Marchenko Ivan & Fekla ; Son: Leontyi ; Sister-In-Law: Nina

Marchenko, Ivan Marchenko, Fekla Marchenko, Leontyi Marchenko, Nina Marchenko, Nikita Marchenko, Tatyana The brothers Ivan and Nikita Marchenko lived with their families in Rybnitsa (today Rîbniţa) in the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in Ukraine, which, in 1940, became the Moldavian SSR (today Moldova). From September 1941, Rybnitsa was included in Transnistria, under Romanian control. During the war, Ivan and his wife, Fekla, lived in the same apartment with their married son Leontyi, his young wife Nina and their baby daughter. Nikita, the younger brother, lived not far away with his wife, Tatyana, and their three children. Throughout the time of the occupation, there was a ghetto in Rybnitsa, where the Jews of the city and the vicinity were interned, including the members of the Galperin family, friends of Ivan and Nikita Marchenko. In March 1944, when the Romanians were retreating from the area, the Jews feared that the ghetto might be liquidated with all of the people in it. Consequently, the Galperins turned to the Marchenkos and asked them for shelter until the Red Army liberated the area. Ivan Marchenko took in Liza Galperina and her six-year-old son Iosif, and Nikita gave shelter to 13-year-old Polina Galperina and her cousin Riva Khusid with her daughter Sima. The Jews were hidden in the cellars of their homes and went up into the rooms only at night. The situation became particularly dangerous when a German army unit was stationed in the city and the soldiers were billeted in the homes of the local residents. For several days, when German soldiers were sleeping in Nikita and Ivan’s homes, all the members of their families exerted great efforts to make sure the presence of the Jews would not be discovered. Despite all their precautions, one of the tenants saw little Iosif and asked whose child he was. Ivan said he was his younger son, and by doing so endangered the lives of his family. From then until the city wasliberated on March 30, 1944, the child never left his hiding place. After the war, the survivors left the homes of their rescuers. Later some of them immigrated to Israel and maintained friendly ties with the Marchenko families. On December 6, 1998, Yad Vashem recognized Ivan and Fekla Marchenko, Leontyi and Nina Marchenko, and Nikita and Tatyana Marchenko as Righteous Among the Nations.