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Boris Berlin: "These People Deserve to Be Recognized as Righteous Among the Nations"

  • Bethany "Batya" Klein
  • Aug 2
  • 15 min read

Historical Preservation and Citation Note: This interview and archival certificate have been translated into English to support the ongoing preservation of Krymchak and Crimean Jewish Holocaust history. Originally conducted by journalist Yana Lyubarskaya, the article was published in the Jewish cultural journal Mishpoha (Vitebsk, Belarus). It details the recent breakthrough discovery of the lost graves of Maria Stanislavovna Pruss and Jan Martsevich Pruss in Cēsis, Latvia, and documents their rescue of 35 Jewish and Krymchak children in occupied Simferopol.


Boris Berlin: "These People Deserve to Be Recognized as Righteous Among the Nations..."

Interview by Yana Lyubarskaya | Published in Mishpoha Journal


Boris Genrikhovich Berlin is a prominent local historian, a long-time researcher of the history of the Holocaust in Crimea, and the author of numerous articles and books on the subject. A communications engineer by primary profession, he dreamed all his life of becoming a historian like his mother, who worked as a school history teacher. Despite all circumstances, Boris was able to realize his dream and immerse himself headlong into his beloved cause, which became the firm foundation of his life.


It all began when he became deeply interested in studying the tragic event associated with the death of his grandfather, Naum Meerson, on the transport ship Armenia, which sank under the strikes of German aviation on November 7, 1941.


My interviewee was born in 1965 in Simferopol, where he currently resides. He continues to work extensively in the archives and serves as a compiler and member of the editorial board of the collection "The Holocaust in Crimea: 1941–1944. Documents and Materials." One of Boris Berlin's foundational works is "The History of the Crimean Tragedy." He also actively popularizes the pre-revolutionary history of the Jews of Crimea.


In 2019, our hero published a unique edition of a portion of the diary entries of E.E. Gopstein (spanning 1938 to 1943): "From Old Papers. Scraps of Notes of a Simferopol Philistine, a Contemporary of Soviet Power and the Second World War." (Note: An interview with E.E. Gopstein was published in the 1993 edition of "The Black Book" in the chapter titled "The Single Survivor..." A transcript was also published in the samizdat version of "The Black Book" in the 1980s, a copy of which is kept in the I.Ya. Franko Library in Simferopol, and in the 2002 Crimean collection "Pass on to the Children." Most recently, the 1994 transcript was printed in "The Unknown Black Book," compiled by historian Prof. Ilya Altman and published by Corpus in 2015.)


Boris Berlin was assisted in publishing E.E. Gopstein's diaries by Yuri Moiseevich Purim—honorary chairman of the Krymchak society "Kъrymchahlar"—and his sons. The text was edited and typed by Natalya Zingina, a board member of the Krymchak society.


Recently, after many years of grueling, tense searching, Boris Genrikhovich received deeply moving and important news: in Latvia, the graves of the Pruss couple—Jan Martsevich Pruss (March 8, 1895 – January 6, 1981) and Maria Stanislavovna Pruss (June 13, 1904 – July 5, 1968)—were discovered. Both, as it turned out, were buried in the Cēsis Municipality of Latvia. Furthermore, the grave of their adopted son, Oleg (19??–2004), was also presumably found in Latvia. It emerged that Jan Pruss, the father of the family, was born in the city of Cēsis (officially known as Wenden prior to 1917).

Who were all these people, and why does the discovery of their graves hold such immense significance for preserving our historical memory? All of this is revealed in our frank conversation.


Yana Lyubarskaya: Boris Genrikhovich, I know that you previously sent documents you collected to the Yad Vashem Memorial Complex in Israel so that these brave, compassionate people—Maria Stanislavovna and her husband Jan Martsevich Pruss, who once lived in Simferopol—could be awarded the title of Righteous Among the Nations. In addition, you also collected archival documents for the potential awarding of this honorary title to three other prominent, well-known individuals, including two clergymen from Crimea. Why did you do this, and what was the motivation?


Boris Berlin: Yes, I sent a detailed packet of documents to Tatyana Manusova, a staff member at the Israeli memorial complex Yad Vashem, regarding the fates of several legendary Simferopol residents, and I am now anxiously awaiting a response from my Israeli colleagues. I hope for their positive decision on this matter.


