Hryhoryshyn Olena

Hryhoryshyn, Olena Olena Hryhoryshyn, a farmer in her 60s, lived with her brother in the village of Mykietyńce, district of Stanisławów (today Mykytyntsi, Ivano-Frankivs’k District). In September 1942, a relative asked Hryhoryshyn if she could afford shelter to a 12-year-old Jewish girl that was hiding alone in the forest. Hryhoryshyn agreed and followed instructions to reach the place where Donia Rosen was waiting for her. Hryhoryshyn hid Rosen in her home for a short time, until her brother, fearing her discovery, asked his sister to move her elsewhere. When Hryhoryshyn refused, her brother evicted her and her ward. The two of them hid with various friends in the village and its surrounds for some time and then came back home. Hryhoryshyn’s brother, sorry for his actions, allowed them back, but about three weeks later some local police came to the house. Rosen and Hryhoryshyn were brutally beaten and dragged out of the house along the village streets, so that all the local residents would see the punishment for hiding a Jew. They were doomed to public punishment but luckily escaped from their prison and ran away to the forest, where Hryhoryshyn dug a hole in the ground, covered it with dry twigs, and made it into Rosen’s “home” throughout the winter of 1942/43. Every night, Hryhoryshyn visited the Jewish girl, brought her food and warmed her frozen body. Hryhoryshyn’s devotion for Rosen was by this time so great that she paid no attention to her own safety but was solely concerned for the well-being of her charge. When the Red Army was approaching in spring 1944, a policeman discovered Rosen’s hiding place. She jumped into the Prut River and swam across it. On the other side, Rosen found herself surrounded by Red Army soldiers who took her to Kołomyja (Kolomyya) and from there to Cernăuţi (Chernivtsi). In 1947, Rosen arrived in Eretz Israel and she never again saw Hryhoryshyn. Years later, Rosen became the head of the Department of Righteous Among theNations at Yad Vashem, Jerusalem. In 1971, she published her memoirs and dedicated the book to Olena Hryhoryshyn. On June 15, 1965, Yad Vashem recognized Olena Hryhoryshyn as Righteous Among the Nations.