Bank of Portraits / Radan Domitseliia, Mariia, Matylda and Anatolii

Radan Domitseliia, Mariia, Matylda and Anatolii

The city of Vinnytsia was occupied by German and Romanian troops on July 19, 1941, and by the end of the month, the entire region was under occupation. The first shooting of Jews in the regional center took place no later than July 29; its victims were 146 representatives of the local intelligentsia.

Domitseliia Radan with her teenage children Matylda and Anatolii joined the local underground and often hosted Jews in her house. Her eldest daughter Mariia worked in one of the Vinnytsia schools and lived separately.

At the end of 1941, the Radan family sheltered Berta Vilinska, who fled from Kyiv, hoping to be reunited with her family in Vinnytsia. Later, the Jewish woman began to participate in the activities of the underground, was responsible for establishing contacts with its members in the village of Nemyriv. Ukrainian language teacher Bronia Sheivekhman, hiding in the Radan family's house, made anti-Nazi leaflets. Rosa Zeliterman, a doctor from Vinnytsia, also found refuge here. The family managed to ferry some of the fugitives to the territory controlled by the Romanian army, thus saving their lives.

Later, Anatolii Radan brought home the girl Valia Bark, saving her from the column of Jews who were to be deported. For several weeks, the child was hidden in the basement. Thanks to the teacher's daughter, Domitseliia was able to obtain documents for Valia with a Ukrainian surname, and the girl was admitted into an orphanage, where she stayed until the end of the German occupation.

Later, another Jewish girl, 15-year-old Lilia Sihal, the daughter of a partisan, found shelter in Mariia Radan's house. Her father took her only after the end of the war.

In total, the Radan family saved 48 Jews during the Holocaust. After the war, many of the survivors continued to communicate with the saviors in person or by correspondence.

In 1994, Yad Vashem recognized Domitseliia Mariia, Matylda and Anatolii as Righteous Among the Nations.

Svitlana Demchenko

Kyiv

National museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War

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