Gutzol Peotr

Gutsol, Petro Petro Gutsol was born in the village of Loyevtsy, Kamenets-Podolsk District (today Loyivtsi, Khmel’nyts’kyy District), and lived with his parents and brothers. In 1942, the village council sent 20-year-old Gutsol to work as a driver on the outskirts of the town of Staraya Ushitsa (Stara Ushytsya), where a new road was being constructed. Many Jews had been brought to the area from nearby ghettos to work on the construction and Gutsol was appalled by the abuse and humiliation of these Jews. He therefore decided to do something to assist them, and, despite the prohibition against helping Jews, he brought them food. Later, Gutsol managed to obtain two documents made out in Ukrainian names, which he then handed over to Samuil Kats, a prewar acquaintance, and to Sofya Vilshtein. Gutsol then escorted these two Jews in his cart to a distant district, where they survived under their assumed identities until the liberation. Among the Jewish laborers that Gutsol met at the road construction site was 19-year-old Anna Birman, a resident of Staraya Ushitsa. She was the only surviving member of her family and Gutsol pitied her and decided to save her. He journeyed to his village and persuaded his younger sister Anna to hand him her identity card, which he planned to give to Birman. However, by the time he returned to the construction site, she had been moved with the other Jews to the Kamenets-Podolsk ghetto. For many weeks thereafter, Gutsol looked for a way to sneak Birman out of the ghetto, but to no avail. On October 31, 1942, the ghetto’s Jews, among them Birman, were taken away to be slaughtered. Gutsol headed for the death pits with the identity card for Birman and he approached a German guard. He tried to explain to him that his Ukrainian sister was mistakenly among the group of Jews that was to be killed, and to prove this he showed the guard his and his sister’s identity cards. The German struck Gutsol and tried to chase him from the area, but Gutsolwas persistent and repeated his story. The German turned to the Jews and asked in a loud voice if there was an Anna Gutsol among them. Birman immediately understood the ruse and ran towards Gutsol, called him “brother,” and hugged him. Gutsol and Birman left the area of the death pits but after taking only a few steps, a Ukrainian policeman accompanied by a German soldier stopped them. The Ukrainian yelled that he knew Birman and that she was Jewish, and he pushed her and Gutsol back towards the pit. At that moment, more German soldiers and officers reached the area and when they heard what had transpired, an officer ordered that Gutsol and Birman be returned to the city center to be publicly hanged later. The German soldier assigned to take the two back to the city tried to persuade the Ukrainian policeman to release them, saying that they were “only children.” However, the policeman would not relent so the soldier shot him and directed Gutsol and Birman to run away. They fled tens of kilometers on foot until they reached another district, and when Birman fell ill with typhus along the way, Gutsol looked after her devotedly. After the liberation, Gutsol brought Birman to his parents’ home, enlisted in the army and fought on the frontline. In 1946, after being released from his service, Gutsol and Birman married. On March 20, 1994, Yad Vashem recognized Petro Gutsol as Righteous Among the Nations.