Maria Gnidets
Kateryna Kleban lived on a khutor near the village of Potelych, Lviv region. When the war broke out, her husband went to the front, and she was left alone with her 5-year-old daughter, Maria.
The Kleban family was friends with a Jewish couple who had daughter Ruzya. They often came to visit the Kleban family. Ruza’s father was engaged in trade.
In March 1942, the deportation of Rava Ruska Jews to the Belzec extermination camp began. Thus Ruza’s father contacted Kateryna Kleban and asked her to rescue his daughter. Kateryna did not refuse him. Soon he brought eight-year-old Ruza to the khutor, where the Klebans lived.
Mother told 6-year-old Maria that Ruzya was her elder sister, but the girl was instructednot to say a word about Ruzya to anyone. Kateryna taught Ruzya ward Christian prayers and customs but the girl was goingout to the yard out only at night. Kateryna also wanted to take Ruzya’s brother, but Ruzya’s father said it was too dangerous as one could easily determine his nationality.
Maria still remembers one day. It was Sunday… It was cold. The Germans broke into the house because someone had reported that there was a Jew there. Kateryna and Ruzya were arrested. Maria and her grandmother stayed home. Both were worried and crying because they thought Kateryna and Ruzya would not return, and they (granny and Maria) would be shot.
A day later, the Germans came again and took little Maria. Her grandmother survived because she was not home. The child was brought to the Polish parish / churchyard and taken to the basement. There she was interrogated through a Polish translator, because Maria understood Polish. They kept asking about Ruzya, where she came from, but the girl repeated again and again that Ruzya was her sister. At first they treated her well, gave her candies to force Maria to tell about Ruzya, but the child repeated that she was her sister. Then they started beating Maria, pressing her fingers by the door until Maria lost consciousness. When she regained consciousness, she was lying on the bed at her home. The girl was later told that the Polish translator had said that the child would not deceive, that she should be released because she was barely alive. Pretty soon Kateryna returned. Ruzya was released later. She lived with the Kleban family for a long time.
After the expulsion of the Nazis in July 1944 Ruzya left for Israel with other members of the Jewish community.
In 1960 Ruzya (by then Shoshana Lapp) managed to get in touch with Kateryna Kleban, her daughter Maria, and her grandchildren.
On March 22, 1998 Yad Vashem recognized Kateryna Kleban as Righteous Among the Nations.
On March 12, 2007 Jewish Council of Ukraine recognized Maria Gnidets as Daughter of Righteous Among the Nations.