Chaichuk Ivan and Yaryna

Ivan and Yaryna Chaichuk lived on a small farm near the village of Rylivka in the Khmelnytskyi region, raising five children. During the German occupation, they provided shelter to the Jewish woman Bella Bren and her daughters Klara and Rakhil.

The couple knew Bella well. She was born and raised in the village of Rylivka, and after getting married, she moved to her husband in the town of Korets in the Rivne region. In September 1942, a large “Jewish action” was carried out in the town – 1,500 people were shot. Then Bella lost her husband and many of his relatives. So she decided to flee to her native village, hoping for help from her former neighbors.

The Chaichuk family were the first to whom Bella turned, and they immediately agreed to provide her with shelter. They hid the three Jewish women in a barn, an attic, and even a haystack in the field, depending on the weather. When rumors of raids spread, Bella and her daughters would move to the forest. Sometimes the Jews were sheltered by the Ukrainian Storozhuk family, who lived near the farm.

Ivan and Yaryna helped a Jewish family until the end of the German occupation, despite the risk of being shot along with their children.

After the war, Bella Bren and her daughters left the village and later emigrated to the United States. And the Chaichuk family fell out of favor with the Soviet authorities for their connections with Ukrainian rebels and were deported to Kazakhstan. So the connection between the rescuers and the rescued was broken for decades. Only in the 1990s did the descendants of the Ukrainian and Jewish families resume communication.

In 1999, Yad Vashem recognized Ivan and Yaryna Chaichuk as Righteous Among the Nations.