John and Felice Le Breton, farmers from the British island of Jersey, have been posthumously awarded the Order of Friendship for their bravery and humanity during World War II. They secretly sheltered a Soviet soldier from Uzbekistan, Bokijon Akramov, who escaped from a Nazi labor camp, for over two years.

In summer 1940, after France fell to Nazi Germany, Britain decided not to defend the Channel Islands and withdrew its troops from Jersey. From autumn 1941, the Nazis brought prisoners to the island to build fortifications. Among them was Bokijon Akramov, captured in present-day Ukraine. In his diaries, he wrote about harsh labor, starvation, and beatings.

On April 27, 1943, Bokijon decided to escape and hid in the fields for three months. He then knocked on the door of the Le Breton family. Despite the risk to themselves and their four young children, John and Felice agreed to hide him. They lived together for more than two years.

After Jersey's liberation in May 1945, Bokijon was repatriated to the USSR. He promised to write, but soon the letters stopped. Decades later, BBC journalist Olga Ivshina traced his fate and visited his home in Namangan, Uzbekistan, where she met his relatives.

Bokijon Akramov lived a long life and died in 1996 at age 86. His grandson Shamsiddin Okhunboev said: "We never knew where our grandfather was during the war or what he did. He always refused to talk about it. Thanks to good people like you, he survived! Now we know that our existence is thanks to your family."

Dulcie Le Breton, now 90, still keeps Bokijon's photo on her kitchen table. The family had no news of him for over 80 years. Now, thanks to the BBC, their story of courage and humanity has reached the world.

Source: www.gazeta.uz