Khabovietz Mikhail

Khabovets, Mikhail Mikhail (Mykhalko) Khabovets lived his whole life in the town of Ratno, district of Wołyń (today Ratne, Volyn’ District). He and his wife were pious Christians and they had six children, two of whom died during the German occupation due to the lack of proper medical care. Throughout the war, the door to the Khabovetses’ home was always open to Jews and escaped Soviet prisoners of war. Among the Jews that found temporary shelter there were Shlomo Perelmuter, Moshe Chaim Fuks, and the family of Mogilyanski, the local chemist. Seven other Jews hid for a longer period in the Khabovetses’ threshing room. Over time, and with the help of a good friend, Khabovets managed to escort some of the Jews to the village of Samary, from where they could join the partisans in the forests. Perelmuter, who moved to Eretz Israel in 1946, recalled that in the days of terror and fear Khabovets was for him an island of security in a stormy ocean. From after the war and until his death, Khabovets received letters from those he helped who had since moved to Canada, the United States, Argentina and Israel. On May 1, 1995, Yad Vashem recognized Mikhail Khabovets as Righteous Among the Nations.