Deviatko (Bilousova) Olha, Pishchyk Paraska

Olha Deviatko, nee Belousova, lived with her parents in the city of Kharkiv. On October 23, 1941, the regional center was occupied by Nazi troops. The girl was 15 years old at that time. The situation in the city was tense, persecution and murder of Jews began. One winter, in early 1942, Olha met her neighbors’ six-year-old son, Volodymyr Amusin, whose family was half-Jewish, at the market. The frightened boy wandered the streets in search of food and was overjoyed to see a familiar face. Olha took Volodia to her aunt, Paraska Pishchyk, who lived on the outskirts of the city. The woman lived alone and agreed to hide the Jewish child. The woman lived alone and agreed to hide the Jewish child. After recovering from the stress, the child told him that he and his father had been moved to a ghetto organized on the territory of an agricultural machinery factory. One day, his father disappeared, but his mother, who had been separated from him at the beginning of the war because she was not Jewish, suddenly appeared. Together they escaped the ghetto and hid in abandoned houses. Marusia often left her son alone when she went to buy groceries. One day she did not return. Without waiting for his mother, the boy set out to look for her and accidentally met Olha. The girl became his salvation.

Paraska Filatovna hid Volodia in her small apartment until May 1942, and he did not go outside for almost half a year. Olha occasionally visited her aunt and looked after him.

In the spring of 1942, the girl saw Marusia in a neighboring yard. As it turned out, she had been taken to forced labor outside the city. Upon returning, the woman immediately went to her former home to look for her son, although she was sure that he was no longer among the living. Having learned from Olha about Volodia's fate, she immediately took him and moved with him to a neighboring village.

They returned to the city after the Germans were expelled, in August 1943. Marusia always supported her son's rescuers and at the first opportunity provided testimony about their heroic deed.

In 1999, Yad Vashem recognized Deviatko (Bilousova) Olha and Paraska Pischyk as Righteous Among the Nations.

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