Bank of Portraits / Ambruzhuk Fedir and Hanna, Chemeryski Yevdokiia, Frosyna and Nina

Ambruzhuk Fedir and Hanna, Chemeryski Yevdokiia, Frosyna and Nina

Fedir and Hanna Ambruzhuk lived in the village of Morozivka in Vinnytsia region. They worked in a local collective farm. Hanna's mother, Yevdokiia Chemeryska, lived with them. The couple had no children of their own and lovingly took care of the four children of neighbors – Jews Leontii and Doba Helin. After the occupation of the region by the Nazis in 1941, the Helin family together with other Jews was relocated to the ghetto in the village of Murovani Kurylivtsi (current – the village of Murovani Kurylivtsi of the Mohyliv-Podilskyi district). During the year, they survived in extremely difficult conditions. In 1942, executions began. On August 21, 1170 people were killed in the ghetto. On the eve of the execution, on August 20, about 600 Jews from the ghetto of the village of Snitkiv were transferred to the ghetto of the village of Murovani Kurylivtsi, and on the day of the "action" they selected a group of strong men to build roads in the village of Letychiv (current – Letychiv, Khmelnytskyi district, Khmelnytskyi region). Leontii Helin and his 15-year-old son Borys fell into this group, while the remaining three children and wife Doba became victims of the Nazis.

After spending a month on construction work, Leontii managed to escape and reach his native village, where he was sheltered for a few days by the Ambruzhuk family. And then Fedir found a more reliable hiding place for his neighbor – at her relative Frosynia Chemeryska, who lived with her daughter Nina and granddaughter on the outskirts of the village. Leontii asked the Ambruzhuk family to find their son and help him escape too. They were in different construction crews, and the father had no doubt that the boy was left in the ghetto of the village of Murovani Kurylivtsi. Hanna went there. For a bribe, she agreed with the guard about the escape of the teenager, and the very next night Borys came to Fedir and Hnna's house. Later, father and son, accompanied by Nina Chemeryska, reached the village of Kopaihorod (current – Kopaihorod village of Zhmerynka district), which was under Romanian occupation. Before the expulsion of the occupiers, Nina visited the Helin family in the Kopaihorod ghetto, brought them food and necessary things. 

After the war, Leontii and Borys settled in Vinnytsia and maintained friendly relations with their saviors. Subsequently, Borys Helin married the daughter of Nina Chemeryska.

In 2004, Yad Vashem recognized Fedir and Hanna Ambruzhuk, as well as Yevdokiia, Frosyna and Nina Chemeryska Righteous Among the Nations.

Svitlana Demchenko

Kyiv

National museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War

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