Ivan Krasikov, the grandson of Daria Krasikova, a native of Liozno District who saved two Jewish kids during the Great Patriotic War, was presented with his grandmother's medal and diploma of the Righteous Among the Nations on International Holocaust Remembrance Day on 27 January, BelTA has learned. 

The woman passed away in 1986, almost reaching her 80th birthday, but the story of her feat and bravery still lives in the hearts of her fifty great-great-grandchildren. In February 1942 she rescued Tamara and Boris Khotyanovs whose parents she knew very well. On that fateful day near Liozno the Nazis gathered about a thousand civilians and executed them. Daria Krasikova sheltered the children who came running to her, hiding them first behind the stove and then in the cellar. The risks were high, because the savior had her own two children and two nephews in the house. Fortunately, Tamara and Boris were not found. Daria Krasikova provided them with warm clothes and food when they left the occupied Liozno. Tamara then joined the Red Army, and her brother was sent to the rear. They met seven years later. Tamara and Boris visited their savior in 1962, together with their oldest brother Aleksandr, who fought on the front. They moved to live in different countries afterwards but they never forgot the person to whom they owed their lives. At the request of Tamara, Daria Krasikova was posthumously awarded the title of the Righteous Among the Nations. She became the 12th resident from Liozno District who was awarded this title.

"Twenty-five family members gathered here today. All in all she has about 50 great-great-grandchildren. The granny told us the story of how she had saved Tamara and Boris and how they had visited her afterwards. For us her deed is an example to follow. At the family council we have decided to donate this award to the museum in Liozno, so that all its visitors would know not only the story of Daria Krasikova, but also the atrocities the Nazis committed on our land," said the grandson Ivan Krasikov who received his grandmother's medal and the diploma of the Righteous Among the Nations from Chargé d'Affaires of the State of Israel in the Republic of Belarus Tzevy Hirsh Mirkin.

At the solemn ceremony in the Belarusian theater Lyalka six memorial candles were lit in the memory of the six million Jews who were killed and tortured in concentration camps during the Great Patriotic War.

Written by belta.by