Aleksander Novosad

During the German occupation, Aleksander Novosad, the eldest son of a large Belarusian family, worked as a baker in the town of Volkovysk, in the Grodno district. In early autumn 1941, when the Germans established a ghetto in the town, Novosad began to regularly help the Kaplinski family. Novosad had been friendly with one of the Kaplinskis’ sons, Yitzhak, before the war. For several months, Novosad regularly stole into the ghetto in order to bring the Kaplinskis food.  On the eve of the last Aktion in the ghetto, in November 1942, Yitzhak’s sister, eighteen-year-old Mira, managed to escape from the ghetto. She knew that Novosad would provide her shelter and after he tried but failed to hide her with some friends outside the town, he took her to his home. Mira stayed with Novosad until the liberation, in July 14, 1944.

The Novosads lived in an area that was hostile to Jews and their neighbors collaborated with the Germans, but Novosad took care to ensure that no one discovered his ward. During the day Mira hid in a hideout that Novosad prepared for her under the floor of his home. Novosad’s family members helped him look after her as much as they could. Shortly after the end of the war, Novosad married Mira and the two were inseparable until Novosad’s death in 1977.

On November 17, 1993, Yad Vashem recognized Aleksander Novosad as Righteous Among the Nations