Gudkova Nina

Fomina, Anastasiya Gudkova, Nina Mykhailovskiy, Vasiliy Before the war, Anastasiya Fomina worked as a domestic for the Kats family in Kiev. In 1937, Mrs. Kats died while giving birth to her son, Tsezar, and thus Fomina raised the child. When the Germans attacked the Soviet Union, Tsezar’s father enlisted in the Red Army and Tsezar remained in occupied Kiev with Fomina. In October 1941, Tsezar’s father returned home. Only a few hours after his return, the house custodian turned him in to the authorities and he was taken to Babi Yar. The custodian demanded that Fomina hand the child over too, and she then headed in the direction of Babi Yar with young Tsezar. As they neared Babi Yar, Fomina heard shots and realized that the Jews were being murdered there. She ran off with Tsezar and the two of them wandered the streets of the city for a few days, visiting friends, and sleeping in the bombed-out remains of buildings. One day, Fomina heard about a new orphanage. She took Tsezar there, attached a note to him that said that his name was Vasya Fomin, rang the bell, and disappeared. The Russian manager of the orphanage, Dr. Nina Gudkova (who had been a pediatrician before the war), and her staff of nurses looked after over 70 children. They realized that this abandoned child was Jewish and placed him with a group of 12 Jewish children already in their care. The children found sanctuary there for two years. After the war, Tsezar Kats/Vasya Fomin was among the first from the home to be adopted. His adoptive mother, Berta Mykhailovskaya, was a Jewish woman who had married Vasiliy Mykhailovskiy, a Russian doctor, before the war, and they lived in Kirovograd (today Kirovohrad). During the war, Mykhailovskiy had hidden his mother-in-law, Pesya Granovskaya, in the department for contagious diseases in the municipal hospital. During searches, he had even placed Granovskaya in the morgue. Later, Granovskaya was hidden by Mykhailovskiy’s friends who lived in a village.Mykhailovskiy and his Jewish wife left the city and moved to a remote village. When the situation became dangerous there too, Mykhailovskiy and his wife decided to go to Kiev in the hope that they would get help from his family. The couple visited Marta Mykhailovskaya*, Mykhailovskiy’s sister-in-law, who managed to obtain false identity papers for Berta. With time, Mykhailovskiy also managed to bring his mother-in-law to Kiev. After the liberation, Mykhailovskiy and his wife adopted Tsezar Kats. Fomina was a regular visitor in the Mykhailovskiy home until her death in 1980. On November 28, 1994, Yad Vashem recognized Anastasiya Fomina, Nina Gudkova, and Vasiliy Mykhailovskiy, as Righteous Among the Nations.