Zagorskis Antons & Zagorska Eleonora ; Son: Francis

Zagorskis, Antons Zagorska, Eleonora Zagorskis, Francis The Germans occupied Viļāni (in the Rezeknes District) in eastern Latvia on July 2, 1941. On the fourth of August, they ordered all the Jews to assemble next to the Russian school. Among those who received the directive were Lev Luban, his wife, Rachel, and their three children, 5-year-old Benzion, 9-year-old Ber, and 11-year-old Batsheva. All the Jews of Viļāni were massacred on that day, including Luban’s wife and children. Lev was alive when he fell into the killing pit. He waited under a pile of corpses until nightfall and then crawled out. After wandering around awhile, he arrived at the home of Anton and Eleonora Zagorski and asked for shelter. The Zagorskis family lived on the Reyniki khutor (farmstead), right outside the village of Riebini, with their six children, including their 12-year-old son, Francis. The couple created a hiding place for Luban in the cellar of their house, where he spent most of his days. He was allowed to go out at night to breathe some fresh air. One spring evening in 1944, when Luban was in the yard, a policeman rode by on his bicycle and noticed a man with a black beard there. The next day, while Anton was away, the police arrived at the farmstead to conduct a search, but they did not find Luban’s hiding place and left the premises. As a result of the fear and tension, however, Eleonora suffered a heart attack and died shortly thereafter; she was only 39 years old. Anton and Francis were left to look after their “guest” and the children, the youngest only 1 year old. After the liberation of the area in July 1944, Luban testified about the murder of the Jews of Viļāni to a special commission that had been established by the Soviet authorities and sent to the area to investigate war crimes. These special commissions, which arrived at locations recently liberated from the German occupation by the Red Army, were under the supervision of the national Soviet Extraordinary State Commission. Luban became a member of the commission and helped track down the war criminals who had murdered the Viļāni Jews. Luban eventually moved to Rezeknes, remarried, and had a son. He later moved to Riga, from where he maintained contact with the Zagorskis family until his death in 1962. On August 16, 2011, Yad Vashem recognized Anton Zagorskis, Eleonora Zagorska, and their son Francis as Righteous Among the Nations.