Shevchuk Lavrenti & Yevdokia ; Son: Vasily

Shevchuk, Lavrentiy Shevchuk, Yevdokiya Shevchuk, Vasiliy Lavrentiy Shevchuk, his wife, Yevdokiya, and their three children were farmers living in the village of Łanowce, Wołyń (today Lanivtsi, Ternopil’ District). In early July 1941, the Germans conquered the area and one morning in spring 1943, Shevchuk found two Jews hidden in his stable. One of them, Moshe Gelman, had been Shevchuk’s son Vasiliy’s teacher before the war and the other Jew was Moshe Galer from Tarnopol (Ternopil’), a friend of Gelman’s. The two asked Shevchuk if they could stay in his stable until nightfall and after Shevchuk agreed, his wife brought them warm milk and a blanket. One day passed, then two, and as Shevchuk realized that the two Jews had nowhere to go, he invited them to remain with his family. Initially, they slept on a haystack in the stable and they later dug a hole that they hid in. Once a day, Shevchuk or his wife brought their wards food and as a way of contributing toward their upkeep, Gelman and Galer took care of the horse and busied themselves with threshing in the stable. Vasiliy regularly visited the two Jews, kept them up-to-date with the news and tried to raise their spirits. Gelman and Galer hid in the Shevchuks’ stable for almost a year. They only left it on one occasion when they were hidden in a hiding place in a nearby field while the Germans were carrying out house searches. In March 1944, the Red Army liberated the area and the two Jews were free. Gelman returned to school in Łanowce and Galer settled in Zbaraż (Zbarazh). They both visited their wartime rescuers regularly, and this connection angered the local Ukrainian nationalists, who attacked Vasiliy when he was 17 years old and killed him. Gelman and Galer later left the Soviet Union – Gelman moved to Israel and Galer immigrated to the United States. They both maintained contact with the Shevchuks for many years. On February 10, 1997, Yad Vashem recognized Lavrentiy and Yevdokiya Shevchuk and theirson, Vasiliy Shevchuk, as Righteous Among the Nations.