Krechik Prokop & Anna ; Son: Peotr ; Daughter-In-Law: Marta

Krechik, Prokop Krechik, Anna Krechik, Pyotr Krechik, Marta Prokop and Anna Krechik, pious Baptists from the village of Bielska Wola (today Bil’s’ka Volya, Volyn’ District), were living with their son, Pyotr, and his wife, Marta, and their young daughter, Katya. The family was friends with the Melameds, a Jewish family of six souls. On May 1, 1942, about a year after the area was conquered by the Germans, the Jews, among them the Melameds, were confined into a ghetto that was established in the town of Nowa Rafałówka (now Nova Rafalivka). One of the girls in the family, Meita, b.1928, was employed in the kitchen of a lumber factory in Bielska Wola. One day in August 1942, a policeman – who had been a janitor at her school before the war – told her to run and hide because the Jews were about to be murdered. A Jew who had escaped from the ghetto gave her the address of the Krechiks, on the assumption that she would be able to find a safe haven there. Meita’s mother and sister were murdered around this time. Meita arrived at the Krechiks’ home with her father, Arel, and her two brothers, Alter and Shraga. They were given refuge in the attic and provided with food and clothing. Other Jewish families also found shelter in the house. After three months in the house, during the fall and winter of 1942, all the Jews decided to move to the forest. From there, one person out of the group would make his way back to the Krechiks’ home each night to obtain food for the rest of the group. The Krechiks continued to help the Jewish fugitives until the liberation of the area by the Red Army in February 1944. Meita Melamed (later, Luba Shimon) immigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1946. She maintained warm ties with her rescuers for many years after the war. On February 13, 2005, Yad Vashem recognized Prokop and Anna Krechik and their son, Pyotr Krechik, and his wife Mariya Krechik, as Righteous Among the Nations.