Dvoretzki Vladimir & Dvoretzkaya Maria ; Daughter: Chekan Valentina (Dvoretzkaya); Daughter: Lampert Klavdia (Dvoretzkaya)

Dvoretzki, Vladimir Dvoretzkaya, Mariya Lambert (Dvoretzkaya), Klavdiya Chekan (Dvoretzkaya), Valentina In 1941, Vladimir Dvoretzki (b. 1880), and his wife, Mariya (b. 1900), were living with their two daughters, 19-year-old Klavdiya (later Lambert), and 12-year-old Valentina (later Chekan), in the village of Zamosze, Wilno District (today Zamoshsha, Vitsebsk District). Meyer Rukszyn lived in the same village with his wife and their three children, and they had a good relationship with the Dvoretzkis. The area was occupied by the Germans in late June 1941. When the Jewish residents of Zamosze were expelled to the bigger villages and towns, where they were massacred, the Rukszyn family went into hiding, and in April 1942, asked the Dvoretzkis for help. The Dvoretzkis decided to assist their friends and hid them alternately in their attic, in the bathhouse, and in an abandoned hut near their home, for the following two months. During this time, the Dvoretzkis also helped other Jewish families by providing them with food. As Zamosze was a focal point of fighting between the Germans and the partisans, hiding people there was especially dangerous. Thus, the Rukszyns decided to move to the forest, where they hid in a bunker. While hidden there, the Dvoretzkis continued to aid them; their two daughters, Klavdiya and Valentina, brought them food and other necessities. On March 18, 1943, in a German search of the forest, the bunker was discovered and Meyer’s wife and two daughters, Chava and Chana, were murdered. Meyer and his 13-year-old son Aleksandr fled and later joined the partisans. In the same year, the Germans burned down the village of Zamosze, known for its help to the partisans, and murdered some of the villagers, including Vladimir Dvoretzki. Meyer and Aleksandr survived the war and remained in Belarus where they renewed their friendship with the widowed Mariya Dvoretzkaya and her daughters. On April 18, 1996, Yad Vashem recognized Vladimir and MariyaDvoretzkiy and their daughters, Klavdiya Lambert, and Valentina Chekan, as Righteous Among the Nations.