Oleinik Aleksei & Anna

Oleinik, Aleksey Oleinik, Anna Aleksey and Anna Oleinik were living in the village of Molczanowka, Tarnopol District. After the occupation of the area by the German troops a working camp for the Jews was established in the nearby village of Kamionka. Among the camp inmates was Shlomo Willner, the former resident of Molczanowka and a good acquaintance of the Oleiniks from before the war. For a certain fee one of the camp guards used to let Shlomo secretly leave the camp once in a while, which was his opportunity to earn something and send it for his wife Pepa and an eight-year-old daughter Tova, the prisoners of the Skalat ghetto. Being in Molczanowka, he arranged with the Oleiniks that they would accept and hide his family after their planned escape from the ghetto. Aleksey Oleinik prepared a hiding place in a barn, behind the sheaves. Pepa and Tova arrived to Molczanowka one summer night in 1943 . A few days later Shlomo joined them; after spending some time together Shlomo decided not to return to the camp, as he always did before, but to stay with his family in hiding. The next day his absence was noticed and a reward for his capture announced. Since he had been seen in Molczanowka before, the police started searching that village scrupulously. The Oleiniks were known as Shlomo’s employees in the past and they became suspects. The Willners had to flee to the village of Chmelsk to Aleksey’s sister. But it turned to be no safer there and Shlomo chose to take his family to the forest, although the life in the forest was full of dangers. They joined a group of Jews who were also hiding in the forest. Once in a couple of days the group members were making raids to the surrounding villages in order to beg or steal food. In September 1943 Shlomo Wilner did not come back from a raid. Pepa and Tova remained in the forest for some time and then headed for the village of Skalat Stary, where Pepa’s brother was hiding. They were lucky to find the house of therescuers, the Bomok* family, and joined the other five Jews, that have been already hiding there. That was where they met the liberation in March 1944. After the war Pepa (Pnina) Willner and her daughter Tova (married name Zehavi) immigrated to Israel. In the 1990-es Tova renewed contacts with her rescuers. On November 6, 2006 Yad Vashem recognized Aleksey and Anna Oleinik as Righteous Among the Nations.