A Jewish girl was saved by a Ukrainian family during World War II

Cousins and Ukrainian refugees Lesia Orshoko and Alona Chugai are among the millions who are running for their lives as Russian forces invade their country. But in a wartime twist of fate, the cousins landed in Israel to a friendly face — someone who was repaying a decades-old kindness.

The friendly face was Sharon Bass, whose Jewish grandmother was sheltered and saved by Lesia's grandmother in Ukraine during the Holocaust.

Bass said it was her honor to take in the cousins and return the immeasurable kindness from nearly 80 years ago.

Bass, 46, said that when she saw the attacks in Ukraine, her thoughts immediately turned to her grandmother, Fania Rosenfeld Bass, and her remarkable survival as she hid from the Nazis.

Fania was a teenager in the Ukrainian town of Rafalowka when the Germans invaded, forcing Jews into ghettos and slave-labor camps. Most of her family was killed, including her parents and five siblings, whose bodies were dumped into unmarked, open pits in the forest of Rafalowka. Her youngest sister was just 6. But Fania fled and survived, and would return, years later, with other survivors and her daughter Chagit, to create a memorial at the site of the slaughter.

Fania's life was saved by a courageous non-Jewish Ukrainian woman named Maria Blyshchik. Blyshchik and her extended family hid Fania during the last two years of the war, until shortly before Rafalowka was liberated by the Red Army in February 1944.

Fania moved to Israel and started a family, telling the story over and over to her children and grandchildren, letting them know about the good people who held on to their humanity and quietly rebelled against the horrors of the war. The families lost touch in the immediate aftermath of liberation and for years following. But then technology made communicating easier, and the families reconnected in the 1990s and have been in touch since.

Bassgrew up hearing the story of Maria's bravery and Fania's survival. She said she didn't hesitate for a moment to reach out to Orshoko, 36, and and Chugai, 47, last month to offer help when the war broke out.

As soon as the situation turned bleak in Ukraine, Bass began brainstorming how to get them to safety in Israel. She explained that "neither I nor they could imagine the situation would develop like it did — into war — but when it did and it was time for action, we decided the best thing to do would be to bring them here to a place where they can be safe."

At first, Bass encountered a lot of bureaucracy and red tape. Then, she shared the extraordinary story with Roy Rubinstein of Israel's YNET news. Suddenly, people were captivated and eager to help. Israel is a tiny country, roughly the size of New Jersey, and it often operates like a small village. Public pressure began to mount. The story got an even wider audience when Stop Antisemitism, an Instagram page, translated some of Rubinstein's reporting.

In short order, Bass' plea for help reached a former head of the Jewish Agency, and from there, Israel's Foreign Ministry, where senior politicians got personally involved to help her cut through the usual red tape.

Orshoko and Chugai's visa approval came through on the third anniversary of Fania's death. She lived to be 97.

Once the bureaucracy was out of the way, there were still the logistics on the ground. Orshoko and Chugai had to make their way out of Ukraine. They went first by bus from their homes in the small towns of Volodymyrets and Borova to the Polish border, and then on to Warsaw, where they boarded a plane for Munich. From there, Bass and a friend of Orshoko's split the cost of the cousins' flights to Tel Aviv. They landed in Israel on March 6.

Israel has actually played an important role in the lives of Maria's family for some time. Luba Blyshchik, one of Maria's 10 children, began working as the elderly Fania's caretaker almost 20 years ago, and continued to do so until her death in 2019. Luba's mother saved Fania's life; Luba helped to preserve it.

Leaving isn't a simple decision for Orshoko and Chugai. Bass described their tears upon landing in Tel Aviv and reuniting as "complicated and full of mixed feelings."

"I'm happy to be here and in the warmth and security of the Bass family, who are like a second family to me, but I am also thinking of all the family I left behind in Ukraine who are still in danger," Chugai said. Orshoko's mother, father, brother and nephews are still in Ukraine.

There is guilt that comes with survival and escape, a psychological phenomenon that Fania's family understands well.

For now, Orshoko and Chugai have received temporary visas. Bass and her family are trying to help them secure permanent citizenship, and she says that for as long as they like, her house is their house.

"Maria didn't put a time limit on how long she sheltered Fania, and neither should we."