Yarmolyuk Aleksandr & Vasilina

Yarmolyuk, Aleksandr Yarmolyuk, Vasylyna Aleksandr and Vasylyna Yarmolyuk, well-to-do farmers who had no children, lived in the town of Majdan, Wołyń (today Maydan, Volyn’ District). One day in the summer of 1942, Adam Korniychuk, Vasylyna’s brother, who was mayor of Majdan during the German occupation, visited their home. He told them about a peasant who had brought him an abandoned infant, with a note attached to its blanket stating it had been born out of wedlock and the mother was unable to raise it. The mayor recognized the infant as the daughter of the Leikachs, interned in the Kowel ghetto, and was uncertain what he should do with it. Vasylyna and her husband persuaded him to give them the child. They baptized the child, gave her a Ukrainian name, and throughout the occupation cared for her with love and devotion. They did not know that the baby’s parents, Zelda and Motl Leikach, were following their daughter’s fate from a distance, and knew she was well and in good hands. Throughout a long period, the Leikachs hid in the forests and during a search they were caught and deported to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. After the camp was liberated, they returned to Majdan and were glad to find that their daughter was still with the Yarmolyuks. In 1945, the child was returned to her biological parents and learned that her real name was Marsha. Shortly thereafter the Leikach family moved to the United States. It was only in 1967 that Marsha (then Tishler) was able to visit Ukraine, where she met with Vasylyna, who had looked after her during all the difficult years of the war. On September 25, 1986, Yad Vashem recognized Aleksandr and Vasylyna Yarmolyuk as Righteous Among the Nations.