Kravchuk Tetiana and Arsenii

Tetiana Kravchuk and her son Arsenii lived in the village of Mala Tatarnivka (now the village of Malosilka, Berdychiv district) in the Zhytomyr region. In June 1942, during the Nazi occupation, they sheltered a Jewess, Miriam Asnis in their home. This was especially risky in the sense that the entire district knew her grandfather, the blacksmith Avrum Shafran, well. Before the war, Miriam lived in the neighboring village of Chudniv (now the city of Chudniv, Zhytomyr district).

The village was occupied on July 7, 1941, and a week later, on July 15, the Nazis organized an open ghetto. The first mass shooting took place on September 9. The occupiers herded about 900 Jews into the cinema building, and then transported them by trucks to the southern outskirts of the village of Chudniv and executed them. The next two mass shootings took place on October 16 and 22. Miriam was lucky to get out of the village. She sought salvation from local villagers. Tetiana agreed to shelter a Jewish woman, despite the suspicions and threats of her neighbors. Once her teenage son Arsenii was beaten by local boys, demanding confirmation whether his mother was really hiding a Jewish woman.

Miriam Asnis stayed in the Kravchuk house until the spring of 1944, when the Nazis were expelled. After the war, she married and later emigrated with her family to the United States. The Jewish woman was always grateful to the Ukrainian family for saving her life.

In 1995, Yad Vashem recognized Tetiana Kravchuk as Righteous Among the Nations, and in 2001, her son Arsenii Kravchuk also received this title.

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