Veselovska Yelyzaveta, Zaiets Kindrat and Vasylyna

Yelyzaveta Veselovska, along with her husband and two sons, lived in the village of Novofastiv in Vinnytsia region. She worked as a truck driver at the local collective farm. With the beginning of the German-Soviet war, her husband was conscripted to the front, and on July 21, 1941, German forces entered the village. Shortly thereafter, the Jewish population began to face persecution: entire families were evicted from their homes, forced to live in barracks and used for forced labor.

Despite the danger, Yelyzaveta helped her Jewish friends. Starting from August 1941, her house became a hiding place for members of the Rozental, Liubarskyi and Birbraier families.

At the end of May 1942, the Jewish residents of Novofastiv village were ordered to assemble on the central square, supposedly for relocation to the ghetto in the town of Pohrebyshche. Malka Rozental asked Yelyzaveta to hide her two sons, 14-year-old Danylo and 15-year-old Leonid, while she obeyed the orders of the occupying authorities and went to the square. Within a few days, all those who appeared at the designated assembly point were executed.

Until the arrival of winter, both boys hid in a dugout near Yelyzaveta's house. Then she entrusted them to the care of her neighbors, Kindrat and Vasylina Zaiets, who provided them with a winter hiding place on their property. However, someone informed the local authorities about the hidden Jews, and the local head came to conduct a search. Fortunately, the hiding place remained undiscovered, but he warned about the consequences of harboring Jews. In the summer of 1943, Kindrat transported the Rosental brothers to his relatives in Kyiv region. There, they lived until the expulsion of the German forces, and a year later, they returned to Novofastiv village. Danylo and Leonid continued to reside with Kindrat and Vasylyna, considering them their second parents.

In 1996, Yad Vashem recognized Yelyzaveta Veselovska, Kindrat, and Vasylyna Zaiets as Righteous Among the Nations.

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