Bilyk Sofia, Maikos Hanna and Hryhoriy

Sofia Bilyk lived in the village of Tarasіvka, Vinnytsia region. She worked as a seamstress and raised her three sons. The territory of the modern Vinnytsia region was under Nazi occupation from the second half of July 1941 to October of 1944. On the territory of the region, German authorities created a ghetto, to which they at first relocated the Jews from the nearby towns and villages, and later exterminated them. The land of Tulchyn also preserves the memory of many Jewish families who became victims of the Holocaust. The village of Pechera, the most beautiful village on the river of Bug, became a real hell for the Jews because it was there that the “Dead Loop” death camp was established in December of 1941. On December 7, 1941, most of the Jewish population of Tulchin was deported to the camp in the village of Pechera. Men, women, children, the elderly walked on snow-covered field roads, holding boxes of food and clothes.

There, Jews were held in inhumane conditions, and in order to survive, they frequently slipped under the camp fence and worked in the surrounding villages in exchange for food. Thus, Zinaida Flomina and her daughter Anna met Sofia Bilyk. Zinaida helped Sofia to sew clothes, and instead, she and her daughter received black bread and boiled potatoes. Zinaida later testified that other farmers also gave her and her daughter bread, but only Bilyk, despite the threat to her own life, allowed them to sleep all night in her house. In the fall of 1943, Zinaida and her daughter decided to flee from the camp. Because the village of Tarasivka was considered too dangerous, as the Germans and Romanians often searched it, two Jews moved in the opposite direction. After a long journey, they reached the village of Ivanivtsi, where they found some work at the farm of Hryhoriy Maikos and his wife, Hanna.

When Hryhoriy and Hanna discovered that their workers are Jews, they told to the other villagers that Zinaida and her daughter are their relatives. When house searches were conducted in the village, Zinaida and Anna were well hidden by the Maikos. On March 14, 1944, the Red Army liberated the village from the German forces. In the Pechera concentration camp, there were about 400 prisoners, who were not shot by the Nazis. Thousands of people died from cold, hunger, and incredible suffering. But Zinaida and Anna survived and later immigrated to the United States.

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On July 21, 1997, Yad Vashem recognized Sofia Bilyk, Hryhoriy, and Hanna Maikos as Righteous Among the Nations.