Zahajkewicz Bohdan ; Son: Orest ; Daughter: Melnichuk Yelena (Zahajkewicz); Son-In-Law: Melnichuk Eduard

Zahajkewycz, Bohdan Zahajkewycz, Orest Melnyczuk (Zahajkewycz), Helena Melnyczuk, Edward Bohdan Zahajkewycz was a literature teacher in a Ukrainian high school in the town of Przemyśl, Lwów District, Poland. He was widowed before the war and lived with his three children. His daughter Helena was a university student; his son Orest was in high school; and his youngest daughter was six years old. During the German occupation, the Zahajkewyczes hosted in their house a Ukrainian orphan, Edward Melnyczuk, who later became Helena’s husband. The Zahajkewyczes’ home had been a center for the local Ukrainian community, which made up almost one-third of the town’s population at the time. On September 1, 1943, Izydor (Icchak) Szefler and his wife, Ada (Esther) came to Zahajkewycz after escaping from the Przemyśl ghetto. In the 1930s, Szefler had been one of Zahajkewyczes’ students and he remembered his former teacher as a fair and humane individual. Zahajkewycz welcomed the two Jews warmly into his residence and hid them there for one year, until the Red Army liberated the area, on August 27, 1944. Throughout this time, Zahajkewycz and his family concerned themselves with the well-being of the couple, providing them with food and security despite endangering their own lives. After the liberation, Zahajkewycz and his family moved to the United States and their wartime charges immigrated to Israel. In the 1970s, Orest Zahajkewycz visited Israel and was the guest of the Szeflers. On January 23, 1975, Yad Vashem recognized Bohdan Zahajkewycz, his son, Orest Zahajkewycz, his daughter, Helena Melnyczuk, and her husband, Edward Melnyczuk, as Righteous Among the Nations.