Grishchenko Stepan & Lukeria ; Son: Leonid

Grishchenko, Stepan Grishchenko, Lukerya Grishchenko, Leonid Stepan and Lukerya Grishchenko and their son Leonid lived in Bar, in the district of Vinnitsa (today Vinnytsya District), where they were friendly with the Kupermans and their 14-year-old daughter, Sofya. The Germans conquered the town on July 16, 1941, and in September of that year, the town center remained under German administration but the area around the railroad station was ceded to Romanian-controlled Transnistria. On Dec. 20, 1941, three ghettos were established in town and the Jews were ordered to move there. Initially, the Kuperman family decided to stay in their home but when the house searches for hidden Jews began, the Kupermans decided to move to one of the ghettos. They left their daughter with the Grishchenkos. Sofya was sheltered in their home and later moved to a storeroom, which was used as a shed for domestic animals in the winter. Leonid brought Sofya food every day and also tried to keep her spirits high. No one outside of the Grishchenko family knew about the hidden teenager and she stayed there until the liberation, in March 1944. In October 1942, after two of the Bar ghettos were liquidated, some prisoners, among them Sofya’s parents, managed to escape to Romanian-controlled Kopaygorod (Kopayhorod) and survived the war. In the 1990s Sofya immigrated to the United States. On September 7, 1997, Yad Vashem recognized Stepan and Lukerya Grishchenko and their son, Leonid, as Righteous Among the Nations.