Lesnichenko Anna ; Daughter: Yegorova Irina (Lesnichenko)

Lesnichenko, Anna Yegorova-Lesnichenko, Irina Anna Lesnichenko lived in Odessa with her daughter Irina, a Geography student. Among their neighbors and friends was Olga Krivorukova (née Tales), a Jewish woman, whose Russian husband was executed in 1937, during the Stalinist purges. Olga’s daughter, Manya, one year older than Irina, studied painting and ceramics at college while Olga’s son, Sasha, was still in school. At the beginning of 1942, after the German occupation of Odessa on October 16, 1941, Olga and her son were deported to the Domanevka camp where they were murdered. Manya remained alone, hiding in her family’s house. One evening, she knocked at Anna’s and Irina’s door, pleading for temporary shelter. The mother and daughter could not turn away a friend in need. They prepared a hiding place for her inside their cellar, connected to their apartment on the second floor by a private staircase. Manya stayed there for two weeks until the wave of round-ups was over. Then she moved upstairs to her hosts’ apartment, and hid there for several more weeks. Anna and Irina cared for Manya and consoled her in her grief. In the late spring of 1942, Manya moved to her father’s non-Jewish relatives. After the liberation in April 1944, she came to thank the Lesnichenkos for their help and self-sacrifice. After the war, Manya Krivorukova (later, Bebeshko) settled in Moldova. On November 14, 2001, Yad Vashem recognized Anna Lesnichenko and her daughter, Irina Yegorova, as Righteous Among the Nations.