Yevgenia Morozova
After the Germans occupied Minsk on June 24, 1941, Faina Levina and
her children Misha, Sofia and Galina were transferred together with
many Jews to the ghetto which was established in the city in August
1941. Faina was a professional opera singer and knew pianist Yevgenia
Morozova before the war. After the ghetto was established Faina
received food and clothing from Yevgenia, who occasionally would also
host Faina's daughters Sofia and Galina at her house. During the
aktion in March 1942, Faina and her son Misha were killed, however
Sofia and Galina escaped to Yevgenia's house and hid there for a few
weeks.
Yevgenia obtained forged documents for the two sisters (aged 10 and
15) and moved them to an orphanage in the city where she visited them
and pretended they were her relatives. Once the sisters were stopped
in the street by a policeman who suspected they were Jewish. They
asked the policeman to go to Yevgenia's house, and she convinced him
that they were her cousins, and that they were not Jewish at all. This
was especially dangerous since Sofia and Galina's father had been a
well known pediatrician in Minsk before the war and there was a strong
possibility that the policeman could have been former patient. After
liberation, the sisters maintained contact with Yevgenia and her
children, and in the 1970's they immigrated to the USA, where they
still live today. Yevgenia's son Michail Morozov will receive her
award.