In general, those who saved Jews include representatives of many nationalities living in Crimea: Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians, Czechs, Crimean Tatars, Karaites, and others. Unfortunately, not all the people who genuinely saved my kinfolk during the war and the Holocaust have yet received the title of Righteous Among the Nations. As you can see, new information about rescuers continues to be uncovered to this day. Those whose names are forgotten today or remain undisclosed extended a helping hand to the condemned in various ways—by providing shelter, transferring their own documents or forging false ones, ransoming people from the authorities, testifying to non-Jewish origins, and more. Overall, the exact number of saved Jews and Krymchaks remains unknown to this day.


  • Boris Berlin

Yana Lyubarskaya: And what numbers of dead and affected during the Holocaust in Crimea do we possess today?


Boris Berlin: At present, we have data showing that during the period of Nazi occupation of the Crimean Peninsula, more than 35,000 Jews and 7,000 Krymchaks—women, the elderly, and children—were exterminated. This number does not include Jewish prisoners of war who died in captivity, nor those who died during evacuation. This number also does not include over 12,000 citizens born of mixed marriages with Jews and Krymchaks. Gathered from across the Crimean Peninsula, these victims were liquidated later, in the summer of 1942, in Simferopol.


Yana Lyubarskaya: I see...


Boris Berlin: I should note that Jews constituted five percent of all soldiers and officers in the Red Army. On the territory of Crimea, the percentage of Jews in the units defending the peninsula was likely much higher, as our peninsula was defended by the separate Primorsky Army, formed in Odessa, and the 51st Army, formed in Crimea.


Now, as I said above, some time ago I sent all the collected documents to Yad Vashem, because by law, these people ought to be recognized as Righteous Among the Nations. However, Israel has specific, established rules on this matter: such a title is usually awarded only if there is direct testimony from a survivor. I believe that Oleg—the son of the Prusses—was one of those very Jewish children who ended up in their orphanage, whom the couple subsequently adopted. But he is no longer alive; recently, his grave was also discovered in Latvia. I am inclined to believe that our heroes' son rests there. If he were alive today, he could shed significant light on what transpired.


Yana Lyubarskaya: How did your search begin in the first place?


Boris Berlin: I thoroughly studied documents from the World War II period in the Crimean archives

and found certain very important details—lists of children connected to the director of the orphanage, Maria Stanislavovna Pruss. I must admit, this story received some publicity even before me. As I gradually untangled this complex knot of events that occurred many years ago, I realized that we were looking at a truly unique, noble, and extraordinary case!


According to archival documents, this woman, described as "incredibly stout, but as nimble as a butterfly," was deeply loved by her orphanage children; she and her husband had no biological children of their own. And she reciprocated with immense warmth, tender care, attention, and devotion. She constantly risked her own life, the fate of her husband, and the lives of all the staff of the Simferopol orphanage for the sake of Jewish boys and girls—for hiding whom, as is well known, they all faced inevitable execution! After all, the Germans and their collaborators did not engage in long conversations with those who heroically hid those condemned to death.


Yana Lyubarskaya: So it turns out that despite the threat of brutal retribution, there were people ready to sacrifice themselves to save Jews... True "Unrecognized Heroes." Such a project, by the way, is currently being implemented by the Russian "Holocaust" Center...


Boris Berlin: Yes, absolutely correct. To repeat: at the orphanage located in the village of Mamak near Simferopol (now the village of Stroganovka), the head of the institution, Maria Stanislavovna Pruss, and the orphanage staff hid Jewish children among the other orphans, providing them with forged documents and "cover stories."


Initially, the first such orphanage was opened at 14 Arkhivnaya Street in the center of Simferopol. Later, three more orphanages began operating, meaning there were four in total. My articles on this were previously published in the proceedings of various Crimean scientific conferences. In 2002, Hesed "Shimon" in Simferopol and the State Archive of Crimea published the collection "Pass on to the Children...", and ever since, I have not ceased raising this issue again and again.


