Khrystyna Rudiuk

Before World War II, Avraham and Rakhil Herts moved with their four children from the Polish town of Zamost to the town of Dzerzhynsk (now Romaniv) in the Zhytomyr region. The eldest son Khanokh went to study to Moscow. In July 1941, local Jews were deported to a ghetto organized in the nearby village of Lyubar. Rakhil managed to leave the younger children Yakiv and Genya to her neighbor Petro (surname unknown). Rakhil and her husband and son Hersh were shot by the Nazis during the liquidation of the ghetto.

Petro hid brother and sister for a while, but it was dangerous to leave them in his house. The man transported the children to the village of Karlivtsi to relatives. Yakiv decided to flee to the forest, hoping to join the guerrillas, and Genya with the onset of cold sought refuge in neighboring villages. The 10-year-old girl was sheltered by Khrystyna Rudiuk from the village of Velykyi Brataliv, mother of eight children, whose husband was at the front. Genya did not immediately admit that she was Jewish. And when she decided to tell about the tragedy of her family, Khrystyna said that she knew everything, because almost every night a girl in a dream speaks Yiddish. Khrystyna was a teacher and was able to make a fictitious birth certificate for Genya named Ania Gorodiuk.

Until the end of the occupation of Zhytomyr, a Jewish girl lived in the house of a village teacher with her children. Yakiv remained in the woods with the guerrillas, but periodically visited his sister. Khrystyna collected food and warm clothes for him. After the war, Genya was searched by her older brother, Khanokh Herts, with whom she emigrated to Israel. Genya kept in touch with her lifeguard and her children throughout her life.

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On January 9, 2014, Khrystyna Rudiuk was awarded the title of "Righteous Among the Nations."