Grigori and Pran Tashchyan were survivors of the Armenian genocide that took place in Turkey during World War I. Pran’s first husband, her two children and most of her relatives had been murdered, and both Grigori and Pran were left permanently changed by the tragedy.

They had immigrated to what is now Ukraine by the time the Nazis attacked the Soviet Union. As the mass murder of their town’s Jews began, the Tashchyans could not stand idly by. They hid a family of Jewish children in their home for over two years, until the liberation. When the Soviets came to power again, the Tashchyans were deported, and eventually forced back to Armenia. They never lost touch with the family they helped save.