Feeling that this was not enough, I collected and sent all the documents I found about this to the Israeli memorial complex Yad Vashem. The fate of the Pruss couple was lost after 1945. In the Crimean archives, after that date, there was no further information about them. I then reasoned that they had left for the homeland of Maria Stanislavovna's husband, in Latvia. My assumption was confirmed on March 28, 2025, when, completely by chance—thanks to my acquaintance Elena Zhilinskaya and her friends in the Baltic states—we managed to find their abandoned graves and a photograph of Jan Pruss. The condition of these graves today is quite worrying; I am not sure if anyone is caring for them. Fortunately, the Rabbi of Riga promised us to look after these graves and not allow the authorities to demolish them as abandoned, "forgotten" burials.


ARCHIVAL HISTORICAL CERTIFICATE

CERTIFICATE OF THE FORMER DIRECTOR OF THE MAMAK ORPHANAGE, M.S. PRUSS, TO THE CRIMEAN COMMISSION ON THE HISTORY OF THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR — REGARDING THE ACTIVITIES OF THE ORPHANAGE AND ITS LIQUIDATION IN NOVEMBER 1943

No earlier than April 14, 1944.

I, Pruss, Maria Stanislavovna, former director of Mamak Orphanage No. 1, hereby issue this certificate to the Crimean Commission on the History of the Great Patriotic War stating that the children who arrived at the orphanage were partly picked up by me from the street, partly came on their own to escape persecution by the German monsters, and were partly referred by social security authorities.

The orphanage housed children of citizens shot by the Gestapo, Jewish children, children of executed partisans, communists, and other Soviet citizens.

When the older wards of the orphanage left for the forest to join the partisans, and the livestock was also transferred by me to the partisans (on the instructions of Bosnayev, who operated under the alias Sorokin), a punitive SD detachment arrived at the orphanage. Having beaten the staff while demanding the names of the partisans and the person who supplied the horses and livestock to the partisans, and having achieved nothing, the SD detachment departed, expelling all men (including male instructors and the accountant) from Mamak.

I was removed from my post by the social security department (headed by Balzhi) as "failing to ensure the proper organization of educational work," and the children were urgently evacuated from Mamak to the city and transferred into safer hands.

[Signed] M.S. Pruss


Yana Lyubarskaya: Boris Genrikhovich, I know that your plans—regardless of the decision of your colleagues at Yad Vashem—include installing memorial plaques in Simferopol to Maria Stanislavovna and several other brave people who saved Jews during the Nazi occupation. Let's talk about the others on that list.


Boris Berlin: Correct. To date, together with the Jewish community of Simferopol, we have decided to install a series of memorial plaques for several brave individuals who saved Jews during the war who have not yet received the title of Righteous Among the Nations. In total, we have already installed 12 such plaques, 4 of them at the assembly points in Crimea from where Jews were sent to be executed.


The memorial plaque dedicated to Maria Stanislavovna Pruss is currently in our plans. We must submit a formal application to the city administration and then to the bank, because in the building where the Prusses' apartment was located during the war (3 Gorky Street, Apt. 1), an office of the Central Bank operates today. We must obtain permission to install this memorial plaque specifically on this historical site.


The memorial plaques we plan to attach to certain houses in Simferopol are also dedicated to several brave priests of the Russian Orthodox Church who issued baptismal certificates to Jewish children and adults to save them from certain death. By this method, they preserved a number of Jews from destruction. The installation of these plaques also needs to be coordinated with both the city administration and the diocese.


Among the great figures deserving of our respect on whom documents were sent to Israel is V.I. Sobornov—the secretary of the Simferopol Civil Registry Office (ZAGS), a former teacher who issued fake birth certificates to Jewish children during the occupation. He gave these destitute orphans different names, surnames, and nationalities, working closely with the orphanage managed by Maria Pruss.


Yana Lyubarskaya: Is it known what subsequently became of V.I. Sobornov?


Boris Berlin: No. Unfortunately, his trail was completely lost during the Great Patriotic War, and today I have no additional information about him. I only know that together with his wife and daughter, he lived in Simferopol at 40 Roza Luxemburg Street.


