Ukrainians hid the other ones.

During the first mass shooting in August 1942, Mene Hluz fled to the forest with her daughters Liuba and Ryva. After some time in search of food, they went to the village and hid in a shed on the Kushnir family courtyard. In the morning, Hanna saw them while she was looking after the household. The hostess sympathized with the fugitives and decided not to leave them in trouble. The older children, Ivan and Klavdiia, helped set up a hiding place in the attic of the barn, where the Jewish women had been hiding for four months. Later, Hanna agreed with a reliable person who transported the mother and her daughters to Transnistria. The Gluza family waited out the expulsion of the occupiers in the Kopaihorod ghetto.

In 1996, Yad Vashem recognized Hanna and Klaudiia Kushnir as Righteous Among the Nations, and in 1999, Ivan Kushnir also received this title.

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