Dombrovskaya Yelena

Kolmakova-Dombrovskaya, Tatyana Dombrovskaya, Yelena Tatyana Dombrovskaya was 17-years-old and lived with her mother Feoktista in Dubno (Volhynia District). Starting in 1941, Tatyana worked at a granary warehouse and there she became acquainted with Sara Lopatin, a young Jewish woman. In April 1942, Sara, her husband, Haim, and their two-year-old daughter, Liza, were forced to move to the ghetto, which had been established in the poorest section of town. Even so, once in a while, Sara appeared in the granary where some Jews were still employed. On October 4, 1942, Sara brought her little daughter with her and asked Tatyana to take the girl and keep her for one night as she apparently knew that the expulsion of the Jews from the ghetto was planned for the next day. Tatyana, who suspected nothing, took Liza home. The following morning she heard that the Jews were being murdered. When Sara did not come to pick her daughter up, Tatyana understood that she too had been murdered and took responsibility for the child. Tatyana’s living conditions did not allow her to shelter Liza there so she turned to her widowed aunt, Yelena Dombrovskaya, who willingly took the risk of sheltering a Jewish child. Yelena took Liza and moved to Kraków where her son, Vasiliy, lived. She loved Liza dearly and the girl was sure that Yelena was her mother. Just shortly before Kraków was liberated by the Red Army, Vasiliy was killed, and after his death, Yelena and Liza returned to Dubno. It was then that Liza found out, through her surviving relative, Yehezkiel Grojnen, what her real identity was. Still, she remained with Yelena until 1954. When the opportunity arose, Yelena encouraged Liza to leave the USSR and to go, through Poland, to Israel, in order to “live with your people.” Still a teenager, Liza parted with her rescuer and in 1957 settled in Israel. She established a family and continued to write to Yelena until Yelena’s death in 1970. On November 30, 2004, Yad Vashem recognizedTatyana Dombrovskaya-Kolmakova and Yelena Dombrovskaya, as Righteous Among the Nations.