Kosoburov Piotr & Kosoburova Olena

Kosoburov, Petro Kosoburova, Olena Petro and Olena Kosoburov were farmers living with their adult daughter Mariya in the village of Kulczyn, Wołyń District (today Kulchyn, Volyn’ District). After the Germans occupied the area in June 1941, their two sons were forcefully taken for work to Germany and perished there. Despite the Kosoburovs’ dire poverty, in December 1942 they accepted into their home a stranger, 15-year-old Bracha Goldhaber, who escaped from the Włodzimierz Wołyński ghetto on the eve of its liquidation. Contrary to the reactions of most locals, when Goldhaber knocked on the Kosoburovs’ door and asked for help, she was welcomed inside with compassion and understanding. Goldhaber hid alternately in the Kosoburovs’ attic, granary, and even in their daughter Mariya’s bed. When strangers came to the house, Goldhaber hid under a bed. When Goldhaber realized that her presence was endangering the lives of her hosts, she decided not to stay there but to wander around the nearby villages. Farmers that didn’t recognize that she was Jewish offered her temporary employment in return for food and lodging and the Kosoburovs’ home always remained open to her as a sure refuge and she often returned there. Shortly after the liberation of the area by the Red Army, in mid-July 1944, Goldhaber (later Kreizer) left Ukraine and eventually immigrated to Israel. She established a family and in the 1990s renewed contact with the Kosoburovs’ offspring. On November 27, 1997, Yad Vashem recognized Petro and Olena Kosoburov as Righteous Among the Nations.