Adamovich Matriona

Adamovich, Matriona Prior to Germany’s invasion into the USSR in June 1941, Matriona Adamovich, b.1893, worked as a nursemaid to Ania, b.1929 and Zoya, b.1939, daughters of the Jewish Finkelshtein family in Minsk. With the invasion, the Finkelshtein family, together with Matriona fled eastward, but did not go beyond Orsha, because Naum Finkelshtein, the father, thought that the Germans would not get that far into Russia. In Orsha, Naum was drafted into the Red Army, and already in August 1941 he was declared missing in action. The mother, Riva (née Chodakova) also enlisted in the army, so that when the Germans conquered the area on July 16, 1941, the two children were left with Matriona. She and the two girls went to the village Gorbatsevichi and were sheltered by the Vasilchonok family. Matriona told everyone that the two girls were her daughters, but many villagers disbelieved her when seeing their Jewish features, which were especially prominent in Ania. The Vasilchonoks protected them from the suspicions of their neighbors. Thirteen-year-old Ania, in particular, felt that she was constantly in danger and said she wanted to join the partisans. Anna, the Vasilchonok daughter, worked as liaison person with the partisans, and with her help Ania succeeded in joining them. She was killed a few months later and buried in a mass grave in the village Krugloye (today Kruglaye). The younger sister Zoya remained with her protectors until the liberation of the area in June 1944. In 1945, Riva, after being demobilized, succeeded in locating her younger daughter and Matriona, and all three returned to Minsk. There, Riva remarried and Matriona took care of the new daughter that was born to her in 1947. Zoya married in 1962, and Matriona went to live with her and also nursed her daughter. On July 25, 2005, Yad Vashem recognized Matriona Adamovich as Righteous Among the Nations.