Tishkovets Semion & Zinaida ; Son: Filipp ; Son: Andrey ; Son: Maksim ; Daughter: Ustina ; Daughter: Anna

Tishkovets, Semeon Tishkovets, Zinaida Tishkovets, Filipp Tishkovets, Anna Tishkovets, Ustina Tishkovets, Andrey Tishkovets, Maksim Kurishko, Ivan Kurishko, Ulita On the eve of World War II, the Jewish Bodniuk-Kratsman family was living in the village of Karasin (Volhynia, today Rivne District). Miriam was a seamstress, and through her trade she came to know most of the villagers, including the Tishkovets and Kurishko families, whose homes bordered on the edge of the forest. After the occupation of the area, the Germans concentrated the Jews of the vicinity into the Dabrowica ghetto in that same district. In August 1942, the Germans conducted a killing operation (Aktion) to kill out the Jews of the ghetto. Yehuda Bodniuk-Kratsman, his wife, Miriam, their two daughters, 11-year-old Gitla and eight-year-old Nekhama, and their baby, which had been born in the ghetto, six-month-old Aizik, fled to the forest. As they were running, Nekhama was hit by a bullet and died on the spot. The rest of the family made it safely into the forest. After wandering around amongst the trees and the neighboring villages, they arrived at the Tishkovets family farm. Semeon Tishkovets responded to Yehuda's request for assistance, and helped him and his family to survive in the forest near his farm. Zinaida Tishkovets and her daughters, Anna and Ustina, would prepare food for the fugitives, while Filipp, Andrey, and Maksim, the Tishkovets boys, would take it in carts out to the hiding place. The Bodniuk-Kratsman’s were also aided by their former neighbors in Karasin, Ivan and Ulita Kurishko, and their four children. In the fall of 1942, another Jew, Naftali (Tolia) Perelmuter, the son of a blacksmith who had been in the Dabrowica ghetto, also came to the Tishkovets home, and they took him in as well. In the fall and winter seasons, the two families would hide the Jews on their farms despite the danger looming as a result of the constant searches carried out by the Germans andtheir collaborators for hidden Jews. The Jewish fugitives helped their rescuers with the housework; Miriam would use her skills to sew clothing for everyone. They all succeeded in surviving until the liberation of the area by the Red Army in January 1944. After the liberation, the survivors moved to Sarny, but even though the Nazi threat to their lives had ended, they were not clear of danger yet. The ultra-nationalist Ukrainians, who were opposed to the new regime, continued to persecute both Jews and Poles. The Kurishkos, who had helped the Jews when they were in trouble, now became the persecuted. In March 1944, Ivan Kurishko was caught by a gang of Ukrainian ultra-nationalists and cruelly murdered. They beheaded him and presented his head to the villagers. They then hung a sign on his house explaining that he had been punished for helping Jews. Now the tables were turned and the Tishkovets family fled to Sarny to hide with the Bodniuk-Kratsman family. Talimon, Ustina's husband, who remained in the village, was later murdered and Ustina herself was murdered by the same gang about two years later, in 1946, at the door of her home. In 1947 the Bodniuk-Kratsman family left the Ukraine via Poland and immigrated to Mandatory Palestine. The relations between them and their rescuers and their descendants continued for many years. On January 15, 2006, Yad Vashem recognized Semeon and Zinaida Tishkovets, their children, Filipp, Anna, Ustina, Andrey, and Maksim Tishkovets, as well as Ivan and Ulita Kurishko as Righteous Among the Nations.