Malankevich Ivan & Maria

Malankevich, Ivan Malankevich, Mariya Ivan and Mariya Malankevich lived in the town of Sambor in the district of Lwów (today Sambir, L’viv District). Before the war, Malankevich was a coal miner and in the course of his work he suffered a serious accident that left him crippled. In the same incident, his Polish friend was killed, leaving behind three orphans, Jozef Wojcik* (See volume Poland) and his siblings, Janek and Czeska. They came to live with the Malankeviches and their son, Slawek, and were treated as their own children. One day, in October 1942, Wojcik asked his adoptive parents if they would hide Artur Sandauer, his literature teacher, who had escaped from the Sambor ghetto during a German Aktion. The Malankeviches welcomed Sandauer into their home and he stayed there for a day, until the Aktion ended and he returned to the ghetto where he lived with his mother and sister. With the final liquidation of the ghetto, in June 1943, Sandauer returned to the Malankeviches’ home, this time with his mother, Bela-Berta, and sister Irena. Malankevich built a small hiding place for the three Jews in his pigsty, which was so small that all three of them could only sit or lie down. Once a day, the Malankeviches and Wojcik took their wards food. The Sandauers’ living conditions were harsh and they constantly suffered from fleas and scabies. Furthermore, they lived with the persistent fear of being discovered. When a passerby noticed the hidden Jews, Malankevich immediately moved them elsewhere. Mariya was so afraid that the police were about to show up and arrest them that she had a panic attack and in just one night her hair went white. The police never appeared at the Malankeviches’ house, though, and, after a few days, the Malankeviches told the Jews that they could return. They hid them in their house until the liberation, on August 7, 1944. After the war, the Sandauers, who were Polish citizens, returned to Poland, and Wojcik moved to Poland, too. ArturSandauer became a well-known author and a professor at Warsaw University; Bela-Berta and Irena (later Glanz) immigrated to Israel. The Malankeviches were exiled to Siberia and contact with them was lost. On November 7, 1990, Yad Vashem recognized Ivan and Mariya Malankevich as Righteous Among the Nations.