Nesterenko Ivan and Nadia

Ivan Nesterenko and his wife Nadia lived in Kherson together with Nadia’s son from the first marriage. Their neighbors and good friends were the Jewish Donde family: Mayor, Sara and their three children. After the outbreak of the war Nadia’s son, as well as the sons of the Donde family, were recruited to the army. During the occupation Nadia worked as a cleaner and Ivan as a carpenter at the railway depot.

On August 19, 1941, the German troops entered Kherson, and already in September all the Jews were ordered to resettle to the ghetto. The Donde family with the 11-year-old daughter Raya did not dare to break the order, left their flat and never came back. In late September the Jews were taken outside the city, where the pits had been already dug for them. The row was going along the street, the bypassers stopped and watched them. All they, both sympathizing and gloating ones, knew that the Jews were prepared for death. Passing the local women, Sara pushed her daughter to them and she dispersed in the crowd. Disoriented, Raya ran home. Coming in the courtyard of the apartment house, where the family lived, she met the neighbor, who instantly understood that the girl must be taken out of the courtyard. This neigbor, Vasyl Zikaiev, wanted to help the escapee very much, but could not hide her in his house: his little children could discover the guest. Therefore, agreeing with Nadia Nesterenko, he secretly brought the girl to her.

Nadia and her husband Ivan had been harboring Raya Donde during the whole period of the German occupation, until on March 13, 1944 the Red Army entered the city. Raya was allowed to walk freely inside the flat, but not to approach the windows, because everyone in the yard knew her and carelessness could lead to the arrest. The entrance doors were always locked and the girl immediately hid inside the big wardrobe after every knock. If the guests stayed for too long, she had to sit here, bent over and afraid to move for several hours.

Ivan and Nadia treated the girl like their own daughter. After liberation, her two elder brothers came back home. However, Raya remained to live with her saviors, who, under consent of her brothers, adopted her in 1947.

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On February 10, 2002, Yad Vashem posthumously recognized Nadia Kucherenko (Nesterenko) and Ivan Nesterenko as the Righteous Among the Nations.