A DEBT REPAID

Fanya Bass was a teenager in 1942 when she fled her Ukrainian hometown, Rafalowka, before the Nazis took over. Her parents and five siblings weren’t so lucky. Like many other Jews, they perished in slave labor camps.

For a year, Bass hid out in a forest until Maria Blishchik stumbled upon her and took her to the home she shared with her husband and children. Had the Nazis found out, the Blishchiks likely would have been killed. Bass stayed with them until 1944, when the Germans were pushed out. Both women have since passed away, but the heroic act created a lifelong bond between their families. So when Bass’s granddaughter Sharon Bass learned that the Blishchiks’ granddaughters, Lasia Orshoko and Alona Chugai, had fled Ukraine, she was eager to repay the family debt and bring them to Israel.

First, she got politicians to cut through red tape. Then she paid part of the women’s airfare to Tel Aviv. Sharon invited them to stay in her home as long as they wanted. After all, she told the Post, “Maria didn’t Washington put a time limit on how long she sheltered Fanya.”