Pan Jun

Pan Yun Shun Babayeva, Aleksandra Popelnyuk, Mitrofan Popelnyuk, Nadezhda Pan Yun Shun, a native of China, arrived in Russia in 1916 in search of a livehood, and he remained there after the October 1917 revolution. He established a family and raised two sons who were killed in the war between Germany and the Soviet Union. During the German occupation, Pan Yun Shun was living in Kharkov (today Kharkiv), in an apartment with one room for each tenant and a shared kitchen and bathroom. Other tenants in his apartment included Aleksandra Babayeva and her 4-year-old son, and Yelizaveta Taldik (née Dvorkina) and her 10-year-old daughter Lyudmila. After the Germans conquered Kharkov on October 23, 1941, Taldik and her daughter were moved to the local ghetto. One morning in early January 1942, Pan opened the door of his apartment and found Lyudmila standing there, shaking from cold and fear. Lyudmila had escaped the ghetto with a group of youths and had then lost them. With no other option, she had headed to her former home. Pan and Babayeva immediately decided that they would save the Jewish child and they hid her for about one year, during which time they also helped her regain her health. Toward the end of 1942, Pan and Babayeva suspected that their neighbors were aware of their hidden charge. Thus, Lyudmila was moved to the home of Mitrofan and Nadezhda Popelnyuk, where she was hidden for eight months without ever leaving their home. After the liberation of Kharkov on August 23, 1943, Lyudmila (later Lurie) returned to Pan Yun Shun, who treated her like his daughter until his death in 1974, at the age of 85. On January 19, 1995, Yad Vashem recognized Pan Yun Shun, Aleksandra Babayeva, and Mitrofan and Nadezhda Popelnyuk, as Righteous Among the Nations.