"With rare resourcefulness and courage, late Vera Kozoyk saved my grandfather's life, late Dr. Yafim Spiegelmacher, while risking herself and her only son with execution during the war against the Nazis," said Rima Sivani. She is the niece of Victor Kozoyk, who is the son of Vera and Dr. Yafim.
The story began when when Dr. Spiegelmacher, a Jewish physician, an expert on infectious diseases living in southern Ukraine, was conscripted into the Red Army as a medic, leaving behind his wife Maria and two young sons - four-year-old Yan (Jacob) and six-month-old Anisim.
"During the war against the Nazis he was captured, in late July 1941, and after several months of captivity under harsh conditions, he managed to escape, but he was wounded," Sivani said. "He posed as a deaf and mute person, and came up with an alias for himself. Wounded and exhausted, right on the verge of dying, in February 1942, Yafim arrived in a village where Vera lived, a nurse, widow and a mother to a son."
He started knocking desperately at her door without even knowing who lived there. Luckily for Yafim, she opened the door and hid him in a shelter, and only during the nights he dared to wander inside the house." Yafim lived in these conditions for over two years.
Yafim never forgot his two little sons and the wife who stayed home. But, couldn't help falling in love with Vera. The result of their love affair was a son named Victor. Yafim documented his experiences in a personal journal, which was found at his son Yan's house in Odessa.
When the war ended, Yafim returned to his family. His wife Maria had another daughter, Lilia. For decades, the two families didn't know about the existence of one another. In 1970, Maria died. Only then, Yafim was able to tell his sons about his relationship with Vera during the war.
"I didn't know Victor existed, we never talked about the relationship between Yafim and Vera. My grandfather Yafim passed away when I was 11, and in 2009, my mom, who fought cancer and was on her deathbed, told me that my father Anisim, who died in an accident in 1991, has another brother in Ukraine," Sivani said.
Two years later, Sivani went on a roots trip to Ukraine. "It turned out Uncle Yan had already tracked Victor through social media. We didn't contact him because we didn't know what the consequences would be. We were afraid of the unknown, the brothers didn't know how he would accept our Judaism.
"After a few years, we went back to Ukraine to celebrate Yan's 80-year anniversary. From the moment we met Yan, he wouldn't stop talking about his brother Victor, how he thought about him, and how much he would want to meet him. Within hours, I tracked him down and we met that night."
After a year, Victor and his wife Nina came to visit the family in Israel. "Then, I came up with an idea that Vera should receive the Righteous Among the Nations honor," Sivani said. "Thanks to her, Yafim stayed alive, and Victor and Lilia were born. And a few days ago, we finally reached closure, as she was recognized as Righteous Among the Nations."
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Victor, his wife Nina, and his sister Lilia fled Ukraine and made Aliyah to Israel. Victor and Lilia settled in the northern city of Nof HaGalil, while Nina moved to Bnei Ayish.
Ronen Plot, mayor of Nof Haglil, who also serves as deputy chairman of Yad Vashem, said: "I received the privilege to grant Victor the honor of Righteous Among the Nations on behalf of his mother Vera. If she and Yafim were alive they would be happy to see their families united and working to commemorate the memory of the Holocaust."