Savchuk Lidia ; Mother: Nadezhda ; Father: Stepan

Savchuk, Stepan Savchuk, Nadezhda Savchuk, Lidiya Stepan Savchuk lived in Vinnitsa (today Vinnytsya) with his wife, Nadezhda, their daughter Lidiya and son Valentin. When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, Valentin enlisted in the Red Army and they had no contact with him until Vinnitsa was liberated, on March 20, 1944. Their concern for their son motivated them to afford shelter in their home, in March 1942, to a Soviet soldier who had escaped a POW camp. The soldier, who knew no one in Vinnitsa, introduced himself as Ivan Petrov but beyond that he spoke very little about himself. Over time, Petrov realized that Lidiya had some Jewish friends and that she and her parents often brought them food and hid them temporarily. He therefore decided to admit to them that he was Jewish, his name was Isaak Tartakovskiy, and he came from Kiev. Tartakovskiy had been captured, in September 1941, and had managed to escape. He reached Vinnitsa in the hope of finding work, sleeping in either public parks or abandoned houses. When he reached the Savchuks’ he was desperate. They afforded him shelter in their attic, and offered him encouragement, understanding and sympathy. In April 1943, when the Savchuk family was ordered to vacate their home so Germans could be billeted there, they moved out to a suburb with Tartakovskiy, where they introduced him as a family member. Tartakovskiy lived there openly and he only went into hiding in the attic when people came to the house to check identity papers. When Vinnitsa was liberated, Tartakovskiy returned to the ranks of the army and he later settled in Kiev, where he became a well-known artist. In 1951, he bumped into Lidiya Savchuk and renewed contact with her family. Two years later, Tartakovskiy and Lidiya married. On January 2, 1995, Yad Vashem recognized Stepan and Nadezhda Savchuk and their daughter, Lidiya, as Righteous Among the Nations.