Maria, Nina, Stepan and Neonila Belostotsky

Widow Maria Belostotska, her daughter Nina and granddaughter Neonila lived in a private house in the small village of Vorzel in Kyiv region. Her son Stepan lived in the next street with his wife and small children. The eldest son Borys, Neonila's father, was at the front.

On August 23, 1941, German troops occupied the  Vorzel and shot 13 local Jews on the same day. The new occupation authorities have informed residents that the death penalty will be used for hiding communists, Jews and weapons. Despite the warnings, the Belostotsky family decided to resist the occupation authorities.

In March 1942, Maria Belostotska hosted 4-years-old Envelina Gershman at her home. Envelina's father, Motel, was drafted into the Red Army, and her mother was hiding in Kyiv, believing that Ella would be safer in the house of Belostotsky. When strangers (Germans or policemen) came, Envelina was buried in the attic or sent to Stepan with Neonila. There were many children and it was difficult to tell who was of Jewish descent and who was not. Neonila became a nanny, a friend, and a guardian angel for little Envelina.

From 1942, the Belostotsky family took an active part in the activities of the local underground. Weapons, medicines, warm clothes, food and clean linen, which the mother and daughter washed for the partisans, were brought to the forest through Maria's house, which became the turnout of the Vorzel underground. Soviet prisoners of war who were fleeing German camps and trying to reach the guerrillas were also hiding here. The connection between the forest insurgents and the underground group was provided by Stepan Belostotsky, who escaped from German captivity in 1941 and got a job as a forester. During the entire period of occupation, thanks to the activities of the  family, more than 60 soldiers were transferred to guerrilla units.

In September 1943, local collaborator Dmytro Borysov, after an unsuccessful attempt by the Vorzel underground to eliminate him, pointed out to the Nazis Nina Belostotska and several other people. The occupiers raided all the suspects.

The arrests were made by German-controlled soldiers of the Russian Liberation Army (ROA), who were stationed in Vorzel. When the people of Vlasov came to Maria’s house, Neonila grabbed Envelina and jumped out of the window facing the yard. At first, the girls hid in the woods, and at night came to the house of Stepan. Here the girls hid until the expulsion of the Nazis.

Maria and her daughter Nina were shot after horrific torture. The occupiers burned their house to the ground.

In 1944, Envelina's mother, who managed to survive in Kyiv during the occupation, returned and took her rescued daughter.
 

In 1968, a monument was erected on the grave where the executed Nina and Maria were buried.

On December 14, 1999, Yad Vashem awarded Stepan and Neonila Belostotsky the honorary title of "Righteous Among the Nations." Maria and Nina became Righteous posthumously. Today, the street in Vorzel, where Maria’s house stood and where Ella Gershman was rescued, is named after the Belostotsky family.