Shemeta Teklia ; Daughter: Tkachuk Uliana (Shemeta)

Shemeta, Teklya Tkachuk (Shemeta), Ulyana Teklya Shemeta, in her 50s, lived in the village of Verbovka, Vinnitsa District (today Verbivka, Vinnytsya District). In July 1941, the Germans conquered the area and in early 1943 her sons were sent to forced labor in Germany. A short time after that, Boris Shtivelman, a Jew from Khmelnik (Khmil’nyk) who knew Shemeta, appeared at her home. Shtivelman told Shemeta that the Khmelnik ghetto was about to be liquidated and he asked her to shelter him and his family in her home temporarily. Shemeta agreed and Shtivelman went to fetch his wife, Esther and their children, 12-year-old Ilya and seven-year-old Zinoviy. The Shemetas and their wards soon realized that the home was too small to safely hide four people. Thus, Shtivelman and his wife moved to a field, where Shemeta and her daughter Ulyana, prepared a hiding place for them in a haystack. Every night, Ulyana took the couple food and drink, reported on their sons and tried to raise their spirits. About one month later, one of Shemeta’s sons returned home after escaping from forced labor. Out of fear that the authorities would search for him at home, Shemeta took the siblings Ilya and Zinoviy to join their parents in the field. The Shtivelman family eventually managed to reach Transnistria, which was under Romanian control, where they lived in the Kopaygorod ghetto until the liberation, in March 1944. After the war, the Shtivelmans returned to Khmelnik and after Boris and Esther died, their children immigrated to Israel. On July 4, 1999, Yad Vashem recognized Teklya Shemeta and her daughter, Ulyana Tkachuk (née Shemeta), as Righteous Among the Nations.