Rakhil Kozyra

Year of birth 1897
Date of arrest 29.09.1941
Place of death Babyn Yar
Date of death 29.09.1941
Location of the Stumbling Stone Volodymyrska Street, 1
Stumbling Stone installation date 5 October 2021

Research teams

Life story

Rakhil Kozyra was born on May 5, 1897, in the village of Ihnativka, Kyiv Region.

Rakhil worked as a teacher at school No. 25. According to her granddaughter’s story, her husband Yakiv was a Red Army soldier and survived the war. The couple had two children: a daughter, Halyna, and a son, Leonid.

The children were rescued by the family of Yakiv’s brother, Andrian. Nadiia, Rakhil’s niece, persuaded her aunt not to take the children with her to the so-called assembly point for Jews. Nadiia took the children away to her home, where they lived until their father returned from the front in 1944. Andrian, his wife Mariia, and daughter Nadiia were honoured with the title of Righteous Among the Nations. 

On September 29, Rakhil and her parents went to the ordered assembly point for Jews and never returned. Rakhil perished in Babyn Yar at the age of 44.