Chemeriskaya Frosina ; Daughter: Nina

Ambruzhuk, Fyodor Ambruzhuk, Anna Ambruzhuk, Yevdokiya Chemeriskaya, Frosina Chemeriskaya, Nina Fyodor and Anna Ambruzhuk, a childless, middle-aged couple, worked as farmers in the village of Morozovka (today Morozivka, Vinnytsya District), together with Anna’s elderly mother, Yevdokiya. Their neighbors and friends were Leontiy and Dobra Gelin and their four teen-aged children. After the occupation of the area, first by Hungarian and then by German troops in July 1941, the Gelins, together with the other Jews of the village Jews, were expelled from their home and were forcefully relocated to the ghetto in Murovanyye Kurilovtsy, which was established in the worst part of town. Living in very harsh conditions and suffering from the unbearable work and daily humiliations, the people succeeded in surviving one year. Then, on August 21, 1942, early in the morning, the residents of the ghetto were rounded up. The majority, approximately 2,300 women, children, and elderly, were murdered. Only 120 young and able-bodied Jews, among them Leontiy Gelin and his 15-year-old son, Boris, were left alive to be used for the road construction crews. Less than a month later, Leontiy ran away and headed to Morozovka, where, he believed, former neighbors would help him. He stayed for one night with the Ambruzhuks, and then moved to the home of Frosina Chemeriskaya, an elderly, religious farmer that was living together with her daughter, Nina, and her four-year-old granddaughter, Galya. Leontiy stayed with them several days and then headed east, accompanied by Nina, to the village of Luchinets, which was controlled by the Romanians. In the meantime, at Leontiy’s request, Anna went to Murovanyye Kurilovtsy, found Boris, and passed him a note from his father wrapped in a bunch of Ukrainian clothes. That very night, Boris secretly left the ghetto and soon made his way to the Ambruzhuks’ house, where he hid for one week and then, like his father, moved over to the Chemeriskiys. Afteranother week, Boris received another note from his father saying that it was safe in Luchinets. Two days later, father and son were reunited and together they moved to the ghetto of Kopaygorod. At the end of 1942 the Chemeriskiys gave shelter to Benzion Gelin, Boris’s cousin, for a while before moving him to Kopaygorod too. Until the liberation in March 1944, Nina would visit with them on occasion, bringing them food and other supplies. After the war, the surviving members of the Gelin family settled in Vinnitsa and kept in touch with their rescuers. On February 17, 2004, Yad Vashem recognized Fyodor and Anna Ambruzhuk, and Anna’s mother, Yevdokiya, as well as Frosina Chemeriskaya and her daughter, Nina, as Righteous Among the Nations.