Ivasiuk Grigori & Anna

Ivasyuk, Grigoriy Ivasyuk, Anna Grigoriy Ivasyuk and his wife, Anna, lived in the village of Strzelkowce, district of Tarnopol (today Strilkivtsi, Ternopil’ District) and worked on their own farm. Shortly after the German invasion of the USSR, the Ivasyuks welcomed a hired worker who went by the name Mykola into their home. No one in the village outside of the Ivasyuk family knew that his real name was Arie Warembrand and that he was from the adjacent village of Lisowce (Lysivtsi). Warembrand could move around using his alias thanks to his false identity papers and Ivasyuk’s support. In spring 1943, the Germans liquidated the remaining ghettos in the area and during the Aktion in the ghetto of nearby Borszczów (Borshchiv) more that a dozen Jews, including women and children, escaped to the forest. This group hid in a natural cave. Among those hiding there were Sam Stermer and his brother, Maria Goldberg and her brother Daniil, and Dodyk Fischel. As they had to approach villagers to obtain food, they turned to the Ivasyuks for assistance. It was known that the Ivasyuks were among the few that were willing to help. One night, the Stermer brothers reached the Ivasyuks’ home and requested some food and drink that they were willing to pay for. The Ivasyuks agreed to make the exchange and over the course of the following year, they regularly took supplies for the Jews to a pre-arranged drop-off place in the forest. On the day of the final liberation, in mid-April 1944, Ivasyuk journeyed to the forest and left a bottle at the drop-off point with a note attached to it reading: “We have been liberated.” The following day, the Jews that had survived the war thanks to the Ivasyuks’ assistance arrived at their home to express their gratitude. In addition to helping these Jews, in autumn 1943, Ivasyuk took Hirsh Kowaluk from Borszczów into his home and hid him there until the liberation. After the liberation the rescued left the Soviet Ukraine. Some of them immigrated toIsrael, the others moved to the United States and Australia. On September 14, 1995, Yad Vashem recognized Grigoriy and Anna Ivasyuk as Righteous Among the Nations.