Medynski Mikolay & Medynskaya Olga

Medynskiy, Mikolay Medynskaya, Olga Mikolay and Olga Medynskiy were young farmers living and working in the village of Sawaryn, Tarnopol District (today does not exist, L’viv District). In February 1944, they heard a girl’s voice calling from outside their window, asking to come in to warm herself up. The girl was Dzyunya Olsker, the daughter of the owner of a grocery store in the nearby town of Podkamień (Pidkamin’), and the Medynskiys warmly welcomed her into their home. Olsker was provided with clothes, warmed herself by the hearth, drank a glass of warm milk, and felt the comfort of a home for the first time in ages. Only a few hours previously, she had been hiding in a cold, dank cellar in a village, from which she had managed to flee when Ukrainian nationalists discovered the hideaway. Olsker was the only one of her ten-member family that escaped the clutches of the murderous intruders. Olsker left the Medynskiys the following morning and, on her request, they accompanied her on their sled to the forest, where Olsker hoped to find some acquaintances. Olsker later testified that the night she spent with the Medynskiys had saved her life. After the war, she immigrated to Israel and the Medynskiys moved to the United States. On March 18, 1993, Yad Vashem recognized Mikolay and Olga Medynskiy as Righteous Among the Nations.