Kozyrev Andrian & Kozyreva Maria (Shevchuk); Daughter: Strizhevskaya Nadezhda (Kozyreva)

Kozyrev, Andrian Kozyreva, Mariya Kozyreva, Nadezhda Andrian Kozyrev, a Belarusian, lived with his Ukrainian wife, Mariya, and their daughter Nadezhda in Kiev. They lived next door to Andrian’s brother, Yakov Kozyra, who was married to Rakhil, a Jewish woman, and had two children, nine-year-old Galina and two-year-old Leonid. When the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, Yakov enlisted in the Red Army and his wife and children remained behind in the occupied city. On September 29, 1941, Nadezhda went to her aunt’s apartment and asked her to send her children to the Kozyrevs’ home rather than to the assembly place for Jews. Then, through a side door, Nadezhda smuggled the children into her family home. Their mother and her parents then reported with the rest of the Jews of Kiev to the assembly point near Babi Yar, and never returned. Galina and Leonid stayed in the Kozyrevs’ home for the duration of the occupation, until their father returned in 1944. During this time, they rarely left the apartment and although the neighbors did not inform on them, they persistently told Mariya that she was endangering all the residents in the building by harboring Jews. The situation worsened when Kozyrev fell ill and the burden of providing for the extended family fell on Mariya and Nadezhda, who had not yet finished school. The Kozyrevs did everything they could to enable their family and wards to survive the war in the city where people were dying daily of starvation as well as to give Galina and Leonid a feeling of warmth and security. Thanks to the Kozyrevs’ devoted efforts, Leonid and Galina survived the war. On June 29, 1995, Yad Vashem recognized Andrian and Mariya Kozyrev and their daughter, Nadezhda Kozyreva, as Righteous Among the Nations.