Zemtseva Vira, Yesypenko (Zemtseva) Alla

Vira Zemtseva taught in Melitopol, Zaporizhzhia region. She raised two children – Alla and Vladyk. In early October 1941, the city was occupied by Hitler's troops. The school where Vira worked was closed, so she had to work as a cleaner in the building where the German commandant's office was located.

In December 1941, Vira met her old friend Antonina Tsyparska, with whom she studied at the pedagogical school. The women had not met for many years. Antonina said that she is married to a Jew and they have a five-year-old daughter, Zhanna. At the beginning of the German-Soviet war, her husband was conscripted and sent to the front, and she has to hide her daughter. For some time, the girl stayed with Antonina's parents, but that place became dangerous. After learning about her friend's wandering, Vira offered to hide Zhanna at her home. No one in her circle knew about the Jewish origin of this child. So the house of the Zemtsev family became familiar to her as well. Later, the little girl got used to the new family, became friends with Vira's children. When the woman went to work, peers Zhanna and Vladyk remained under the care of 12-year-old Alla, who fed the younger ones and devotedly cared for them.

Vira explained to the children what could happen when neighbors or just passers-by recognized Zhanna, so Alla made sure that the children did not leave the house to the yard. Noticing people in military uniform approaching the house, she locked the girl in the storeroom. Once every few weeks, her grandmother came to Zhanna, but her mother almost did not visit her, fearing to expose the hiding place. Therefore, they lived under German occupation for two years.

In the automn of 1943, on the eve of the expulsion of the Nazis, Melitopol was shelled and bombed for several days. Only then, Antonina take her daughter and they hid in a bunker. Vira and her children also temporarily left the city to return there after the arrival of Soviet troops on October 23, 1943.

For many years after the end of the war, Zhanna and her family maintained friendship with their saviors. In 2001, Vira Zemtseva and her daughter Alla Yesypenko (Zemtseva) were recognized as Righteous Among the Nations.

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