Novakivska Maria

During the Nazi occupation, Maria Novakivska with her daughter and mother-in-law lived in Kharkiv. Her husband Borys went for a front.

In December of 1941, Maria was asked by her relative Natalia to hide her daughter Alice. Girl’s father also went for a front and died in 1942. Mother with daughter was ordered to come to the office of German police. Maria already knew that hiding of Jews was a dangerous affair, but she let seven-years-old Alice stay at her apartment. She also asked Natalia don’t appear near their house, not to put the whole family in danger. It was only in 1943 when Alice meet her mother again when Kharkiv was liberated from Nazi. For two years small Alice with asthma was living without fresh air.  During the Nazi raids, she got used of hiding in the dark storage room. Maria was afraid that some neighbors will recognize Alice as a Jew and betray them.

«One day police came… I hide Alice, kissed her and ask not to cough. She understood everything perfectly. She was just sitting there quietly. Policemen conscripted me for railway works. I’ve gone for my neighbor, where my mother in law lived. What to do? Who will care for girls? So we decide that they will be on their own. So it was. I told Alice not to open the door to strangers. We were so afraid that Germans will come and children open the door» From Maria Novakivska memoirs.

During this period Natalia, Alice’s mother, was roaming the villages, exchanging her value for food and giving it to Maria. They established the system of meeting points on the different streets of the city with a low probability to meet their acquaintances.

After the war families of Maria and Natalia were maintaining good relations. In 2002, Maria Novakivska was awarded the Righteous Among the Nations award.