To this rich kaleidoscope of forgotten heroes belongs the tragic story of the courageous Bishop Vikenty (Nikiporchik), a Belarusian by origin. In 1942, he was appointed rector of the Constantine and Helena Church in Simferopol. In October 1942, the bishop was detained for issuing baptismal certificates to Jewish children and hiding his grandson, a boy named Emmanuil, born in 1936, who was of Krymchak origin. Bishop Vikenty had issued a fake baptismal certificate for him from the Constantine and Helena Church, which was inactive at the time. During a search of his house, the boy was never found, and to this day no one knows where he went.


Bishop Vikenty was accused of "political untrustworthiness" as a priest of the Renovated Church (which the Germans considered Bolshevik-leaning). This compassionate man spent about two months in the SD building, was then sent to the concentration camp at the former "Krasny" State Farm, and was subsequently released from the camp and sent to Melitopol, where he was appointed minister at the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. It is known that during a service there, he addressed the congregation and said: "My dear children and parishioners, I will likely not be serving among you much longer." When the people asked him the reason, he explained that he was being persecuted for saving Jewish children. On January 6, 1943, Bishop Vikenty was arrested, and in early February 1943, he was executed by firing squad.


Yana Lyubarskaya: Yes, deeply tragic. What other Crimean priests helped Jews during the Holocaust?


Boris Berlin: According to witness testimonies and the content of discovered documents, another such Orthodox priest in Simferopol was Father Nikolay (Shvets), on whom I also sent documents to Yad Vashem. He similarly saved Jewish children.


Yana Lyubarskaya: Could you tell us about him in more detail, please?


Boris Berlin: Simferopol residents who remember Father Nikolay's services at All Saints Church, as well as his photographs, could not be found. As recorded in the press from residents' memoirs, he remained in memory as "kind, warm-hearted, tall, dark-haired with a full beard." Father Nikolay was opposed to this war and the Nazi regime from the start, resisting the horror as best he could. During the occupation of Crimea, his services and anti-fascist sermons never ceased.


His wife recalled that in early December 1941, Father Nikolay was summoned by the police: "He returned deeply agitated and said: 'The investigator accused me of failing to hold a Thanksgiving service in honor of the arrival of the Germans.'" Being a true patriot, he hated them and refused a proposal by Alexander Semyonov (head of the city administration's church department) and former teacher G. Orlov to donate money to the newspaper Golos Kryma, which praised the Nazis. They did not forget this refusal.


They also remembered the words of traitors that he, "saving Jews, Krymchaks, and Roma, issued them baptismal documents from the very beginning of the fascist occupation." Simferopol residents knew that he helped and approached him when it was necessary to save Jewish children, mixed-race children, and adults. On the night of January 3, 1942, policemen came to his apartment at 51 Krasnoznamyonnaya Street and arrested him. His younger brother Andrey collected over five hundred signatures from city residents vouching for Father Nikolay and delivered them to the church department head, but the official refused to help. The priest spent a month and a half in police prison, and then, following a new denunciation, was transferred to the SD prison. On February 28, 1942, Father Nikolay was executed. Bishop Vikenty, of whom I spoke earlier, was executed a year after this terrible event. Naturally, all these people deserve to be recognized as Righteous Among the Nations.


Yana Lyubarskaya: I agree. Why are you doing all of this?


Boris Berlin: I am convinced that to preserve our historical memory for future generations, it is vital that the heroic deeds of these people be permanently commemorated. These courageous, strong heroes are no longer in this world, and there is no one left to speak a good, kind word on their behalf. For this reason, I decided that I have the opportunity and responsibility to do it myself.

I must emphasize that it was not only the Pruss couple who risked their lives, but all the staff of that Simferopol orphanage, as well as the doctors who examined these children and realized they were looking at Jewish boys and girls. They were led, by the way, by a highly respected doctor in Crimea, Dr. Boris Sergeyevich Bom—a master surgeon and orthopedist who oversaw the orphanages, having received his education abroad before the revolution.


In fact, I cannot shake the feeling that a portion of these Jewish children, including Bishop Vikenty's grandson, was brought to Maria Pruss's orphanage by Naum Isidorovich Balaban—the Soviet psychiatric scholar, professor, and head of the psychiatric hospital in Simferopol. I deeply researched his life path; together with director Tatyana Miroshnik, we filmed a documentary about Balaban titled The Crimean Doctor and a feature film The Oath. I installed a memorial plaque for Balaban on the Simferopol hospital where he worked so successfully and from where he embarked on his final journey, arrested by the Nazis alongside his wife, born Princess Elizaveta Nelidova. In my plans is a comprehensive book about N.I. Balaban.


