Morozova Olimpiada (Ostakhova)

Morozova, Olimpiada Nadezhda Moroz was born to Georgi and Yelizaveta in Kharkiv, Ukraine, in December 1936. When the city was occupied by the Germans, Nadezhda remained there with her mother and grandmother. Her father was conscripted and soon fell in battle, but the news of his demise did not reach Kharkiv until the end of the war. The Jews of the city were soon sent to live in the ghetto. It had been established on the grounds of a former machine factory and was meant to be the final stop on the way to murder. Eventually, both the mother and the grandmother were taken to Babi Yar with all the other ghetto prisoners and murdered. Before that tragic event, however, Yelizaveta managed to arrange for 5-year-old Nadezhda to be taken away by her friend Olimpiada Morozova. She begged Olimpiada to protect her little daughter. Morozova decided to bring the child up as her own, using the similarity between their last names to fake the necessary papers. Her teenage son was understanding and received his new “sister” warmly. Yet there was still betrayal to be feared from the neighbors. Therefore, Nadezhda never left the house, until Olimpiada decided to move to a different part of town altogether. They experienced constant tension and did not have enough to eat. Olimpiada had to exchange belongings for food. She had no relatives in town, so when she went to make trades, she had to leave Nadia with a friend from work, Praskovya Polivanova. In 1943 the city was liberated for a brief spell, during which Olimpiada’s son volunteered and left with the army, and she remained alone with little Nadia. When the Germans returned at the end of the period of freedom, it was with a vengeance and with new cruelty. The fear in which the Morozovs lived increased. In August 1943 Kharkiv was liberated for good. A year later Olimpiada and Nadia received word of Georgi’s death. This shattered the hope Nadia had preserved throughout the war that though her mother had perished, her father would still come back to get her. “What will happen to me?” the girl asked. “I promised your mom you would stay with me,” was Olimpiada’s reply. Nadia remained with Olimpiada for the rest of her life. She went to school, completed her studies and became a scholar. She taught at university and formed her own family; when she and her husband moved permanently to Germany, Olimpiada came with them. Only after Olimpiada’s passing in 1986 did Nadia’s son learn that she was not, in fact, his grandmother by blood. On June 10, 2014, Yad Vashem recognized Olimpiada Morozova as Righteous Among the Nations.