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Nesterenko Ivan & Kucherenko Nadezhda

Righteous
Rescuer Ivan Nesterenko, 1946
Rescuer Ivan Nesterenko, 1946
Nesterenko, Ivan Kucherenko, Nadezhda Ivan Nesterenko and Nadezhda Kucherenko, a Ukrainian couple, lived in Kherson with Nadezhda’s son from her first marriage. Mayer and Sara Donde were their neighbors and good friends. The Dondes were a Jewish family with three children. When the war between Germany and the USSR broke out, Nadezhda’s son was conscripted into the Red Army and after the occupation of Kherson, on August 19, 1941, the two older Donde sons fled the city. In September, a ghetto was established and Mayer and Sara were forced to move there with their 11-year-old daughter, Raisa. At the end of September, the Dondes were forced to move to the local jail, where they spent the night. In the morning, together with other Jewish prisoners, they were taken out to the shooting pits in the nearby village of Zelenovka (now Zelenivka). While walking through the streets, which were lined by curious people watching, Raisa was shoved into the crowds by her mother. Having no clue where to go, Raisa ran “home.” When she entered the courtyard of her apartment building, one of the neighbors noticed her and quickly pulled her into his apartment. The man, Vasya Zikayev, a father of a large family, could not hide Raisa in his home because of all of his own children. So after spending the night there, Raisa was carefully transferred to Nadezhda’s apartment. When her hosts had visitors, Raisa had to stay in a hiding place, behind the big wardrobe. Nadezhda and Ivan cared for all her needs and treated her as their own child. Throughout the years of the occupation, Nadezhda worked as a gatekeeper while Ivan worked at a train depot as a carpenter. Nadezhda and Ivan hid the Jewish girl until the Red Army liberated Kherson on March 13, 1944. Although Raisa was reunited with her brothers after the liberation, she chose to continue to live with her rescuers. In 1947, Nadezhda and Ivan adopted her officially. On February 10, 2002, Yad Vashem recognized Ivan Nesterenko and NadezhdaKucherenko as Righteous Among the Nations.
Last Name
Nesterenko
First Name
Ivan
Date of Birth
30/06/1899
Date of Death
01/01/1977
Nationality
UKRAINE
Gender
Male
Profession
CARPENTER
Item ID
4433916
Recognition Date
10/02/2002
Ceremony Place
No known next of kin
Commemoration
Wall of Honor
Ceremony In Yad Vashem
No
File Number
M.31.2/9634