In total, the Pruss couple—Maria Stanislavovna (Russian by nationality) and Jan Martsevich (Latvian by nationality)—saved approximately 35 Jewish children from death.


Yana Lyubarskaya: What is known today about the biographies of the saved children?


Boris Berlin: In the State Archive of Crimea, there is a list of 25 Jewish children saved by Maria Stanislavovna, compiled by her own hand. For some of them on this list, only their new names and surnames—which they received at the orphanage—are recorded.


For example, Maya Roshchina became Nina Mikhailova at the orphanage. Her fate deserves special reader attention. Maya was already being led to an execution march, but she escaped and squeezed into the cab of a German driver, who covered her with a raincoat and brought her to this orphanage. Thus, under these monstrous circumstances, the little girl survived.


Bella Kaplan, who became Zoya Katalupenko at the orphanage, was 5 years old when she was brought to Pruss by German policemen to be taken away and shot the following day. In the end, they left her and returned two weeks later with a gas van (dushegubka). As proof that "Zoya" had died, the Germans demanded to be shown her grave. Maria Stanislavovna not only masterfully displayed a fake death certificate, but accompanied them to our old cemetery in Simferopol and pointed out the grave of another girl. Fortunately, they believed her, and Bella Kaplan survived.

Some of these Jewish children who passed through Pruss's orphanage were adopted during the war by foster families who fully understood the origins of their young wards. For this reason, their original Jewish names and surnames were unfortunately lost, making it virtually impossible to trace them today. As I mentioned earlier, four orphanages operated in Simferopol at that time, and to prevent the Germans from identifying who was being hidden where, Jewish children were transferred from one orphanage to another, effectively "confusing" their tracks. Fortunately, all these girls and boys subsequently survived.


Yana Lyubarskaya: I know that your parents were evacuated and thus survived. Did the Holocaust affect your immediate family overall?


Boris Berlin: In my family, during the war and the Holocaust, more than 32 people perished: my entire Jewish family, as well as my grandfathers and grandmothers on my mother's side, died in the city of Klintsy, Bryansk Region. In 1941, my grandfather Naum Izrailevich Meerson passed away. According to documents, he died on the transport ship Armenia in 1941, which sank under German bombardment, though exact details cannot be established today. I recently sent his letters to the "Holocaust" Center in Moscow. His last place of work was deputy chief physician of the Simferopol Psychiatric Hospital for financial and economic affairs.


My father's uncle, Alexander Izrailevich Berlin, along with his wife and three children, were shot at the 10th kilometer of the tragic Simferopol–Feodosia highway. There, too, perished the entire family and all the sisters of my great-grandmother Kreyla Meerson (née Levitina).


Yana Lyubarskaya: What are you working on today, now that the documents on all these people have been sent to Yad Vashem?


Boris Berlin: I continue my active work in the Crimean archive. I would very much like the Crimean security service to provide me with official certificates regarding the activities of the priests.


However, the data on these fearless, strong people is located in criminal investigative files, and I currently do not have the opportunity to access them. I regret this deeply, because all of this would certainly be useful for a positive decision by the Israeli commission on awarding the title of Righteous Among the Nations.


I dream that here in Russia, a similar title would also be instituted, so that we do not depend on anyone. I am deeply grateful to the philanthropist and president of the STMEGI Foundation, German Rashbilovich Zakharyayev, for initiating the inclusion of Victory Day in the Jewish religious calendar. The STMEGI media group, represented by documentary director, journalist, and editor Marat Mardakhayev, filmed a documentary titled May 26. Crimea, dedicated to the Holocaust in Crimea during the Nazi occupation of 1941–1944, and I participated in those shootings. Several talented documentary films about the Holocaust in Crimea were produced by our local television channels.

Taking this opportunity, I sincerely congratulate everyone on the 80th anniversary of the Great Victory! Bright memory to all heroes, survivors, and fallen...


Contact and Feedback Note

For those who wish to assist Boris Berlin in his research, support his projects, or provide additional information regarding his work, the author's email is provided for feedback: poliglott@mail.ru

 
 
 

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