Timashova Yekaterina ; Daughter: Petrenko Anna (Timashova)

Timashova, Yekaterina Petrenko-Timashova, Anna Yekaterina Timashova lived with her two daughters in the village of Granitnoye (today Hranitne, Stalino, later Donets’k District). As a girl, she had known Aleksander Vangelyev, also a native of the village, who had married a Jew named Raisa and moved with her to the city of Zhdanov (later, Mariupol). After the capture of Zhdanov on October 8, 1941, Vangelyev fled with his wife and daughter, Yelena, who was five, to Granitnoye, where they hoped to survive the persecution of the Jews. They stayed with Yekaterina for a few weeks, until one day she was summoned to the village assembly, which demanded that she expel the Jews, as their presence was endangering all the residents. Left with no other choice, Vangelyev and Raisa went to seek a new place of refuge, but asked Yekaterina Timashova to look after Yelena. They were afraid that the girl would not survive the harsh winter, the more so as they had no idea where they would go. Yekaterina agreed, and the girl was left with her indefinitely. Yekaterina was extremely poor, and her situation was compounded when her elder daughter contracted tuberculosis. Nevertheless, she did not hesitate to help her friends in their plight. Throughout the entire period of the German occupation she risked her life and the lives of her daughters by giving refuge to a Jewish girl. For nearly two years, Yelena did not leave the yard of her benefactors’ home, and when strangers were in the area she was locked in a clothes trunk or hidden in a pit in the vegetable garden. The burden of Yelena’s day-to-day care was assumed by Anna, Yekaterina’s younger daughter, because her mother was busy trying to earn a living and taking care of her sick daughter, who unfortunately died of her illness in July 1942. Anna kept little Yelena occupied and ensured that others did not learn about her presence in the house. After the liberation in September 1943, Yelena’s mother returned to Granitnoye and stayedwith Yekaterina for almost a year, until her husband came to collect her and their daughter. Yelena’s parents were everlastingly grateful to Yekaterina and Anna. During the period of hunger that struck the region in 1947 they invited the two to stay with them in Zhdanov. The friendship between the families continued even after Yelena immigrated to Israel. On March 12, 2000, Yad Vashem recognized Yekaterina Timashova and her daughter Anna Timashova-Petrenko as Righteous Among the Nations.