Zubkov Vasili & Zubkova Maria

Zubkov, Vasiliy Zubkova, Mariya Vasiliy Zubkov and his wife, Mariya, lived in Dnepropetrovsk (today Dnipropetrovs’k). Before and during the war, Zubkov worked as a coachman and his wife was a housekeeper. The Zubkovs had no children and they were keen to adopt. In autumn 1941, a few days after the Germans occupied the town, a neighbor approached them and asked them to take in a nine-year-old girl, Nelli Gordon, who had been left alone after her Jewish aunt and grandfather had been shot the previous week. Gordon had blue eyes and light hair, but many people in the area knew she was Boris Frumin’s granddaughter as he had lived in the neighborhood for years. The Zubkovs nevertheless took her in. After about two months, the police learned through an informer that the Zubkovs were hiding a Jewish girl. When policemen went to their home and confronted Zubkova, she burst into tears and tried to persuade them that Gordon was a relative. The girl was taken away to the police station for investigation and the Zubkovs were ordered to bring written proof that they were related to the girl. Gordon was held in prison for several weeks, until the Zubkovs obtained the required papers. After the girl was released, the Zubkovs officially adopted her and registered her in school. When the German army retreated, some surviving Jewish families began to return to the area. Word soon spread about a Jewish girl that had been saved by a Ukrainian family. In 1945, Gordon’s parents, who had survived the war and were living in a different town, heard this news and her father went to retrieve her. The Zubkovs then adopted another child but maintained a warm relationship with Gordon (later Tsypina) for many years thereafter. On October 25, 1998, Yad Vashem recognized Vasiliy and Mariya Zubkov as Righteous Among the Nations.