Yarova Sophia

Sophia Hrygorievna was born on September 18, 1925 in Kyiv. Her family lived on former Chervonoarmiyska street. She spent her first fifteen years there. She studied in school №56 for the first three grades. Next grades she took in school №30, upon building it in 1936.

She graduated from 8-th school grade when the War began. Immediately after that she volunteered for trenches digging near the village of Vita-Poshtova and antitank ditches construction on the street of M. Gorky (currently V. Antonovich). Also, they were digging holes in the yards. This was done in order to hide people from bombing. At nights Sofia Grigoryevna helped to carry the wounded personnel to the hospital. There was her 16th birthday on September 18, 1941. The next day the Soviet troops left the city.

"On September 18 I had a birthday –I turned 16 years old. And this night the troops of the Soviet Union left the city, but I did not know about it. And I remember, standing in front of a mirror I come up with hair style to do for the evening. My father enters, puts a few pieces of soap on the table and says he will not be able to stay for a holiday - German troops landed in Zolotonosha, and their platoon is going behind the Dnieper. My Dad kissed me unexpectedly. We were not accustomed to that in our family. I immediately realized that something was wrong. I found my mother, and we went to military unit of our Dad. And we realized that the Soviet troops are leaving the capital. At noon they left, and in an hour - Nikolayev chain bridge across the Dnieper was blew. On the next day Germans came to the city".

Ultimately, Sophia Grigorievna and her mother stayed in the occupied city. Staying in the city, they endangered themselves, because the head of the family was a communist. Her father was a head of the house and chairman of the trade union committee of communal workers of Kaganovichi (now Goloseevsky) district. They did not go home at first and spent the night in a janitor, who lived near the place where the Palace "Ukraine" is now.

That evening there were several Red Army soldiers and a district police inspector Shilov. The next day, Sofia Grigoryevna decided to return home. None of the neighbors gave them out to the Germans. People in different ways perceived the arrival of the Germans. Some were glad, others were afraid, the rest just waited. Sophia Grigorievna mentioned one of the cases:

"So, in the courtyard we were told that a neighbor Trohym met "new authority "with bread and salt. However, at 5 in the morning of September 20, Trohym came to us and weeping told: "Frosia, at night the Germans came and raped my Manu. And the documents have remained. "Mama referred papers to school number 130, where occupiers were located, and told everything."

In the house where the Boyko family lived, there were about 30 apartments. About 10 of them were Jew families. However, nobody gave out neighbors to Nazi. The fact is that before the war none of them care of nationality, but lived and communicated on the basis of "Who is this person and what does he do". Gradually, the Germans themselves began to seek the Jews and systematically kill them.

"On the 28th day there was an announcement that all Jews should appear to the cemeteries tomorrow morning. Nobody could imagine that people could be just killed. A young Jewish boy Sam Barash lived in our courtyard. He was a student at the Kharkiv Institute, and in this period he just returned home from Kharkiv. The Sam was a bit lumbering. And he went away. We have not seen him anymore. All Jews believed that they would be taken to work somewhere else, because the railway was nearby. At 12 o'clock on the 29th of September there were rumors that the Jews were firing. Those of the Jews who did not go to Babyn Yar began to hide themselves. On the next day, the policemen walked through the courtyards and searched for the Jews who did not appear. Often, among them there were elderly people who could not move. All of them were shot on theirs spots. We have few left in the yard"

About the tragedy of Babyn Yar, Sofia Grigorievna learned personally from her uncle.

"My uncle Peter was captured and placed in Syrets concentration camp in. He was 37 or 38 years old handsome, high man. On September 29, the prisoners of the Syrets camp were sent to bury Jews. We redeemed him from the camp (Germans let Ukrainians out after checking the nationality certificate) on October 10. He told me that he had never seen such a horror. They killed all: men, children, women, old ones. In addition to the Germans, Ukrainians and Russians were among shooters. My uncle saw a woman bearing a small child, they were captured. One of the policemen seized the child for its foot and thrower it alive into a bloody pit with corpses, after that its mother was also killed. When the prisoners buried the corpses, the earth was moved by still alive people underneath it. Jews were shot by the evening, although many of their children climbed from the pit alive. Often, parents in a second to the actual shot pushed their children into a pit, later at night they climbed alive and ran home. There were policemen who let the children out and even brought them to their houses. In the evening, on his way from Babi Yar, my uncle Peter found a tin can and cut his leg very strongly to the muscles, so that he would not be taken there to bury people and not to see this horror. He did not live for a long after that. Shortly, he got sick by tuberculosis and died. No normal person would have survived this."

