Kobetz Yekaterina

Kobets, Yekaterina Gozak, Iosif Gozak, Juzefa Yekaterina Kobets and the Czech couple, Iosif and Juzefa Gozak, were neighbors in the Kievan suburb of Svyatoshino (now Svyatoshyn). In 1935, the Mitelman’s, a Jewish family consisting of Noach and Mariya and their five children, settled in the area. With the outbreak of the German-Soviet war, three of the five Mitelman children were conscripted to the Red Army. The rest of the family stayed in Kiev, which was occupied by the Germans on September 19, 1941. Within the first few days of the occupation, one of the Mitelmans’ sons, Boris, who was handicapped not being able to hear or speak, was arrested and murdered. Then, on September 29, Noach, Mariya, and the youngest of their children, seven-year-old Ilya, were taken to the Babi Yar ravine killing site. Being Jewish only from her mother's side, Mariya was considered Russian by the Soviets, a fact confirmed by her identification papers. On approaching the guarded area, she showed her papers to a German officer and he ordered her and her son to go back home, while Noach was ordered to go on, disappearing into the crowd. Mariya and Ilya returned home and were not bothered again until May 1942 when the police came to arrest the “half-Jewish” Ilya. By sheer luck he was not home then, and Mariya concocted a story that she had sent the boy away to be with her relatives in a village. From that day on, Ilya remained in hiding: for weeks he lived either in Yekaterina’s home or by the Gozaks. Unlike Yekaterina’s seven-year-old daughter, Olga, or the Gozaks' 10-year-old son, Vitold, the Jewish boy could not wander about freely, but always had to stay indoors. Despite their young age, Olga and Vitold were very cautious and were able to keep the families' secret until the liberation on November 6, 1943. After the war, only Nechama, Ilya's sister, returned from the front; his brothers, Lev and David, were killed in battle. After the war, the Mitelmans stayed in Kiev andmaintained friendly contacts with Ilya's wartime rescuers. On June 13, 2004, Yad Vashem recognized Yekaterina Kobets, as well as Iosif and Juzefa Gozak, as Righteous Among the Nations.