They Saved People from Certain Death 0 13

History, including the history of Latvia, shows that even in the darkest times, when horror and death reign, there are people willing to extend a hand of help or even salvation to their neighbors, risking their own lives. Last week in Preili, with the participation of the Israeli ambassador to Latvia, Sandra Simovich, and her deputy, Almog Berthi-Mertens, a ceremony was held to present the Yad Vashem award "Righteous Among the Nations" to the relatives of two Old Believer families — Ksenia and Ivan Tsvetkov, and Xenophon, Fevronia, and Ivan Egorov, who hid and provided food for several local Jewish residents during the war. Ivan Egorov was a father of many children (five), but he made the decision to help the Jews hidden by his relatives — Xenophon and Fevronia Egorov. The representatives of the families of the "Righteous Among the Nations" were honored by the head of the Preili municipality, Aldis Adamovichs.

As Tatyana Georgievna Kolosova, a local historian and representative of the Old Believer community in Preili, told bb.lv, she herself had been corresponding with Yad Vashem for three years, providing all the necessary information about the heroes, and in the end, historical justice has been restored and the memory of the true heroes has been immortalized!

The Israeli ambassador noted in her speech that these people were not born heroes, but when they had to make a moral choice — to save their neighbors from certain death or to turn away and ignore — they made that choice without hesitation in favor of saving people! They were quiet heroes, and there were few of them during those times of total horror, but they existed, and their descendants can be proud of them! Tatyana Kolosova managed to find the descendants of the rescued Hagi family, who now live in the USA. The grandson of the rescued wrote a script for a future film in memory of his grandfather and the rescuers. Ivan Tsvetkov hid the Hagi family on his farm, and then, when the Germans came directly to the farm, Ivan managed to lead the family into the forest, where he lived with them, while his wife Ksenia brought food for everyone. Ivan Tsvetkov and his entire family were on the brink of death when someone informed the Germans that Ivan was hiding Jews. The Nazis arrived at the farm and threatened to shoot the entire family if Ivan did not appear immediately. But then the bombing began, and the Germans had no time for this family... The Tsvetkov family, which had five children at the start of the war, risked their lives to save the Hagi family from imminent death.

"Whoever saves one life saves the world entire," is the belief at the Yad Vashem memorial center.

Unfortunately, the fate of the overwhelming majority of Jews in Preili is tragic — only a few managed to escape, while more than 850 local Jews were shot by the Nazis and their accomplices from among the local population.