Olena Ru

On October 31, 2002 Yad Vashem recognized Olena Ru, her daughters, Stanislava Nosik and Bronislava Bernatska, as well as Anton and Mariya Afitsky and their children, Antonina Afitska (marriage name Tsikhotska) and Ivan Afitsky as Righteous Among the Nations.

Olena Ru, Polish, lived with her daughters in Kam’yanets’-Podil’s’kyy. The youngest of her 3 children was born in 1937 after the arrest of her husband repressed on charges of espionage. Olena moved to a tiny apartment. Anton and Luba Telyatytsky, a deaf-and-dumb couple with daughters Bronya and Ruzya, were  her new neighbors. Olena became friends with them.

After the occupation of Kam’yanets’ Podil’s’kyy in July 1941, on August 5, Jews were ordered to relocate to the ghetto. They were forbidden to leave this ghetto under pain of death. Lyuba Telyatytska, her daughters, and her Polish husband, who refused to leave the family, also moved to the ghetto.

On August 26-29, 1941, the Germans carried out a series of punitive actions – about 23,000 Jews were mudered. The Telyatytskies had survived – they were hiding in a chicken coop until January.

In January 1942, they had to look for a new shelter. They turned to Olena for help. Olena and her teenage daughters, Stanislava and Bronislava, decided to hide the Jewish family in their flat. Anton, Polish, returned home and kept saying that his wife and daughters had died.

In March 1942 Lyuba gave birth to a son and returned to her flat with a newly born child. Anton cared about them. Their daughters, 8-year-old Bronya and 5-year-old Ruzya, stayed with the Ru family.

The Telyatytskies got used to the new circumstances and lost vigilance. The girls visited their parents and brother, sometimes without letting Olena and her daughters know. This continued until September, when one of the neighbors noticed them and reported to the police.

The Telyatytskies were arrested and sent to ghetto once again. Soon Anton, with the help of his relatives, “redeemed” his daughters. Lyuba and the baby could not escape and died during the liquidation of the ghetto in October-November 1942.

After leaving the ghetto, Bronya and Ruzya returned to Olena Ru and hid there until December 1943. Once, when the girls were on the street with Olena’s daughters, one of the passers-by shouted at them: “Jews!”. The children were afraid that Bronya and Ruzya would be arrested again.

The same night, Anton took his daughters to his friends, the Afitsky family, to Slobidka-Kul’chiyevets’ka village, 10 km southeast of Kam’yanets’ Podil’s’kyy. Anton and Mariya Afitsky and their teen-aged children, Antonina and Ivan cared about the girls until the Nazis escape in March 1944. They paid much attention to the psychological condition of Bronya and Ruzya, who were grieving the loss of their mother and brother.

After the war, the Afitskies continued to support Anton and his daughters.

The Telyatytskies were deeply grateful to their rescuers all their lives.