Abramchuk Mikhailo & Katerina

Abramchuk, Mikhailo Abramchuk, Katerina Mikhailo and Katerina Abramchuk, farmers, lived with their three children in the village Chociemierz (today Khotymyr), between Tłumacz and Obertyn (Stanisławów District, today Ivano-Frankivsk). Among their fellow villagers was Judke Schwarz, a Jewish farmer and father of seven children, the eldest, Perla, being from his first late wife. After Judke remarried in the early 1930s, Perla moved to live with her maternal grandmother, Matilda Bergman, in Obertyn, but visited with her father often and knew the Abramchuks well. During the war, the region was first occupied by the Hungarians who were soon replaced by German forces. As soon as the Germans took over control of the area, the Jews of Chociemierz were forced to leave the village and move to ghettos established in nearby towns. The Abramchuks did not know what befell their Jewish neighbors until one morning, in late 1942, they found Perla hiding in the straw pile in their court. Perla, by then 18-years-old, looked ill and was suffering from a skin disease and malnutrition. She explained that she had run away from the ghetto in Kołomyja after her grandmother died and came to Chociemierz in search of her father’s family, but there were no Jews in the village. The Abramchuks suggested that she stay with them and she gratefully accepted the offer. A hiding place was prepared for her in the barn’s attic, and she remained there for the next year and a half. Katerina nursed Perla back to health, regularly providing her with food, and slowly easing her suffering. The Abramchuks’ oldest, teen-aged son, Iosif, was helpful in keeping her a secret from his younger brothers. When the Red Army liberated the area in March 1944, Perla was transferred to Husiatyn, to the hospital, where she spent several months. While in the hospital, she found out that her father and one of her half-brothers, had survived the war. In 1945, they were reunited in Chernivtsi and later immigrated to Israel.Perla Schwarz (later, Pepi Janowicz) maintained occasional contact with the Abramchuks and their children. On July 5, 2004, Yad Vashem recognized Mikhailo and Katerina Abramchuk as Righteous Among the Nations.