Slobodyanik Aleksey & Matryona ; Son: Aleksandr

Slobodyanik, Aleksey Slobodyanik, Motryona Slobodyanik, Aleksandr Aleksey Slobodyanik, his wife, Motryona, and their son, Aleksandr (Sashko) lived in Bershad, in the district of Vinnitsa (today Vinnytsya District). Aleksey was a member of the underground and worked in a restaurant. When he overheard conversations between government officials he passed on the information to the underground movement. From August 30, 1941, Bershad was under Romanian control and the Romanians established a camp near the town for local Jews and for Jews from Bessarabia that had been expelled from their homes and marched on foot hundreds of kilometers eastward to Bershad. In 1942, Slobodyanik met David Gershengorn, a Jewish boy about his son’s age, near the camp. He had slipped through the camp fence in order to obtain some food and was alarmed when he noticed that Slobodyanik had spotted him. Slobodyanik attempted to calm him but the child only spoke Romanian and Yiddish and failed to understand the spoken words. Using hand signals, Slobodyanik invited Gershengorn to accompany him and he took David to the bathhouse and barber. Slobodyanik then bought him new clothes and took him to a restaurant, where Gershengorn had his first good meal in months. Slobodyanik took Gershengorn back to his home, where he told his son Sashko that he had brought him a brother and that from then on they would live together. Gershengorn was made to feel at home with the Slobodyaniks, and Sashko taught him Ukrainian. After some time, Gershengorn told the Slobodyaniks that his family was from the village of Sobar in Bessarabia and that his grandfather, grandmother and younger brother had all died on the death march to Bershad. Gershengorn’s mother was still in the camp and he was very eager to help her. On several occasions, Gershengorn and Sashko stole into the camp to bring her food and Ukrainian peasant clothes. Then, one night, she fled the camp, and ran to the Slobodyaniks’ home, where she stayedfor one month. After this, she was moved to some of the Slobodyaniks’ relatives who lived in an isolated village, and she remained with them until the liberation. Slobodyanik continued with his underground activities and then joined the partisans, in late 1943. While fighting with the partisans, Slobodyanik was wounded and he later died from his injuries. Despite her loss, Motryona continued to look after Gershengorn as if he were her own son. After the liberation, in March 1944, Gershengorn, by then 12 years old, and his mother returned to Moldova, from where they maintained contact with Motryona and Sashko for many years. On May 16, 1993, Yad Vashem recognized Aleksey and Motryona Slobodyanik, and Aleksandr Slobodyanik, as Righteous Among the Nations.