Kanapatskaya Fatima ; Daughter: Trofimova Anna (Kanapatskaya)

Kanapatskaiya, Fatima Trofimova-Kanapatskaiya, Anna (Aisha) Fatima Kanapatskaiya, and her daughter, Anna (Aisha), of Tatar origin, lived in Minsk and were acquainted with Israel and Fruma Davidson and their children, Rachel, Mira and Vladimir. The German Army occupied the area at the very beginning of its invasion in June 1941. A few weeks later, the Jews of Minsk and environs, including the Davidsons, were interned in a ghetto. Israel Davidson was then deported to the Drozdy camp in the vicinity of Minsk. But he had an opportunity to escape and, although injured, made his way to the Kanapatski home. There, he was treated for several weeks until he recovered. Having second thoughts about leaving his family behind, Israel returned to the ghetto. After the next killing operation conducted in the ghetto in March 1942, he came back at the Kanapatski family. Fatima provided him with a more permanent hiding place in a shedin the woods. Both Fatima and her daughter, Anna (Aisha), took care of Israel. The place was searched several times but the shelter was not discovered. During this period, Israel’s daughter Rachel was able to sneak out of the ghetto a number of times to visit her father in the Kanapatski home. Each time she was given food for her family interned in the ghetto. In June 1943 when the Minsk ghetto was being liquidated, Fruma Davidson and her three children escaped to the Kanapatskis. They hid there with Israel for one day and then they all fled to a partisan-controlled area. There, in the forest, they joined the partisan unit under the command of Shalom Zorin and were thus able to survive. The Red Army liberated the area in the summer of 1944. After the war, the Davidsons continued to maintain warm relations with their rescuers. On December 3, 2003, Yad Vashem recognized Fatima Kanapatskaiya and her daughter Anna Kanapatskaiya-Trofimova as Righteous Among the Nations.