Putan Leonid ; Mother: Yuzefa

Putan, Leonid Putan, Yuzefa On the eve of the German-Soviet war, Leonid Putan was a student of mathematics and physics at the Belarusian State University in Minsk. In August 1941, he joined the underground in the city and he remained active in it for the duration of the occupation. Furthermore, he personally assisted his Jewish friends in different ways. With the help of a friend, Putan obtained the university’s official stamp and a package of university diplomas and began to forge identity documents. He gave false diplomas to eight of his Jewish friends and since he was a train driver he took those of the Jews who were in immediate danger to distant villages. Other Jews stayed for various lengths of time in Putan’s home. He later escorted them to the relative safety of the partisan-controlled area. Irina Rukhovets and her four-year-old daughter Inessa (later Yurkevich) found shelter in Putan’s home for about six months. There, Putan’s mother, Yuzefa Putan, who took particular care of young Inessa, looked after them. Putan severely endangered his own life by helping Jews, especially because his neighbors did not look sympathetically upon his efforts and often threatened to inform on him to the police. Putan and his mother were not deterred though, and they were driven by their love of humanity to persist with their rescue deeds. After the war, Putan maintained contact with some of the Jews he saved, namely Lyubov Brish, Valentina Svoyatytsky and her sister Sofya, Anna Putan (Leonid’s sister-in-law), and the mother and daughter Rukhovets. On November 12, 1998, Yad Vashem recognized Leonid Putan and his mother, Yuzefa Putan, as Righteous Among the Nations.