Ryschuk Fedor & Vera

Ryshchuk, Feodor Ryshchuk, Vera Vera and Feodor Ryshchuk, were farmers and lived with their two sons in the village of Równe (today Rivne, Volyn’ District). Nearby lived a Jewish family, Moisei and Elka Bar, with their two daughters, Etta and Estra. On June 25, 1941, the Germans occupied Luboml and the vicinity. The Jews of Równe were evicted from their homes and sent to the ghetto that was established in the nearby town of Opalin. Some of the men, including Moisei, were separated from the women and children and moved to a separate camp in Luboml. Moisei died there. In order to survive, Elka was forced to go outside the ghetto and ask farmers for food. On one of these occasions, in the fall of 1942, her nine-year-old Estra joined her. Little Etta remained in the ghetto with her cousin, Sima, whose parents had been deported to Siberia a few days before the German invasion to the Soviet Union. While they were gone, a killing operation to liquidate the ghetto was carried out on October 2, during which Etta and Sima were murdered. When Elka and Estra returned to Opalin, they saw the ruins where the houses of the Jews had been standing and understood what had happened. They returned to the village of Równe and began hiding in the fields or barns of farmers, without their knowledge. Some of the locals knew of their presence and helped them, but the majority of the people was hostile towards them and was prepared to hand them over to the police. The Ryshchuk family was among the villagers that they trusted. They never closed their door on the mother and daughter and always gave them a slice of bread or a bowl of soup. When winter set in and the Bars could no longer hide in the fields and the forest, the Ryshchuks hid them in the attic of their home. All the members of the Ryshchuk family, including the sons, Ivan and Vladimir, shared in the secret and helped hide the Bars until the liberation in July 1944. In addition to the Germans and their Ukrainian accomplices,they all had to fear the ultra-nationalist Bandera partisans who were hunting down Jews in the villages and homes of the farmers and meting out punishment to those of their fellow Ukrainians who were helping the Jews. After the liberation, the two survivors settled in Luboml. Elka remarried, had another daughter, and all her life remained in close touch with the Ryshchuk family. Estra (later, Markina) moved to Odessa and stayed in touch via correspondence with the sons of her rescuers, Ivan and Vladimir. On February 11, 2001, Yad Vashem recognized Feodor and Vera Ryshchuk as Righteous Among the Nations.