Zazulia Nikolay

Zazula, Nikifor Zazula, Stepan Zazula, Nikolay The Baptist brothers Nikolay and Nikifor Zazula were farmers in their 50s and lived in the village of Lipki, in the vicinity of Międzyrzecz Korecki, Równe District (today Velikiye Mezhirichi, Rivne District). While the widowed Nikifor lived with his two sons, Andrey and Stepan, Andrey’s wife, Natalya, and their daughter Galina, his brother Nikolay, a bachelor, lived alone. In October 1942, two young women, Ruhla and Etla, appeared in the village, followed by two 16-year-old boys, Mordechai Averbuch and Shmuel Honigman. These four Jews were residents of Międzyrzecz and escaped during the final liquidation of the ghetto there on September 26, 1942. All four were warmly welcomed into the Zazulas’ home, initially for only a few days. However, as winter was approaching, the Zazulas pitied the fugititves and decided to keep them hidden in their home. Within a few days, Nikifor Zazula had dug a hole under the floor of the barn in the yard of his home. The four Jews were hidden there from winter 1942, until the liberation of the area, in January 1944. Nikolay Zazula helped by providing them with food and clothes. No one else knew about the Jews’ presence. Right after the war, the survivors left for Poland and later three of them immigrated to Israel and the fourth, Honigman, moved to Canada. Averbuch kept in touch with his wartime rescuers for many years and in 1992 visited their offspring in Ukraine. On June 27, 1995, Yad Vashem recognized Nikifor Zazula, his son, Stepan Zazula, and his brother, Nikolay Zazula, as Righteous Among the Nations.