When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, Olga Pleskach was living with Olga Khatskevich in Talachyn, Belarus. Pleskach helped in the household and took care of her friend’s three-year-old son Leonard.
After Talachyn’s capture by the German Wehrmacht, the Jews there were subject to persecution. Olga Khatskevich was of Jewish origin. She advised her non-Jewish friend to return to her home village of Khakhlouka for safety. Shortly after that, Khatskevich was in fact maltreated by the local police commander and locked inside her home. Pleskach learned of this and managed to free her and the child in time. She hid them both with her sister-in-law Maria Kostish. The police commander launched a search for them. Not wanting to endanger her sister-in-law, Pleskach and the mother and son fled further, walking to Orsha where relatives of Khatskevich’s non-Jewish husband lived. Pleskach gave her friend her birth certificate to hide her real identity. Olga and Leonard Khatskevich survived and remained close friends with Olga Pleskach until her death.
Olga Pleskach was honored as Righteous Among the Nations in 1999.