THE TRAGEDY OF ANNA BIKEVICH
Thanks to the research work of the pupil and the teachers of Radun school one more name of the Righteous Among the Nations from the village of Lebedniki has become known.
The ninth grader of Radun school Anna Voytkun devoted her first research work to the theme of Holocaust. This choice is not accidental , because a Jewish ghetto was on the territory of Radun during the Great Patriotic War. The relatives of Anna – great grandmother Anelya, great grandfather Felix and their son Bronislav Matonis – helped the prisoners to hide and survive. Afterwards they were awarded with the medal “Righteous Among the Nations”.
The pupil and her teachers – consultants F.F.Gabis and O.V.Voytkun are convinced that contemporaries must know about the heroic deed of their countrymen who saved from death doomed Jews. The creative group has done a lot of work during their research: they studied literature, wrote letters to the Memorial Museum of Holocaust in the USA, Israel, spoke to the witnesses of those events, their relatives, residents of Radun, Dovgyalishki, Chizhuny, Dotishki, Rovbishki, Lebedniki, compared their memories and archive documents. They managed to gather material which had never been published.
WHO ARE THEY, RIGHTEOUS HEROS?
The title “Righteous Among the Nations” is given to the people who risking their life and often life of their relatives, saved Jews in the years of Holocaust. Their names entered on the honor roll in Jerusalem, a tree is planted in the Alley of Righteous in honor of everybody. 799 residents of Belarus got this title. Most of them got it posthumously.
AN UNKNOWN PAGE OF RADUN HOLOCAUST
Antoniy Gavrilkevich, Kazimir Korkuts, the Matonis – these inhabitants of Radun got this high title. It was considered till April 2020. But thanks to the research work one more Righteous was found – an inhabitant of the village of Lebedniki Anna Bikevich. The tragic story about courageous woman was told to the researchers by her niece Yanina Yurevich (Kodis), who lives in the village of Lebedniki.
A MORAL CHOICE OF THE WIDOW
Anna Bikevich was born approximately in 1885-1888 and lived in the village of Lebedniki. The family had their own house and a big plot of land. Anna had seven children and had become a widow before the war.
In May 1942 Anna Bikevich accepted and arranged in the old house the families of 11 Jews, who escaped from Radun ghetto. The woman with her children lived not far in the new house. There was a basement under the stove, where the Jews hided in the case of danger. They didn’t go out in the afternoon. For a long time not only the inhabitants of the village but also relatives didn’t know that the family hided the escapers. In 1944 the German suddenly came, the Jews couldn’t manage to hide. 10 people were shot, one could escape.
Younger children of the woman were ordered to go out. The eldest son Vatslav was taken to execution but then they let him go. The woman was thrown into the basement and set fire to the house. Anna Bikevich burnt to death in it.
After the war the children of the killed Anna Bikevich went to live to Poland and Lithuania. Ties with relatives were broken. In May 2019 she was posthumously awarded the title “Righteous Among the Nations”.
The coworkers of the museum of Holocaust from Israel addressed to the teachers of Radun secondary school and the pupils with the help to find the nearest relatives in order to hand the medal of the Righteous to this courageous woman. Today Anna Voytkun together with her teachers consultants are in search of these people. The material gathered by the pupil will be provided at the international conference “Holocaust in the History of the Family” in Minsk.
Olga Vorobyeva
According to the materials of the research work of Anna Voytkun
Translated by Zinaida Tserpitskaya
