Vitiuk Martin

Vityuk, Martin Martin Vityuk, b.1900, was living with his wife and children in the village of Klekotów (today Klekotiv, L’viv District). On June 30, 1941, the area was occupied by German troops. Two years later, in June 1943, Martin encountered Leib Blaustejn, Benjo Ponikwer, and Kalman Hornik in the forest not far from his village. They had escaped from the labor camp in Brody on the eve of it’s liquidation on May 25. After wandering for more than two weeks, they approached Martin, who agreed to help them given their desperate situation. From then on and until the liberation of Brody by Soviet troops on July 19, 1944, he would bring supplies to the hiding Jews, all the while keeping the real aim of his trips to the forest secret even from his own family. After the liberation, when the Jewish survivors came to Klekotów to thank their rescuer, Martin’s involvement in saving Jews became public knowledge. His fellow villagers did not consider it to be a great honor and laughed at him, calling him a “Jewish Bolshevik agent.” Word about Martin’s actions reached the ears of the Ukrainian ultra-nationalists who hated Jews and also identified them with communists, which they also hated. On May 17, 1946, Martin fell victim to their vengeance. The rescued were not in Brody when it happened; they were already in Poland at the time. Later, Leib Blaustejn settled in Israel. On November 3, 2004, Yad Vashem recognized Martin Vityuk as Righteous Among the Nations.