In the first weeks, the Germans were poorly oriented in Kyiv and did not set up their own spy network. Therefore it was easier to hide and save the Jews. Sonya Pickman lived in the building number 127 on Gorky Street. She had two daughters - Nel and Faith, 4 and 5 years old. She managed to avoid shooting. In the beginning of 1942, the head of the house in which she lived decided to give her out. She took Sonya and her girls to the commandant's staff at school number 35. However, the policeman who was there looked in the blue eyes of the children and decided to let them go home. Later Sonya was issued a document that she was Ukrainian. So she lived until 1943, until her husband came.

"Galya Vontrop lived in our courtyard, but the family was dysfunctional, modest, so that nobody thought to give them out. She was 20 years old and worked as a telephone operator. Unexpectedly, at the end of August 1942, Galya comes to me and says that the Sam Lipnitsky family came back on foot."

Sophia Grigorievna and her mother went to visit their former neighbors. They told that they returned to Kyiv, because they believed that the city had more opportunities to survive. However, the situation in the city was aggravated and it was dangerous for Jews to remain in it. Therefore, Tatiana Lipnitska decided to seek help from Euphrosyna Boyko. That same night, despite the curfew, Tatiana Lipnitskaya and her children were on the threshold of the Boik's house. It turned out that the son-in-law of the Boikov acquaintance ordered them to expel the Jewish family from the house.

"At 11 o'clock, the husband of Gali Ventroop came home, saw Tanya and said:" I will not give you to the policemen, but get out now!". And they fled to us."

"We helped many, but we did not ask for their surnames, helped dozens of Jews and not only Jews. All Kiev was helping the Jews and everyone could be considered the righteous of the world."

For several days, the Lipnitsky family hid themselfs in the Boyko’s house. Then Sofia Grigorievna together with Galia Ventroop drove them to Vasilkov, into the house of her aunt. From there, with the help of relatives, they were taken to the village of Ksaverivka. There Lipnitsky managed to get a job. They returned to Kyiv after their release, but this story did not end the rescue of members of the Lipnitsky family. On October 6 Sam Lipnitsky came in soldier's clothes to the Boyko family. He asked Sophia Grigorievna’s Mom to bring him to the other bank of the Dnieper. Euphrosyne gave him his clothes and said that he would stay overnight. At 6 am they along with the Sam crossed the river to the left bank. In 1944, the Sam was killed.

The Boykos family, including Efrosinia Boiko, helped to many other families. The neighbors nicknamed her Fighting and always ask her for help. Probably her rock-solid character and empathy have saved not one life. Almost before the liberation of Kiev, on October 25, 1943, the Boykos family was arrested. But they escaped thanks to the fact that Efrosinia Boyko was able to establish contacts with German soldiers due to the hootch that she produced for them. Having freed themselves from arrest, they left the city for Roslavichi village. They met the Red Army there on November 7.

Upon returning to Kiev Sofia Grigorievna worked as a phone operator at the Kyiv intercity communication station. A week later the girls were sent to lay the cable for the front line, dig trenches, and clear Khreshchatyk. Later she was studying at the film engineer institute, than transferred to the Teachers' Institute. She successfully graduated in 1947. He worked as a teacher of the Ukrainian language and literature. She graduated in absentia two universities and in 1967 became the director of the new school number 189.

On Sept. 7, 1997 Yad Vashem awarded Euphrosyna Boyko and her daughter Sofia Boyko an honorary title Righteous Among the Nations. It is worth noting that they got these titles due to the Lipnitskys family whom they saved. For a long time neither Sofia nor Euphrosyna Boyko did not consider themselves as heroes. They acted conscientiously and simply saved people.