Galeta Ivan ; Daughter: Kolesnikova Lidia (Galeta)

Galeta, Ivan Krimer (Galeta), Lidiya Ivan Galeta and his daughter Lidiya lived in the village of Viktorovka, Odessa district (today Viktorivka, Mykolayiv District). When the German and Romanian forces conquered the area on August 17, 1941, a forced-labor camp for Jews run by Germans notorious for their maltreatment of their laborers was set up near the village. The Galetas frequently managed to deliver food provisions to the incarcerated Jews. In 1942, through this practice, the Galetas met Frederika Sushon, who was interned in the camp with her sons, Leonid and Sergey, and her mother, Yekaterina. Sushon was a doctor from Odessa (Odesa), and she often came to the aid of local farmers who required medical treatment. When she was sent with her family to the Akmechetka camp, Galeta bribed one of the policemen to release the four members of the Sushon family and to allow them to return to the camp near Viktorovka. Thenceforth, Galeta regularly sent his daughter Lidiya to the camp with supplies of food, such as flour, salt, and corn. On her visits, Lidiya also managed to give encouragement to the interned Jews. In March 1944, when the Germans began their retreat from the area, the threat of murder facing the remaining Jews intensified. In light of this fact, many Jews began to look for hiding places and Lidiya brought the Sushon family back to her home and hid them in the granary for a few days until the Red Army liberated Viktorovka on March 28, 1944. After the liberation, the Sushon family returned to their home in Odessa, from where they maintained contact with the Galetas. Lidiya later married a Jew, Naum Krimer, who had earlier been a prisoner in the camp in Viktorovka. They immigrated to Israel in the 1990s. On December 29, 1992, Yad Vashem recognized Ivan Galeta and his daughter, Lidiya Krimer (Galeta), as Righteous Among the Nations.