Kuzmenko Lidiia, Krutohorova Hanna

Lidiia Kuzmenko and her son Volodymyr lived in Kharkiv. Her husband, journalist Oleksandr Kaptelynin, was shot in 1938 during Stalinist repressions. Volodymyr's school friend Albert Kudenko often visited the Kuzmenko family house. Lidiia knew his parents Ivan Kudenko and Klara Bloshtein well.

In October 1941, when Hitler's troops were advancing on the town of Kharkiv, the Kudenkos' family house in the center of the city was destroyed, and Ivan was seriously wounded. The Jewish family found housing on the outskirts, and her communication with Lidiia and Volodymyr was interrupted for a certain time.

On December 14, 1941, an order of the local commandant appeared that by December 16, the Jews should move to the 10th district of the city, where there were 26 barracks of the factory village. Jews from the suburbs were also sent there, in addition to those from Kharkiv ones.

Unexpectedly Klara Bloshtein visited Lidiia, exactly on the days when the resettlement was taking place. She said that they found a comfortable apartment in an area where no one knows them. But in order not to expose the children to danger, the woman decided not to live with them and asked the Kuzmenko family for temporary shelter.

Klara stayed with them for a month. Sometimes on neutral territory she met with children – 14-year-old Albert, 9-year-old Rudolph and 7-year-old Liia. Somehow, after another meeting, she did not return. Later Lidiia learned that her friend was caught on the street and shot in January 1942 in Drobytsky Yar.

Ivan and his children continued to lead a secret lifestyle. After the injury, the man was immobile, so Albert became the sole breadwinner of the family. In the summer of 1942, during a roundup, the boy was caught on the street and sent to forced labor in Germany, and his father was arrested for not registering at the labor exchange.

Rudolph and Liia were taken under the care of their neighbor Hanna Krutohorova. She lived alone: ​​her husband and only son died during the Nazi offensive on the town of Kharkiv in 1941. Hanna knew that the children were half-bloods, but still decided to save them and took care of them until Ivan was released from prison.

In 2002, Yad Vashem recognized Lidiia Kuzmenko and Hanna Krutohorova as Righteous Among the Nations.