Zhyr Vasyl, Vira and Daryna

Daryna Zhyr and her children Vasyl and Vira lived in the village of Slobidka-Krasylivska, Kamianets-Podilsky region (current Khmelnytskyi region). After Germany attacked the Soviet Union, the husband of Daryna was recruited to the Red Army and later died in a fight.

In late July 1943, the unfamiliar woman came to their house. That was the Jewish woman Basia Tentser from Krasyliv, who asked to shelter her for a few days. As they learned from her, she was the only survivor in the mass shooting, as the bullets miraculously did not hit her. Basia fell into the pit together with the murdered people and laid among them until night. All her family was executed: five children, husband, mother and brother with his family.

Basia, having the atypical appearance as for the Jew and no specific accent, joined the partisan unit in the town of Shepetivka, where she stayed until July 1943, when the Germans destroyed this unit.

The woman survived and walked around the outskirts for a few days, before she came to the Zhyr family. They let her stay, fed and gave her time to sleep, while the house owners dug a pit in the backyard and equipped a dugout there. The escapee spent almost 8 months in it – from July 1943 to the first decade of March 1944, when the Red Army came. All this time Daryna, Vasyl and Vira took care of Basia and provided her with food and all necessary things.

After the war Basia Tentser married again: her husband, who put his signature on the Reichstag and came back from the front, also lost all his family. In 1947 their son Isaak was born. The talented boy, future professional violinist, gave the last consolation to his parents who lost all their relatives.

Basia was a friend of the Zhyr family until she died in 1970.

On December 19, 1985, Daryna, Vira and Vasyl Zhyr were recognized as the Righteous Among the Nations.