Ivanova Olha, Velmyk Sydir, Maryna and Teklia

During the Nazi occupation, Olha Ivanova and her daughter Pelaheia lived on the outskirts of Berdychiv in the Zhytomyr region. She worked at a tannery. Her husband was mobilized to the front.

A month after the occupation of the city by parts of the Wehrmacht, a mass resettlement of Jews to a ghetto created in the area of ​​the city market began. On August 25, the headquarters of the SS Obergruppenführer and General of Police in the occupied territories Friedrich Jeckeln arrived in Berdychiv. On the same day, his headquarters company began mass shootings of the Jewish population – 546 people were executed. On August 27, about 2 thousand people, mostly women and children, were taken to the village of Bystryk and shot there. The extermination actions continued in September.

One day, a woman knocked on Olha's door and asked for food for her child. It was Mindlia Kuptsova. She was lucky enough to escape from the shooting scene with her three-year-old son Mendel Rozenberh. The hostess fed the fugitives and, despite the risk, invited the Jewish woman to stay with her. For several months, they lived in the Ivanovs' house. Mindlia earned a living by sewing clothes that Olha sold at the market. But one day Olha's neighbors began to wonder why there was so much screaming in her house, because it was almost impossible to get Mendel and Pelaheia to sit quietly. The kids wanted to play and expressed their emotions quite loudly. So Olha suggested that Mindlia move to her friend's house in the neighboring village of Raiky. The women left Pelaheia at home, and Mendel, dressed as a girl, was taken with them. Olha took her sewing machine so that Mindlia could also earn money by tailoring in her new place. In the village of Raiky, Olha handed over her charges to the Velmyk family. Sydir and Maryna worked a lot in the fields, so they entrusted all the housework to Mindlia – she cooked, washed, and slaughtered cattle. The Velmyk's eldest daughter Teklia helped look after little Mendel. In the village, the Jewish woman and her son felt relatively safe and lived with a Ukrainian family until the Nazis were expelled from the region. In January 1944, the escapees returned to their native city of Berdychiv.

As an adult, Mendel emigrated to Israel. The man knew the story of his salvation and always warmly remembered the Ukrainians to whom he owed his life. In 2000, Yad Vashem recognized Olha Ivanova, Sydir and Maryna Velmyk, and their daughter Teklia as Righteous Among the Nations.

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