Krucheniuk Nastya ; Daughter: Vera

Krucheniuk, Nastya Krucheniuk, Vera Nastya Krucheniuk, a widow, resided in the village of Zozulintsy (today Zozulyvtsi, Vinnytsya District). Upon the outbreak of the German-Soviet war, her eldest son, Anton, was called up for service in the Red Army. Nastya remained at home with her daughter, Vera, 14, and her younger son. The family’s financial condition, already dire before the war, became even more strained under the German occupation. In the fall of 1942, Usher and Sofia Atenzon and their children, three-year-old Dmitri and Haim, an infant, came to Nastya’s home. Usher was a pharmacist in the nearby village of Salnitsa and he was acquainted with Nastya who was a sickly woman and one that had frequented his store often. Before coming to her home, the Atenzons had been moved into the Khmelnik ghetto (also in Vinnitsa District). However, after a killing operation in which many Jews were murdered took place, it became clear to them that they had little chance of surviving there. Thus, they fled to Zozulintsy, where, totally destitute, they turned to Nastya for help. However, she, too, did not have the wherewithal with which to support the Jewish fugitives. In order to survive, Sofia returned to Salnitsa (now Sal’nytsya, nine km from Zozulintsy) in order to retrieve some of their belongings, items, which they had left with Ukrainian neighbors at the start of the occupation. While she was away, Usher hid in Nastya’s attic. However, Dimitri and Haim were too young to be kept in hiding, and it soon became known to the village that Nastya was sheltering war fugitives. Nastya suspected that the villagers knew the fugitives’ true identity as Jews, which heightened her fear that they would be arrested. One day in the spring of 1943, German soldiers burst into Nastya’s house demanding eggs and chickens. They left immediately after getting what they wanted, but the incident so unnerved Nastya that she asked the Atenzons to leave. The fugitives took refuge in anearby forest, and with the help of a forester built a dugout. Even though Vera brought them food, Sofia continued to risk her life by asking for handouts from the villagers, as well. Several months later, one-year-old Haim died of cold and hunger; the rest of the Atenzons survived until the liberation in the spring of 1944. After the war the Atenzons and the Krucheniuk family maintained contacts. On February 10, 2002, Yad Vashem recognized Nastya Krucheniuk and her daughter, Vera, as Righteous Among the Nations.