Babych Yaroslav and Maria

Yaroslav and Maria Babych, citizens of Boryslav, Lviv region, saved life Tsvi Heilih (the other variant of his name is Hesio Helick) and Mina Heilih (Helick).

As they were afraid of having problems, they never mentioned this story during the Soviet times. So, their daughter Khrystyna was also unaware of it.  

But in the middle of 1990th, the huge group of people visited Maria and Yaroslav. Among them were Hesio Helik and people with cameras. The is still no information, about the materials they filmed.

«So, it was in Boryslav. My father Yaroslav, 1919 year of birth. My mother Maria, 1918 year of birth. My father had an eye trauma, so he was blind in this eye. That is why he was not mobilized to the Red Army. They got married in 1942 when Boryslav was already occupied by Germans. My father was a teacher in the village of Oriv. My mother was a secretary in the German city’s government. My father owned a huge building in Boryslav. From 1946 till 1970 there was a post department on the first floor of that building.  My father’s neighbors were a family of Polish Jews. Their family name was Helick. It was nearly November of 1941 when Germans created a ghetto in the city’s area of Mraznytsia and gather all the Jews there.  The area was encircled with antitank trenches and patrolled by German soldiers. And then (in November of 1941) the younger Helick come to Yaroslav and said:

- Yaroslav, save us because our family is in the ghetto!».  From the memoirs of Khrystyna Hoyaniuk

There were a few actions for the extermination of Jews in Boryslav. On 27 and 28 of November of 1941, Germans arrested near 800 people, who were unable to work. They killed them on 29 of November near the oil derrick called «Pilsudskiy». The second huge antijewish action took place in August of 1942. Germans called it the deportation. Actually, near 5 thousand Jews, mostly women and children were transported to the Belzec extermination camp. In October of 1942, the next group of near 1000 people was deported in an unknown direction. There was also a huge antijewish raid in November of 1942. Those Jews caught during the raid, mostly wives and children of the workers, were gathered in the ‘’Coliseum’’ cinema. On November, 30, they were sent to Belzec. On 16-17 of February 1943, near 600 Jewish workers were caught and killed two weeks later.

«Father told Marusia (mother) that Helicks needs their help. So she risked her life and forged the polish passport for them in the German city’s office. After that Yaroslav and Maria were thinking about how to deliver the documents to the ghetto. Yaroslav created a plan and went to the antitank trenches. There he was observing the route of a German patrol. He noticed that it was always the same. The next time, when a German soldier turned his back to Yaroslav, he jumped into the trench and entered the ghetto. There he found Helicks and gave them passports. Then he successfully escaped from that dangerous place». From memoirs of Khrystyna Hoyaniuk

In early June of 1943, the ghetto was liquidated and the last citizens were killed.

«Helicks were liberated from the ghetto on the second day after they got forged passports. They went to Poland. After the end of the war, they went from Poland to Israel. In the 1990s they came to Ukraine to find my father and to thank him. Helick parents were already dead by that moment» From the memoirs of Khrystyna Hoyaniuk

After Leonid Milman, the head of the Jewish community of Boryslav, was informed about the salvation of Helicks by Yaroslav and Maria Babych, he addressed Illya Levitas (probably in 1996), the Head of the Jewish Council in Ukraine. So Yaroslav and Maria got the letter with information that they were awarded the honorable title of the Righteous of Ukraine.

«Mother died in 1999. My father got the book in 2002. There were lines in this book: ‘’Maria Babych – awarded posthumously’’. Father died in 2005». From the memoirs of Khrystyna Hoyaniuk

There was an attempt to get The Righteous Among the Nations award for the Babych family.

«Yaroslav and Maria wrote to Yad Vashem in 1995 and ask for the Righteous Among the Nations award. They also wrote the names of rescued and the home address of Tsvi Heilih in Israel. We wrote him a letter. Tsvi Heilih phoned Yad Vashem and said that he paid Babych for their help, hence they can’t be awarded. As the Righteous Among the Nations is awarded according to the memoirs of saved, not saviors, the Babych case was closed.  In 2001 I wrote to Yaroslav Babych and informed him that Tsvi Heilih said that he paid for salvation. There was no answer from Yaroslav». From the comment of Kateryna Husarova, the head of the CIS department in Yad Vashem

4-hours-interview with Tsvi and Mina Heilih was recorded in 1992 by the representatives of Yad Vashem. According to the short description of it, they didn’t mention Babych or forged documents. The 50 pages of the interview were recorded in Hebrew.

Khrystyna Hoyaniuk also told about how her family suffered from the Soviet regime.

«My father’s elder brother and sister were persecuted by the Soviet authorities. In 1946 to the Chelyabinsk region (Russia) were deported: my grandfather Babych Hryhoriy, grandmother Babych Emilia, Yaroslav’s brother Mykola and his sister. In 1966 they returned, but grandfather and grandmother died in Chelyabinsk region. They were deported due to the accusations of their relations with the Ukrainian Insurgent Army». From the memoirs of Khrystyna Hoyaniuk  

According to Khrystyna Hoyaniuk, her parents Yaroslav and Maria had no relations with Ukrainian Insurgent Army. After 1945 communists didn’t persecute Maria, despite the fact that she was the secretary of German authorities in Boryslav. Their house was nationalized, but later they got it back. There was the post office on the first floor till 1970 and the Babych family lived on the second floor.

«I want more people to know about the heroism of my parents, - Khrystyna Hoyaniuk says. – And I want their portraits to be represented on Gallery of Righteous in Babyn Yar» 

In June of 2002, The Jewish Council of Ukraine named Yaroslav and Maria Babych (posthumously) The Righteous of Ukraine.