Savitskaya Nina

Savitskaya (Kravchenko), Nina Nina Kravchenko (later Savitskaya) worked as an economist in a meat-products factory in Kiev. When Germany invaded the Soviet Union, she returned to her parents’ home in Vinnitsa (today Vinnytsya), where she remained for the duration of the occupation. The Vaysanov couple, and their 17-year-old son Boris, were neighbors of the Kravchenkos and, in October 1941, when the city’s Jews were ordered to gather at the municipal stadium, the Vaysanovs offered to pay the Kravchenkos to hide Boris in their attic. The Kravchenkos agreed, and Boris was thus separated from his parents. Soon after, through a crack in the wall, Boris noticed a neighbor leading some Ukrainian policemen to the Kravchenkos’ yard. Boris jumped out of the rear attic window and fled as he heard the sound of a gunshot behind him. In the adjacent yard, Boris bumped into Nina, who pointed to the lavatory shed in the yard. Boris entered the structure and Nina entered behind him. The police, seeing Nina entering the bathroom without realizing that Boris might be hiding there, moved on in their chase after the young man. After they were gone, Nina took Boris to the granary, where she hid him for almost a month. In the meantime, Nina’s father found someone who agreed to smuggle Boris to the Romanian-controlled area, and until the liberation, in March 1944, the teenager stayed in the village of Voroshilovka (Voroshylivka), where he had relatives. Eventually, Nina made contact with Nazar Vaysanov, Boris’s father, and helped him reach Voroshilovka too. Boris’s mother perished. On March 18, 1997, Yad Vashem recognized Nina Savitskaya (née Kravchenko) as Righteous Among the Nations.