Chariuta Pavel & Tatiana

Zelenskaya, Tatyana Chariuta, Pavel Tatyana Zelenskaya and Pavel Chariuta, a young couple, were actors residing in Simferopol, on the Crimean peninsula. Tatyana, a singer, performed in the theater and Pavel accompanied her on stage with his accordion. On December 9, 1941, one month after the Germans conquered Simferopol, Tatyana was approached by one of the theater’s stage workers with the request that she shelter a Jewish child. The stage worker was connected to the underground and thus knew that the city's Jews, gathered as if for deportation, would be soon murdered. The underground could not prevent the Germans from carrying out that plan, but it could, at least, smuggle some Jewish children out and try to save them. After consulting with her husband, Tatyana agreed and the following day she came to an appointed place not far from the Jews’ assembly point. Soon a strange woman appeared, leading a little girl by hand. Without saying much she handed the girl to Tatyana and left. At home, while taking the girl’s coat off, a note fell out with the child’s name, address and date of birth. From that day on, the four-year-old Lyuba Kogan became Tatyana and Pavel’s only and beloved daughter. Soon Lyuba adapted to her new surroundings and grew very attached to her foster parents. The couple did not explain Lyuba’s appearance to their neighbors and the neighbors did not ask. After the liberation of the area, on April 13, 1944, Tatyana and Pavel went to Lyuba’s former residence and heard from the neighbors that the Nazis killed Lyuba’s mother and older brother and her father fell in combat. They kept it a secret from little Lyuba and continued to raise her and care for her. Only when she came of age did Lyuba find about her true identity. In 1965, when Lyuba (by then Godyayeva) was already married and had a little son, she met her biological father, Isaak Kogan. In 1945, when he returned from the front, he was told that none of his family survived. Lyuba cared forboth of her fathers until their deaths in the 1970s. In 1995, following her sons, Lyuba immigrated to Israel together with Tatyana Zelenskaya. On October 24, 1995, Yad Vashem recognized Tatyana Zelenskaya and Pavel Chariuta as Righteous Among the Nations.