Survivor Meyer Eliashevich during his service in Latvian Army. 1937
Shelukhin, Dorofei
When the Germans occupied Latvia in the summer of 1941, Avram Gerson (b. 1912) was a newly married man living in Riga. In October his family was compelled to move into the ghetto, and Avram went daily to forced labor. While he was at work on November 30, 1941, his wife, three sisters, and parents were rounded up and murdered in the Rumbala forest. Avram survived in the shrinking ghetto despite successive Aktions (mass executions), until fleeing on June 23, 1943.
Once away from the ghetto, Avram and his friend Meyer Elyashevich (b. 1913) contacted Dorofei Shelukhin, the superintendent of a building at 2 Jumaras Street whom Avram had known before the war. Dorofei’s wife and children had fled at the outbreak of war, and he was living alone. He agreed to house Avram and Meyer in the basement of the building and, knowing they had meager resources, asked nothing in return.
Meyer, from the port city of Leipaja, Latvia, lost his wife, Rosa, and five-year-old son, Benzion, in November 1941. He met Avram in the ghetto and used Avram’s connection with Dorofei to find shelter. Meyer and Avram lived in the basement for approximately 18 months until the liberation.
The lives of the rescuer and rescued remained intertwined following the war. Meyer’s son recalled that Dorofei was an honored guest in their home. After Dorofei’s death, Avram Gerson helped support his children. Later, when Avram and his second wife became infirm, Dorofei’s daughter came to Israel to take care of them. This daughter later married a Jewish man and settled in Israel.
On July 3, 2012, Dorofei Shelukhin was recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations.