Arkhytiuk Fedir and Olha, Sotnykova (Arkhytiuk) Halyna, Zdanevych Oleksandra

Oleksandra Zdanevych lived in the city of Rovno (current – the city of Rivne) in a small private house on the street Dvoretska, near the railway. A Jewish family named Fabrykant lived nearby: a father and four children. Their mother died in 1923, giving birth to the youngest, Myrlia. The head of the family worked as a porter in a local shop. During the famine years, they had a hard time, and a neighbor – grandmother Oleksandra, fed the children.

“I remember well how she would meet me and say: “Come with me. Do you want to eat?”. She will feed and will definitely bring a beetroot, a carrot with her - everything she could share... A very kind grandmother". From the memoirs of Myrlia Fabrykant

At the end of June 1941, when the Germans were already entering the city, Srul Fabrykant put his youngest daughters, Leia and Myrlia, on the evacuation train. The wagons were almost immediately hit by German aerial bombs, but the girls survived. Frightened and hungry, they remembered grandmother Oleksandra, who lived near the tracks. The woman sheltered the girls.

Meanwhile, the Nazis were establishing their order in the region. On July 1, 1941, the Rivne City Administration was established. The population registration conducted in August confirmed the presence of 25 nationalities in the city. There were almost 20 thousand Jews there.

The occupiers shot the first few hundred of them in the summer, and large-scale extermination took place on November 6-7, 1941 in the Sosonka tract. The relocation of Jews to the ghetto began in November - December 1941. Formally, they were all supposed to be there. Sometimes the Nazis made exceptions, except for specialists and members of the Judenrat.

Oleksandra Zdanevych understood that it becomes very dangerous to hide Jewish girls at home. Her daughter Olha and son-in-law Fedir knew about the fugitive and helped. Fedir dug a hole for the girls in the field behind the old cemetery, put boards, blankets and other necessary things at the bottom of it. In that place, Leia and Myrlia found shelter for almost two and a half years.

Periodically, someone from the family brought the girls food and water. Usually it was Halyna, the daughter of the Arkhytiuk couple (she was 10 years old at the beginning of the war). In winter, the fugitives were taken to a barn, where they hid in straw. It was very dangerous. The risk of being exposed haunted them every minute throughout the occupation.

“I remember that Uncle Fedir was ill for a long time after he was beaten. He stood up for the old Jew, and the police beat him badly, knocking out his teeth. It turns out that he had long been suspected of ties to Jews and was being watched. He himself looked like a Jew, spoke our language well. Halyna also spoke Hebrew, learned it while playing with children before the war. Aunt Olha was also very kind. With a baby in her arms (the youngest son of the Arkhytiuk family, Yurii, born in 1941), she ran the household, prepared food for us and other Jewish children, which Halyna took to the ghetto. Is it possible to forget it?...”. From the memoirs of Mirlia Fabrykant

In February 1944, the Nazis were expelled from the city. All of Myrlia and Leia's relatives were killed in the ghetto, except for the older sister Beila, who lived in Central Asia. My brother died at the front. The girls went to live with their sister, and contact with the rescuers' family was interrupted for many years. Only at the end of the 1990s did communication resume.

“It was God's will that ten years later my sister Tamara accidentally met Mariia (that's what Myrlia called herself) on the street in Rivne and helped her get out in the icy conditions. Mariia was moved to tears by the kindness of an unknown woman, and in the conversation it turned out that Tamara is the youngest daughter of Fedir and Olha Arkhytiuk. Our meeting took place on the Christmas holiday. There were hugs, tears of joy and sorrow... They remembered everything they had experienced during the war. We have another sister – Myrlia”. From the memoirs of Halyna Sotnykova (Archytiuk)

In 2001, Yad Vashem recognized Oleksandra Zdanevych and Fedir and Olha Arkhytiuk as Righteous Among the Nations, and in 2003 – Halyna Sotnykova (Archytiuk).