Pokhodenko Peotr

Pokhodenko, Petro In autumn 1939, only a few weeks after the Soviet Union annexed eastern Poland, a Soviet military unit arrived in Obertyn, in the disrict of Stanisławów (today Ivano-Frankivs’k District). The unit’s officers, among them young Petro Pokhodenko, were billeted in private homes in the area. Pokhodenko moved in with the family of Lea Baran, who lived with her children, Moshe, Hersh, and 19-year-old Sonya. Pokhodenko stayed with the Barans for six months, during which time he became very friendly with the children. When he had to move on to the town of Kołomyja (Kolomyya), he rented a room from Baran’s sister. When the Germans invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, Pokhodenko’s unit was moved to the front and on his way he passed through Obertyn, where he stopped to bid farewell to the Baran family and to suggest that they move deeper into the Soviet Union. However, they could not do so and they found themselves living under German occupation. Pokhodenko was lightly wounded in battle and became a prisoner of war. He managed to escape in February 1942 and his first concern was to check on the Baran family, so he headed straight for Obertyn. As soon as Pokhodenko reached Stanisławów, he saw how cruelly the Germans were treating the Jews. In late March 1942, he reached the outskirts of Obertyn and sent a friend who was a resident of the village of Zhukov (Zhukiv), to find out what had become of the Barans. The friend returned to Pokhodenko with Hersh Baran, who told Pokhodenko that his brother Moshe and his aunt’s family in Kołomyja had been killed. Pokhodenko devised a plan for the surviving members of the Baran family to escape to the Romanian-controlled area. The plan did not work though and Pokhodenko did not return to see Baran and her family until autumn 1942, by which time the Jews of Obertyn were working as slave laborers in Zhukov. There, Pokhodenko found a hiding place for the Barans in an isolated cabin that belonged to a farmer who agreed not toinform on the Jewish family after Pokhodenko threatened him. Pokhodenko took care of his wards, regularly bringing them food and water. The Barans hid in the cabin from November 1942, until the liberation, in spring 1944. During this time, Sonya Baran lived in Pokhodenko’s home in Torgovitsa (Torhovytsya), and the two pretended to be husband and wife. When the Red Army liberated the area, Pokhodenko returned to its ranks and served until 1946. Later that year, he married Sonya Baran. On October 20, 1997, Yad Vashem recognized Petro Pokhodenko as Righteous Among the Nations.