Boiko Maryna

Maryna Boyko lived on the outskirts of Vinnytsia. Before the war, the area was called Liudvykivka. The woman was elderly and lived alone. One day in May 1942, a nine-year-old boy asked to come to her house. His name was Yukhym Milman. He told Maryna his story about escaping from the Vinnytsia ghetto, where he had been with his parents.

According to Holocaust researcher Oleksandr Kruhlov, in the Zakopy tract in the village of Vinkivtsi (now the settlement of Vinkivtsi, Khmelnytskyi district, Khmelnytskyi region) on April 14, 1942, 1,975 Jews were shot, and on May 9, another 450 ones. Then Yukhym's parents also died, and he himself miraculously survived. In total, during the years of occupation in the Vinkivtsi ghetto, the Nazis executed 4,835 Jews.

Maryna, without hesitation, took the Jewish child into her home and took care of him throughout the German occupation. Sometimes they both had to live without food, and it became especially difficult when the boy fell ill with typhus. The woman treated him with folk methods.

After the war, she took Yukhym to an orphanage because, given her age, she could no longer take care of the child, and even after the illness, the boy needed special care. Then Yukhym was found by relatives, with whom he emigrated to Israel.

In 1995, Yad Vashem, based on the testimony of Yukhym Milman, posthumously recognized Maryna Boiko as Righteous Among the Nations.

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