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Righteous Among the Nations
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Eta Fonareva, Ivan Lavrenov and their son Boris YVA, Righteous Among the Nations M.31/132070 |
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Eta Fonareva was born in the town of Kreizburg (Ekabpils). In the mid 1930s, Fonareva married Zalman Zilberman, a tradesman from Daugavpils, and soon their daughter Ida was born. Not long after the German invasion, the family was sent to the ghetto. Eta’s husband and daughter died in the ghetto, and Eta was deported to a labor camp established in the old fortress in Daugavpils. While in the camp, she met Ivan Lavrenov, who worked there as a carpenter. Lavrenov was not local; he had come to Daugavpils from the area of Utena, Lithuania (he had fled his home because he was caught assisting Soviet solders who had escaped from captivity).
When Lavrenov learned that the Germans were preparing a mass murder operation (apparently the operation of May 17, 1942), he warned Fonareva and her friend Dora Kobash about it in advance. On the eve of the operation, Lavrenov hid the two women in the warehouse where he kept his instruments. During the night, he let the women out of the warehouse and sent them to his friend in the town. Since it was dangerous to stay in Daugavpils, Fonareva, Lavrenov and Kobash took a train to Lithuania and went to the area of Ilukste. There, after some time, Fonareva was hired to work on a large estate, with tens of other employees. She introduced herself as a Nina Ivanova, a war refugee from Pskov, and stayed there until the liberation. Kobash left in search of partisans, and apparently was killed. Lavrenov returned to Daugavpils. After the liberation in July 1944, Lavrenov came to collect Fonareva, and they lived together in Daugavpils. In 1946, after their son, Boris, was born, they got married.
On July 10, 2007, Yad Vashem recognized Ivan Lavrenov as Righteous Among the Nations.
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