Hrohul Ihnatiy, Varvara, Stepan and Yevhenia

A significant part of the population of most towns in Western Ukraine before the Second World War were Jews. The town of Dubno in the Rivne region was no exception. According to the 1897 census, there were 5,608 Jews (out of a population of 13,785).

On June 25, 1941, the town was occupied by the Wehrmacht. At that time, there were about 12,000 Jews among its inhabitants. Those who did not evacuate with the Red Army during the retreatment were in a hopeless situation. Even before the establishment of the ghetto in April 1942, the Nazis shot more than a thousand Jews in the town. About 8,000 people were deported to the ghetto. On May 27, 1942, about 3.8 thousand of its inhabitants were executed.

In May 1942, the Germans killed more than half of the prisoners. Others were shot in the summer and fall.

According to Alfred Kvarczak, a native of Dubno, the Righteous Among the Nations, whose family sheltered 15 persecuted people, the Nazis killed about 17,000 Jews in Dubno, not only locals but also residents of surrounding towns and villages.

Few Jews in Dubno survived the Holocaust. Among them was Miriam Drukh (maiden name Yakira), who was then nine years old.

The girl was rescued by the priest Ihnatiy Hrohul and his relatives from the village of Velyki Zahirtsi, 8 km from Dubno. Locals say that many families from this village, which lies among the hills of the Povchanska Upland, hid Jews. But the title of Righteous Among the Nations was awarded only to Hrohul.

Miriam's father arranged with the priest to give her shelter. Miriam was secretly taken out of the ghetto, given peasant clothes and documents in another name.

    “My father said that now my name was Marusia, not Manechka, my mother lived in Kharkiv, and I was looking for a place for a shepherdess in the villages. In a warehouse full of sacks of grain, I saw for the first time a tall, serious man dressed in a robe. I was taken to the forest, where a young peasant woman was waiting. She took me somewhere along a forest path for a long time. In the end of the forest, she left me, and I continued on my way alone. I began to ask people if anyone needed a shepherdess. It was the only phrase I knew in Ukrainian. Then I went to the house I was pointed out to, and there I saw priest and his daughter Zhenia [Yevhenia], the same girl who was leading me through the woods. At the same time, I met the young man's wife, and later – their son Stepan, a young and handsome young man. I stayed in this house”. From the memories of Miriam Drukh

At first, Miriam lived openly in the village: she grazed cows and did other housework. However, once Marusia heard an acquaintance of her parents told about the murder of her brother, and a notebook with contacts of acquaintances was found. The woman offered to strangle the "little Jew" to avoid danger. The Hrohuls organized fake departure of Marusia, and when the threat passed, they returned her. In fact, all this time she was hiding in a shelter under the house.

    “I hid from everyone. If I walked around the house freely, the windows were curtained, the doors were closed, and I was guarded inside and out. When the dog barked as a stranger came, I was immediately hidden. I remember very well how a dog barked loudly once – the Germans were coming. I managed to run to another room and hide under the bed, which was covered with a carpet of colored goat wool, which hung almost to the floor. And the Germans were already in the room. I lay quietly and heard their footsteps and voices, saw their black boots. They turned, searched and left, but the fear did not leave our hearts”. From the memories of Miriam Drukh

But one day the Germans came to the priest's house again. The occupiers tried to talk to Miriam, who was setting the table for them. The girl pretended not to understand them, although the Yiddish language is very similar to German.

    "One German told another that he saw in my eyes that I understood them, and I was probably a Jew. Priest and his family were very frightened and decided to run away from home. We hurried to the forest ... The Germans noticed and started firing. We ran towards the forest, and bullets whistled overhead". From the memories of Miriam Drukh

In the last days of the Nazi occupation, the family waited in the woods. After the arrival of Soviet troops, Ihnatiy took the girl back to Dubno. But neither Marusia's parents nor her older brother and sister were alive.

Later, her cousin Eliyakhu Yakira was found, who was rescued by a Polish family from the village of Vladyslavivka. He and his wife Irena became Marusia's guardians and went to the West with her.

Ihnatiy Hrohul's family did not live long in the village of Velyki Zahirtsi. After the war, the priest received another parish and moved to a new place of service. Few locals remember the outstanding countryman. It's not even about honoring his memory by unveiling a plaque or naming a street.

On January 27, 1993, Yad Vashem awarded the priest Ihnatiy Hrohul, his wife, and children the honorary title of Righteous Among the Nations. The awards were presented to Stepan Hrohul's son during his visit to Israel that year.