Aleksiuk Nadezhda

Aleksyuk, Nadezhda Nadezhda Aleksyuk was a single mother living with her five-year-old son, Kolya, in the village of Dibrovka, two km from Kamenny Brod (today Kam’yannyy Brid, Zhytomyr District). At the start of the German occupation in July 1941, she was 29-years-old and worked at a local collective farm (kolkhoz). In the late fall of 1941, a stranger in his mid-30s appeared in Dibrovka. He introduced himself as Boris Polishchuk, an escaped prisoner of war. He offered his help to the villagers in exchange for room and board. Nadezhda took up his offer. Dibrovka was surrounded by forest and was fairly isolated. Additionally, Germans did not stay in town for long. Still, whenever the authorities came for a visit, Boris would hide in the forest. Curious about his behavior, Nadezhda asked him about it. He then revealed that he was a Jew from Zhitomir and that his real surname was Gogerman. When Germany invaded the USSR, he tried to evacuate with his wife and three children to the east, but they were separated on the way during the bombings. The Germans then overran the area before he realized what was happening. Being fluent in Ukrainian, he managed to get back to Zhitomir where he heard about the atrocities perpetrated against the Jewish population. Boris hurried to leave the city and after weeks of wandering reached Dibrovka where people were friendly towards him and seemed to believe his made-up story. After hearing his story, Nadezhda did not change her attitude and she continued to provide him shelter. Boris, in turn, helped Nadezhda in her daily hard work. With the liberation of the area by the Red Army in late 1943, Boris joined its ranks and fought until the end of the war. In 1945, he was reunited with his wife and two of the children – the youngest, Mordecai, had died during the evacuation. Boris maintained close contact with Nadezhda and her children (she bore a daughter in February 1944) all his life, even after his immigration to Israel in 2000. OnJanuary 25, 2004, Yad Vashem recognized Nadezhda Aleksyuk as Righteous Among the Nations.