Lukashenko Taisia

Lukashenko, Taisia Prior to the war, a young woman Taisia Lukashenko lived in Smolensk with her husband Eugeni, who passed away in 1940, and their four-year-old daughter. Eugeni had worked together with Mikhail Moiseev, a Russian, who was married to a 30-year-old Jewish woman, Revecca, with whom he had two daughters – seven-year-old Inga and a small infant, Natalia. After the Germans occupied the city in July 16, 1941, Revecca obtained a new ID under the name of Margarita. Revecca thus stayed in her apartment until she was denounced by neighbors. She was repeatedly summoned to the police and questioned about her nationality. Revecca felt that it was too dangerous to keep on living in Smolensk and asked Taisia Lukashenko to shelter her with Taisia’s in-laws in the village of Piskarikha, Smolensk District. After consulting with them, Taisia and Revecca both moved to their home, where Revecca stayed from August 1941 until October 1942. Revecca’s children remained with their non-Jewish grandparents in Smolensk and survived the Holocaust. Following further denunciations, Taisia Lukashenko was twice summoned to the German police in September 1942 and questioned about her tenant. She claimed that Revecca was Russian. Although the police did not arrest Revecca it was now too perilous to stay with her rescuer any longer. Fortunately, a distant relative of Revecca’s husband from Belarus happened to visit and took her with him to Belarus. Later, Revecca was sent to perform forced labor in Germany but managed to survive and returned home in 1947 and was finally able to find her daughters in an orphanage. She maintained contact with her rescuer after the war. On September 6, 2000, Yad Vashem recognized Taisia Lukashenko as Righteous Among the Nations.