Dated: April 8, 2004
from
Latvian named
Righteous Gentile by Israel
By Aaron Eglitis
RIGA - Latvian national Nikolai
Zarenov was posthumously awarded the title of "righteous
among the nations" by the Israel-based Holocaust
remembrance organization Yad Vashem on April 4, 2004 for
risking his life and saving Jews in Latvia during World
War II.
Zarenov, who is credited with
aiding a Jewish family that he had known since childhood,
died in 1970. His daughter Vera Muraveynika was on hand
at the ceremony to accept the award in his
name.
According to accounts, Zarenov's
neighbor Ilya had been deported to the Stuthof
concentration camp in northern Poland. At this time
Zarenov and his friends, working through a request,
rescued Ilya's wife Marija, daughter Gita, 11, and
nine-year-old son Ismael from Riga's Jewish
ghetto.
Marija stayed in the Latvian
countryside, while Ismael was left in the care of a
Russian Orthodox church in the southeastern city of
Daugavpils.
Gita stayed in secret with the
Zarenov family until the end of the war.
After the war, Ilya returned
home, miraculously surviving the concentration camp, and
Marija was also reunited with her family. Ismael,
however, was never heard from again.
Zarenov remained humble to the
end.
"He never spoke about it and
never bragged, because he considered one person helping
another person to be normal," Muraveynika said of her
father in the newspaper Diena.
To be awarded the title of
"righteous among the nations" a survivor's testimony must
be given. If the survivor has already passed away before
giving the testimony, the title cannot be
bestowed.
Since 1963 this particular honor
has been given to "the righteous among the nations who
risked their lives to save Jews," according to Yad
Vashem's Web site.
In addition to a medal, the
rescuer's name will be added to the Wall of Honor in the
Garden of the Righteous at Yad Vashem in
Jerusalem.
Over 19,000 people have been
honored by Yad Vashem, including over 100 from
Latvia.
The race to honor those living
for risking their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust
is hampered by the age of the surviving
rescuers.
"Time is not on our side,"
Israeli Ambassador to Latvia Gary Koren told The Baltic
Times, adding that there were still many cases like
Zarenov's that required recognition.
"These ceremonies started only
after [Baltic] independence. They were not
possible under the Soviets," the ambassador
stressed.
The honoring of Zarenov
coincided with a visit of 200 Israeli soldiers who came
to Latvia to participate in a project on Holocaust
education.
In previous years the Israeli
defense force has sent soldiers mainly to Poland to learn
about the Holocaust, but recently the countries have
included Latvia and Lithuania.
The Holocaust in Latvia took the
lives of 95 percent of the local Jewish community or
almost 80,000 people during the Nazi occupation of the
country, which began in 1941 and lasted until
1944.
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