Gotsyk Anastasia

Gotsyk, Anastasiya In November 1942, late at night, Anastasiya Gotsyk, a resident of Karpilovka village, Kamen-Kashirsk County, Volyn District, heard a knock at the door. There before her was a nine-year-old Jewish girl, shivering from cold, standing under heavy rain, and asking to be let in. Anastasiya ushered the girl inside and helped her change the wet clothes for her daughter’s skirt and sweater. Then she served dinner to the unexpected guest. While eating, the girl told about herself: her name was Masha and her family was from Kamen-Kashyrsk; a year before, her grandmother Hana-Sara and two little siblings, Dvora and Lipa, had perished during an Action; her mother and brother were still in the ghetto when she and her father had escaped, a week before. Then, Masha’s father decided to go back to the ghetto, while ordering his daughter to proceed to the village of Verkhi, where a certain woman was expecting her. But the woman in Verkhi refused to fulfill her promise to Masha’s father and sent her away. The girl started wandering from one village to another, asking for food. Masha’s appearance betrayed her Jewish origin, which she did not even try to hide. Anastasiya pitied the girl and let her stay on. The following day, she told her teenage children, Pavel and Vassa, about Masha and warned them not to tell anyone else. Anastasiya cut Masha’s hair short, for she could not get rid of the lice there. Anastasiya’s children, especially Vassa, grew fond of Masha and spent their time with her, in her hiding place on the ledge of the oven, talking and playing cards. Four months passed. One night a group of Jewish partisans visited Anastasiya’s hut. Sitting above the oven, Masha suddenly recognized the voice of one of them – her cousin, Abba Klurman. She jumped down from the oven and threw herself on his neck. Abba brought Masha the awful news about the death of her parents, Frieda and Zelig Dreizen, and brother Moshe. A few weeks passed and Abba came again,this time to take Masha with him to the forest. The rescuer and the rescued were never to meet again: at the beginning of 1944, Anastasiya was killed by the Bandera gangs for having helped the Soviet partisans; her house was burnt to the ground; Pavel and Vassa went to live with relatives. Masha survived the war and in 1945 left for Romania and from there immigrated to the Land of Israel. Almost 60 years passed before Masha (married name, Wolfstahl) was able to go back to Ukraine, visit the places of her childhood, and find Vassa (married name, Dmitruk), still living in the same village of Karpilovka. On October 31, 2010, Yad Vashem recognized Anastasiya Gotsyk as Righteous Among the Nations.