Leschinger Nikolai

Leschinger, Nikolay The civil engineer, Nikolay Leschinger, thirty years old, resided in Odessa. At the beginning of the German invasion into the USSR, he succeeded in sending his Jewish wife and their little daughter eastwards and moved to live with his elderly mother, Tatyana Leschinger, who owned a small apartment on Masterskaya (later, Serova) Street. On October 11, 1941, the Germans and the Romanians occupied Odessa and two months later, Nikolay Leschinger witnessed how Jews were convoyed out of the city along his street. Suddenly he saw a boy about ten years old, running away from the column. The policeman shoot at the runaway and the latter fell on the ground, blood spreading fast under his body and the convoy continued on its way. As the last expulsee passed by, Nikolay attended to the boy and found that he was only wounded. The bullet had hit his right leg and remained inside, causing much bleeding and pain that made the boy faint. After carrying the boy home, Nikolay tended the wound and took the bullet out. After he regained consciousness, the boy told him that his name was Aleksandr Gilerman and that his mother was together with him in the column. Actually it was his mother who had pushed him out of the column and urged him to escape. Neither Nikolay nor Aleksandr had any idea where the Jews were being taken and the boy was greatly worried about the fate of his mother. Nikolay hid the Jewish escapee in the barn close to his mother’s apartment. He tended the boy and tried to lessen his sufferings. It took many months until the wound healed. In order to conceal his ward from unexpected guests, Nikolay built a sort of cage in the barn and covered it with rags. Aleksandr spent the whole period of the occupation with the Leschingers, frequently hiding inside the cage when strangers were around. After the liberation, he found out that only he and one of his brothers had survived out of his family of eight. Aleksandr stayed in close touch with Nikolay andhis family for many years, until he immigrated to the U.S.A. in 1979. In 2001, at the age of 89, Nikolay moved with his daughters to Israel, where he passed away a year later. On December 30, 2001, Yad Vashem recognized Nikolay Leschinger as Righteous Among the Nations.