Saide Arifova (13 February 1916 – 9 September 2007) was a Crimean Tatar woman from

Bakhchisarai Bakhchysarai is a city in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Bakhchysarai Raion (district), as well as the former capital of the Crimean Khanate. Its main landmark is Hansaray, the only extant pal ...

, Crimea, who saved at least 74 Jewish children from the Nazis and the NKVD during World War II.

Life

During the Nazi occupation of Crimea she worked as a kindergarten director and managed to forge documents, altering the Jewish children's recorded ethnicity to Crimean Tatar, teaching them to speak Crimean Tatar and to adopt Crimean Tatar customs. She also managed to conceal children from

Kerch Kerch, also known as Keriç or Kerich, is a city of regional significance on the Kerch Peninsula in the east of Crimea. It has a population of Founded 2,600 years ago as the Colonies in antiquity#Greek colonies, ancient Greek colony Pantik ...

orphanage, who were due to be sent to Germany for medical experiments. The Nazis suspected she was involved in their concealment and tortured her, but she did not disclose any information. Despite resisting the Nazis and becoming a victim of the

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

herself, she still was deported to Uzbek SSR during Sürgün, as the Crimean Tatars were considered collectively guilty of collaboration. She did manage to convince the NKVD that the children were Jewish, not Crimean Tatar, and save them from exile. Only after Perestroika did she return to Crimea where she died in 2007. Multiple sources claim she was declared

Righteous Among the Nations Righteous Among the Nations ( ) is a title used by Yad Vashem to describe people who, for various reasons, made an effort to assist victims, mostly Jews, who were being persecuted and exterminated by Nazi Germany, Fascist Romania, Fascist Italy, ...

Yad Vashem Yad Vashem (; ) is Israel's official memorial institution to the victims of Holocaust, the Holocaust known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (). It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; echoing the stories of the ...

, but she is not listed as a person awarded the title anywhere in their database. She is the main protagonist in the 2017 Ukrainian film, Another's Prayer, directed by

Akhtem Seitablaiev Akhtem Shevketovych Seitablayev (, , ; born 11 December 1972) is a Ukrainian actor, screenwriter and film director of the Crimean Tatars origin. He is the director of several high-profile films, including '' Haytarma'' in 2013 and '' Another's Pra ...

, a Crimean Tatar film director who was born in exile. The movie was supposed to be filmed in Crimea, but after the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation in 2014 it was instead filmed in

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

and mainland Ukraine.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arifova, Saide 1916 births 2007 deaths Crimean Tatar people Soviet women in World War II People from Bakhchysarai