Letters to the Editor: ‘Good people helping each other’: Readers on a story of survival in Ukraine war

To the editor: With tears streaming, I read your article on the descendants of Ukrainian Holocaust survivors helping the descendants of the family that sheltered their ancestors during World War II.

My late mother was from Kharkov, Ukraine (now known as Kharkiv). She was a survivor who never spoke of what really happened to her parents, brother and one sister who did not survive. She was “lucky” to be evacuated to Siberia and live.

To read about the Bogancha family’s righteousness during World War II, and how now a group of individuals came together to help this family’s descendants during the present war in Ukraine, is a lesson to be taught. In a time when antisemitism is on the rise and more people deny or do not want to remember the past, I am heartened to see this emotional story on the front page, and on the day before Passover.

As was said in your article, good deeds will be paid back 1,000 times.

Esther Friedberg, Studio City

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To the editor: What a moving piece about the Ukrainian Bogancha family and their son who is attending college in Santa Monica.

I’m part of a group from Congregation Adat Shalom in West L.A. and Temple Akiba in Culver City helping to settle the rest of the family once they arrive from Austria, settling them either in Santa Monica or in Culver City. We are connected to and aided by HIAS, an organization that helps settle refugees. Their arrival will be another joyous reunion at LAX.

Personally, my father was aided by HIAS 100 years ago this year. Helping this family of Ukrainian refugees is a most important endeavor.

Sandra Helman, Venice

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To the editor: I was thrilled seeing the front page of Tuesday’s L.A. Times. There was no war, no corruption, no tornadoes, no floods, no murders.

There was a great feature on how one generation helped another in modern times. It was heartwarming to read about good people helping each other.

I was amazed at how Marina Orlovetsky found Anna Dawson, a Ukrainian Holocaust survivor living in the U.S., and then Alex Bogancha in Ukraine. I cried when I read Anna died just before Alex arrived in the U.S. I laughed when I read Alex loves L.A. and went to the beach, the Santa Monica Pier, Malibu and Hollywood, and is looking forward to visiting Disneyland once the rest of his family arrives.

Thank you for reporting this uplifting story.

Leslye Borden, Rancho Palos Verdes