Dovha Anna

Nina Zhivelyuk was born in the village of Holoskove in the Kryve Ozero district of the Odesa (now Mykolaiv) region. The Jewish community there was significant; by the end of the 19th century, it already had two synagogues. It remained so until the Second World War. Nina was the first child of parents who adored her. However, when Nina was three years old, her mother died of pneumonia. A year later, her father, Mark Zhivelyuk, married Fania, a friend of his wife, and in 1936, Nina's brother David was born.

In early 1941, the family moved to the city of Odessa in search of better employment opportunities. However, after the German invasion of the Soviet Union, they decided to return to the village of Holoskove to evacuate with relatives. Unfortunately, they couldn't leave in time. The village was occupied by the Romanians. The new authorities registered all Jews, and adults were forced to work in the fields from morning till night, harvesting crops. There were no exceptions, even for Fania, who was about to give birth.

But the worst began after the harvest. All the Jews were lined up in a column and driven towards the district center – the village of Kryve Ozero. It was a cold and rainy October day, tired captives stumbled and fell into the mud; the police shot those who couldn't quickly return to the column. On the way, Fania gave birth to a girl, whom she named Raya. They spent the night under the open sky.

The path led through the villages of Hvozdavka, Liubashivka, Pavlivka, and others. Every day, people died from hunger, cold, and exhaustion. Some refused to move further, considering death preferable to continuing their suffering. The Zhivelyuk family walked until one night when local bandits attacked the column, beating the unfortunate ones and stripping them of their last pieces of clothing. They even took the old blanket in which the newborn baby was wrapped. An hour later, the baby's heart stopped beating, and the demise of the rest was now a matter of hours. At that moment, a man approached the column. After surveying the group, he locked eyes with Nina and offered her to come with him. The nine-year-old girl grabbed her father's hand and shook her head in refusal. However, the stranger insisted. He walked alongside the column, persuading Nina that it was her chance to survive. She would never have left her family if her father hadn't instructed her to agree. Mark Zhivelyuk promised his daughter that he would find and take her after the war. Thus, Nina was forever separated from her relatives. The man, named Foka, paid off the police guarding the column, took Nina with him. He had no intention of saving the girl; he just needed a little servant to care for his livestock. Foka laid a thin blanket on the floor near the entrance, serving as Nina's bed. He didn't feed her, so she had to steal food from the pigs. When Nina's hands and feet were covered in frostbite wounds, and she could no longer work, the owner took her to a neighboring village where they gathered escaped Jews. From there, Nina ended up in the infamous camp in the village of Domanivka, where she met several other orphaned children. Each of them took care of their own survival.

In the summer of 1943, Nina and her new friend Manya escaped from Domanivka. They aimed to reach the village of Nova Vradiivka, where a Ukrainian woman who had helped Manya in the past lived. The woman warmly welcomed the girls but said she could only keep Manya. She advised Nina to approach a resident of the same village, Anna Dovha. Anna happened to be looking for a nanny for her newborn daughter. Standing on the threshold of her house, Nina realized that her chances of getting the job were slim: thin, with sores, dressed in rags infested with lice, unwashed for over a year.

However, the hostess agreed to take her in. Here, for the first time since the loss of her parents, Nina felt someone caring for her. Anna washed and cut her hair, provided her with clothes. The girl ate at the same table with other family members, slept on the stove with Anna's children. Anna had four children: the baby Mila, the older boys Ivan and Viktor, and the grown-up, married daughter Natalia, who lived separately. Anna's husband had recently died of typhus; people said he got infected from the Jews he was hiding. Anna treated Nina's ailments, took her to the doctor in the neighboring village when her stomach hurt, and regarded her as one of her own children. Nina expressed her gratitude by trying to do all the household chores that Anna, working in the collective farm, couldn't manage. One day, Anna returned home saddened and informed Nina that the regional police were interested in her and that she needed to appear for questioning in the village of Ivanivka. The thought of being returned to Domanivka or being shot literally paralyzed the girl. Anna and her elderly father explained to Nina how to behave during the interrogation, which version of her origin to stick to: the main thing was never to admit that she was Jewish. Eventually, Nina managed to fool the investigator, and she was released back to Anna. She lived with her savior until the arrival of the Red Army in the village of Nova Vradiivka in April 1944. In the summer of the same year, her uncle, Abram Zhivelyuk, demobilized from the army due to injuries, found her. It wasn't easy for Anna to part with the girl she had become very attached to. She even went with Nina to Abram in Odesa to ensure that the girl would have good living and learning conditions. Nina (later Srogovich) maintained a relationship with Anna until her savior's death in 1957. In 1993, she, along with her husband and their daughters' families, emigrated to the United States.

On June 24, 2007, the Yad Vashem recognized Anna Dovha as the Righteous Among the Nations.