Matsiuk Homa & Natalia ; Daughter: Ukrainetz Solomiya (Matsiuk)

Matsyuk, Homa Matsyuk, Natalya Ukrainets (Matsyuk), Solomiya Homa Matsyuk lived in the village of Shchiborovka, Kamenets-Podolsk District (today Shchyborivka, Khmel’nyts’kyy District) and worked at the local kolkhoz. For a second income, Matsyuk also sold wood in the nearby towns – which is how he became acquainted with the Kats family. After the Germans conquered the area on July 8, 1941, Moisey and Betya Kats and their two young daughters were sent to the Starokonstantinov ghetto. Each day, the young and fit were sent to work and the elderly and children remained in the ghetto. One night, when Moisey and Betya were returning from slave labor, they were informed that their daughters had been murdered in a mass slaughter carried out inside the ghetto. They decided not to return to the ghetto but to join a group of Jews and Soviet soldiers that had formed in the forest. However, their attempt to do this failed and the Katses had to return to the town. On their way, the couple met Homa Matsyuk and they asked him if he would shelter them in his home if it became necessary. Matsyuk agreed, despite the danger involved with helping Jews. Not long after this arrangement was made, on November 29, 1941, during the final liquidation of the ghetto inmates, the Katses fled to Matsyuk’s home, where he lived with his wife, Natalya, and their five children. They hid the Jews in a haystack in the barn loft. The Matsyuks’ 13-year-old daughter Solomiya took care of the Jewish wards. She brought them food twice a day, emptied their waste bucket every night, and had long, comforting conversations with them. When the neighbors’ children discovered the presence of the hidden Jews, Solomiya and her father moved them into the house, where they hid for more than two whole years. When the Red Army was approaching the village, on March 7, 1944, Matsyuk ran out to guide them and, the following day, he was killed when a German shell hit the unit Matsyuk was walking with. On the day thevillage was liberated, the surviving members of the Kats and Matsyuk families buried Homa Matsyuk and together they mourned his death. The Katses maintained contact with the Matsyuk family for many years thereafter. On June 11, 1996, Yad Vashem recognized Homa and Natalya Matsyuk as Righteous Among the Nations. On July 26, 2000, Yad Vashem recognized Solomiya Ukrainets (née Matsyuk) as Righteous Among the Nations.