Online Store Contact us About us
Yad Vashem logo

Kuzmenko Ivan & Anastasia ; Son: Vladimir ; Daughter: Smerdova Maria (Kuzmenko)

Righteous
Kuzmenko, Ivan Kuzmenko, Anastasiya Smerdova (Kuzmenko) Mariya Kuzmenko, Vladimir Ivan Kuzmenko and his wife, Anastasiya, lived with their four children in the town of Ichnya, Chernigov (today Chernihiv) District. In the late 1930s, the Kuzmenkos rented a room in their house to Nesya Karpovich and her children, Anatoliy (b. 1933) and Bronya (b. 1938). Karpovich, a young widow, was a childhood friend of Anastasiya’s. At the beginning of 1941, the Karpoviches moved to another area and the Kuzmenkos did not know what became of them. In January 1942, half a year after the Germans occupied the area, 11-year-old Vladimir Kuzmenko noticed Anatoliy Karpovich among a group of people, apparently Jews, being marched along the streets of Ichnya. Vladimir made a sign to his friend and the latter left the column unnoticed. Together they ran to the Kuzmenkos’ home. The Jewish child told his hosts that some time earlier his mother had deposited him with a certain family and left, together with little Bronya, their whereabouts unknown. Then someone informed on Anatoliy and he was arrested. On the way to the police station the boy fled, with the help of Vladimir Kuzmenko. All the members of Kuzmenko family welcomed him warmly and cared for the boy until the liberation of the area in autumn 1943. They told their neighbors that an orphaned relative was living with them. As some people in the vicinity could identify Anatoliy, he was not allowed to leave the yard, and was never left alone: usually Vladimir and his older sister Mariya guarded him. One week after the liberation, Anatoliy’s mother appeared at the Kuzmenkos’ home. She had managed to escape the clutches of the Nazis and had spent the war with the partisans. Her daughter Bronya, however, had perished. Ivan Kuzmenko enlisted in the Red Army and was killed on the front at the end of 1943. Anatoliy maintained contact with his rescuers for many years thereafter. On July 7, 1997, Yad Vashem recognized Ivan and AnastasiyaKuzmenko and their children, Mariya Smerdova and Vladimir Kuzmenko, as Righteous Among the Nations.
Last Name
Kuzmenko
First Name
Vladimir
Date of Birth
15/01/1931
Fate
survived
Nationality
UKRAINE
Gender
Male
Item ID
4058499
Recognition Date
07/07/1997
Ceremony Place
Kiev, Ukraine
Commemoration
Wall of Honor
Ceremony In Yad Vashem
No
File Number
M.31.2/7681