Ketsko Anton

Orlov, Vasiliy Ketsko, Anton Voronich, Mariya When the Nazis began to implement their racial policy to terrorize the Jews of Minsk in the summer of 1941, Vasiliy Orlov, Anton Ketsko and Mariya Voronich took it upon themselves to save dozens of Jewish children from death. Vasiliy Orlov was born in 1890. He settled in Minsk after his discharge from the army in the 1920s, studied, graduated as a PhD, and then taught geography at the Teachers Training Institute of the city. His life proceeded peacefully until the day the Germans occupied Minsk and closed all the state institutions including the Teachers Institute. Out of a job, Vasiliy began to work at placing orphans and homeless children in the seven public orphanages of the Minsk's Department of Education. When he found Jewish children, he took care to place them in orphanages, especially in nos. 2 or 7, where the staff was not collaborating with the Germans by handing over their Jewish wards. Vasiliy sent them Vilya and Emma Lifshits, the children of his friend from before the war and Nella Gerbovitskaya, who had escaped from the ghetto at the beginning of 1943, after her mother had been murdered there. The girl was brought to the Town Hall by a woman who had found her on the street. When the girl began to be questioned, Vasiliy stepped in, halted the investigation, and sent her to Orphanage no. 7, where she was taken in. Anton Ketsko was born in 1907 in the village Zamogilye (today Rassvet, Minsk District). At the age of 21 he joined the Evangelist Church and gradually advanced in its hierarchy. He settled in Minsk in 1940. He did not succeed in leaving the town with his family before the German invasion of the USSR. In 1942, he was appointed Presbyter in the Baptist Church, which was in charge of the two Orphanages nos. 2 and 7, a function that included raising donations for the children’s food and clothing. The two orphanages held about 120 children, including dozens of Jews. In addition to taking care ofthe children and of raising money, Anton personally took charge of hiding the Jewish children when the Germans would undertake a search. One time, he removed Jewish-looking children and in their place presented the Germans with his two daughters and other children of his community so that the total number of children in the roll call would be equal to the one in the Orphanage's registry. Another time, his daughter Lidia brought home a Jewish boy whose family had been murdered. After taking care of the orphan in his home for three days he brought him to Orphanage no. 2. Very often Anton was informed of the German inspection schedule. Gerhard Krueger, a German officer who was also a Baptist, would often warn him of an impending visit. This mode of operation continued between autumn 1942 and summer 1944. During the last days of the occupation, Anton and his wife and daughters were sent to forced labor in Germany. Following his return to Minsk, in November 1945, he was arrested by the Soviet authorities and accused of disseminating anti-Soviet propaganda. Anton was sentenced to 10 years in exile. The sentence was reduced by three years through the intercession of the orphanage staff and the children who had been saved by his actions during the war. Mariya Voronich was head of Orphanage no. 2. She was careful in choosing honest and loyal people to work with her, and personally looked after the children. This Orphanage held about 70 children between the ages of four and eight, among them dozens of Jews. Many of the Jewish children had been placed there by Vasiliy Orlov. Mariya refused to comply with the demand of the Germans to submit the list of Jewish children in the orphanage. During the German inspection visits, she was actively involved in the efforts to hide the Jewish children. Like her colleague in Orphanage no. 7, Vera Sparning*, she also hung notices at the orphanage entrance announcing that the place was T.B. infected in order to scare away the Germaninspection teams. Many of her Jewish wards survived because of her and the devoted care of the orphanage staff. On November 16, 2005, Yad Vashem recognized Vasiliy Orlov, Anton Ketsko and Mariya Voronich as Righteous Among the Nations.