Mekelito Zinaida and Tsvyrko (Mekelito) Liubov

Before the Nazi occupation of Kryvyi Rih, Zinaida Mekelito (nee Kavetska) worked as a teacher of Russian language and literature at the secondary school. She was a modest intelligent woman, a daughter of the priest, who fully dedicated her life to work. Pupils loved her and trusted her their secrets, and colleagues respected her for work-ability and kindness.

Zinaida Mekelito was born in 1900 in Kamianets-Podilskyi. Her father, Dmytro Kavetskyi, was a prior of the local Alexander Nevsky church. In 1935, he was forced to withdraw from clergy service and deported to the deep inner lands of the USSR as the “non-working element”. Zinaida’s husband, Vasyl Mekelito, was the officer of the Ukrainian Galician Army. After the establishment of the Soviet power, he remained in the USSR and adopted the Soviet citizenship. In the early 1930s, the couple went to Kryvyi Rih. Vasyl was a teacher of German in the Kryvyi Rih Mining Institute and gave lectures in the party school. In 1937, he was arrested and convicted of the counter-revolutionary activity and organization of the “Insurgent Center”, and then shot dead in the spring of 1938. Zinaida Mekelito had no information on her husband’s destiny and waited for him.

The German troops entered Kryvyi Rih on August 14, 1941. Zinaida, trying not to contact the new authorities as long as possible, settled in the distant outskirts.

Soon after that, someone lightly knocked on the door of Zinaida Mekelito’s house in Hdantsivka, where she lived with her daughter Liubov. “Who is this?” – “Open the door, Zinaida Dmytrivna!”. After short doubts, the woman opened the door. That was Venia Hdalevych! Her naughty student! He was wounded and heavily leaned on a stick.

The young man looked exhausted, but found the strength to tell about his service as the commander of the tank, which was shot near Dubno, where his unit got encircled.

For a few days, Veniamin, wounded in his shoulder, roamed around, until he managed to get to his native city of Kryvyi Rih. There he learned that his parents were evacuated. Lonely and helpless, Veniamin went to Zinaida Mekelito’s house.

It was very dangerous to hide a Red Army fighter, moreover, the Jew. But there was no other way – Venia was too weak. He stayed with the Mekelito family. Veniamin was hidden in the wardrobe, listening to all sounds outside permanently.

On October 14, 1941, in the territory of two mines (No. 5 and “Pivdenna”), the Nazis murdered nearly 7,000 Jews, the residents of the city.

That was November 1941. One night, someone knocked on the door again. The man in dirty and ragged clothes was standing at the doorstep. That was Borys Muravskyi, the director of the school, where Zinaida worked before the war. Borys Muravskyi went to the front from the early days, serving as a commander of the military detachment, which got into encirclement during the retreat. He was captured, escaped and tried to reach his troops. Muravskyi heavily suffered from lice and undernutrition, and was very stressed. Borys had been hiding at the Mekelito family for several weeks.

It became more difficult to hide two persons. Moreover, the regular, but unwanted guest in Zinaida’s house was one of the policemen. However, everything was good for some time – Veniamin got better, while Borys decided to try to cross the frontline and return to the Red Army. Zinaida provided Muravskyi with the documents of her repressed husband, food and money. Borys went into uncertainty. Only after the war, when Muravskyi came back to Kryvyi Rih and met Zinaida and her daughter, they learned that his plan was successful.

After departure of Muravskyi, the woman got listed among the persons to work in Germany. The question was solved with the help of a certificate that the woman was sick. The friends helped to get it.

During the Nazi occupation, the house of Zinaida Mekelito became a shelter for many people who got in danger. Among those who hid there were neighbor Zakharov, who could be deported to Germany, the Jewish pupil Oleksandra Rakova, the Jew and the communist Borys Reinysh-Sichkar with two daughters. Borys Reinysh was married to a Ukrainian woman and had two daughters. As soon as the occupation began, the wife hid him at her relatives, and he hid in the Mekelito family’s house during the searches. In mid-1942, Zinaida and her daughter dug a pit in their garden, masking it under the wooden boards and bricks.

Since that time, Veniamin Hdalevych always hid in this hideout, and Borys Reinysh often joined him. When the occupiers started searches of the children from the mixed couples, the daughters of Borys, Iryna and Nadia, also came here. During two years, Zinaida Mekelito had been overcoming her fears and material hardships in order to rescue the Jews. She often had to sell her personal belongings to get food for all the households. However, despite difficulties, everyone had a place in the house and the heart of this courageous woman.

When the frontline approached Kryvyi Rih, Veniamin Hdalevych left the house. He successfully passed the front and ended the war as a tanker. After the army service, Borys Muravskyi came back as well and continued to work as a school director. After the war, Zinaida Mekelito worked as a teacher at the Secondary school No. 25 for two years. Now, the school has a status of the central city lyceum. In 2019, the memorial board dedicated to the feat of the modest teacher, Zinaida Mekelito, was opened on the building of the lyceum. In 1948, her family went to the town of Nesterov, Lviv region, where she continued her pedagogical activities.

In 1959, Zinaida Mekelito was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War of the 2nd class, and on July 9, 1997, Yad Vashem recognized Zinaida Mekelito and her daughter Liubov Tsvyrko (born Mekelito) as a Righteous Among the Nations.