Vaschishin Denis & Vaschishina Zinaida ; Daughter: Ozhilevskaya Ieva (Vaschishin)

Vashchishin, Denis Vashchishin, Zinaida Ozhilevskaya (Vashchishin), Eva Denis and Zinaida Vashchishin lived with their five children in the village of Selets, Wołyń (today Rivne District). They knew the Fishman family of nearby Dąbrowica (Dubrovitsya) for many years. On July 9, 1941, the Germans conquered the area and when the local Jews were interned in the ghetto that was established in Dabrowica, the two families lost contact. When Vashchishin heard that on August 26-28, 1942 the Germans had liquidated the ghetto, he mourned the fate of his Jewish friends. Thus, he was astonished in October of that year when Moshe Fishman and his 12-year-old daughter Feiga appeared at his home. The two told the Vashchishins how they had escaped from the site where the Germans carried out the slaughter and since then they had been hiding in the surrounding forests. As winter was approaching, they had decided to ask the Vashchishins for shelter. Vashchishin welcomed them inside and after consulting with his wife and children, hid the Jewish father and daughter on his property. They harbored the two Fishmans for four months, until March 1943, in the attic of their granary, in the stable, and sometimes inside the house. When the snow subsided, Fishman decided to return to the forest in the hope of joining the Soviet partisans. Thereafter, he visited the Vashchishins once a week, at night, to see his daughter, to wash, and to take some food. After a period of many days during which Fishman did not appear, Vashchishin set off to look for him in a bunker in the forest where he often hid. He found the charred remains of the bunker and the corpses of Fishman and three other Jews. Following this, the Vashchishins decided that it would be safer to register Feiga as a domestic who was employed to take care of the ill Zinaida. Her name was changed to Christina and 16-year-old Eva Vashchishin taught her to speak fluent Ukrainian and Christian prayers. In late 1943, a visitor to thevillage recognized Feiga as Fishman’s daughter and the rumor of her true identity quickly spread. Vashchishin then fled with Feiga across the Horyn River and left her in an area where the partisans were active. Feiga was liberated in January 1944, and two months later she returned to the Vashchishins’ home. She was later adopted by the family of Ilya Ehrenburg, a famous Russian-Jewish writer, and went to live in Moscow. Feiga (later Faina Paleyeva) maintained contact with her wartime saviors for many years and, in 1990, she immigrated to Israel. On February 16, 1997, Yad Vashem recognized Denis and Zinaida Vashchishin and their daughter, Eva Ozhilevskaya, as Righteous Among the Nations.