Wasilenko Michał

Wasilenko, Michał Michał Wasilenko lived in the village of Lanowce near Tarnopol. He was the son of a Polish mother and a Ukrainian father. In 1942, he was staying in the village of Dobranowka, and there he met Rivka Kremer, a pre-war neighbor of his. Rivka and her sister Bronia worked in the labor camp situated in the farm of Dobranowka. During one of their meetings, Michał told them that he had a dream about their late father and in the dream he asked him to save his daughters. Parting with Rivka and Bronia, he said he had arranged a shelter for them in the garret of the house where his grandmother had lived. One day, an acquaintance of Rivka told her that the liquidation of the ghetto was about to begin, so Rivka and her sister escaped. For three days, they hid themselves in a field. Afterwards, during a rainy night, they reached the shelter set up by Michał. The latter took care of the sisters and their nutritional needs. He never asked them for anything in return, but he wasn’t shy about telling the sisters that after the war he would want their help in getting him to America. But he never asked for any reward for his help, emphasized Rivka Kremer in her testimony. Michał’s mother also knew about the two Jewish sisters. She used to cook meals for them and wash their clothes. After the war, Rivka and Bronia both stayed in Poland and, in 1950, they left for Israel. Rivka maintained contact with Michał, who stayed in Poland. On March 3, 1983, Yad Vashem recognized Michał Wasilenko as Righteous Among the Nations.