Domushchei Oleksiy, Ivan and Yevdokiia

There were more than 44 thousand Jews in the Mykolaiv region before the Second World War. There were 25 280 of them living in the city Mykolaiiv, representing more than 15% of this city’s population. Rather a small part of the Jewish population was evacuated to the East. The majority did not have time to escape…

The invasion of the German army in the Mykolaiv region started in the middle of August.  On August 16, 1941, the city of Mykolaiiv was captured by the German troops. Mykolaiiv region was divided between German and Romanian authorities. The western part of the region was under the control of Romanians, and the eastern part with Mykolaiiv itself was controlled by Germans. However, German extermination battalions “worked” in all parts of the region.  

According to the scientists, there were 11 ghettos and 8 camps for the civil population in the region. Most of them were erected for the Jews removed from other occupied regions. As in the rest of captured Ukraine, the attitude toward Jews was targeted to immediately destroy them.

In these so-called “transit ghettos”, prisoners didn’t work physically. After a short period in the camp Jews were usually killed nearby. Security of such camps was provided by Romanian and German police forces.

Oleksiy Domushchei together with his parents Ivan and Yevdokiia, and also brother and sister, saved Ita Terletska, and two young children of her.

Couple Ita (Mediberg) and Serhiy Terletsky together with their 6-year-old son Anatoly made the decision to escape to the East after German troops started their offensive next to Odessa. Near Horlivka in the Donetsk region, enemy aviation damaged their train. Part of the train with Serhiy kept moving but the part with pregnant Ita and son was stopped.

In Horlivka Ita with her son was saved by the family of Sosnovskyis. There was born Natalia - daughter of Ita. After the Donetsk region was also occupied by the German army, the Sosnovskyis family started to hide Ita and her children. They provided Jewish families with food and all necessary stuff. Their shelter was located in the mine shafts.

In the Summer of 1943 Germans found out that the “enemies of Reich” are hiding in the mine shafts, so they started to explode the shafts. With the help of Sosnovskyis's family, Ita and her children escaped to Voznesensk. Finally, they stopped in the village that was near the river of Southern Bug.

Here they were sheltered by the family of Domushcheis. This family consisted of father Ivan, mother Yevdokiia, three children, and old parents of Ivan. This family lived in poverty but they shared their last food with Ita anyway. Jews lived in the shelter which was located in the non-finished part of the house. Young Oleksiy was responsible for providing food for the escapees. Also, Oleksiy invented his own system for communication. The family was very careful about this, so food and all needed stuff were provided only in the mornings and evenings. Even the grandfather of Oleksiy did not know about the Jews in the shelter. But in autumn of 1943 Germans deported young Oleksiy for work in Germany.

In December 1943 someone reported about Jews hiding in the house of Domushcheis. For saving Ita Ivan Domushchei created fake documents. Corrupted management of the camp accepted fake documents and Ita was released. After this, the Chebanok family, which helped to get the fake documents, sheltered the Terletskyis family in the village of Netyahailivka.

When the occupation was ended, Serhiy found Ita with children. The family of Terletskyis was finally reunited.

Oleksiy Domushchei was a forced worker in the train depo of Hannover until May of 1945. Years of hard labor destroyed his health…

During the occupation of the Mykolaiv region, Nazis killed thousands of Jews. They were also from neighboring regions, such as the Odesa region and others. As scientists suggest, Nazis killed up to 200 000 Jews in this region.

However, on the postwar Soviet monuments for the victims of Nazi terror Jews are not mentioned. The topic of the Holocaust itself was omitted from the Soviet historical and state narrative.

Ita Terletska and her children were saved by three families: Domushcheis, Sosnovskyis, and Chebanoks. Rescued were maintaining communication with these families and their children for many years after the war. Domushchei’s children called Ita  “aunt Lida”. There are a lot of common photos and letters in the family archive of Dumushchei’s.

One of these letters contains a phrase:

“For big and dear Domushcheis family, from grateful Terletskyis family for a sake of memory about all those good things have you done for us”.

On October 12, 2004 Oleksiy, Ivan, and Yevdokiia Domushchei were awarded with the honorable title of the “Righteous Among the Nations”

In 2009, during the celebrations of the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the Mykolaiv region from Nazi’s, Oleksiy Domushchei was awarded the order “For merits” of the 3rd degree for saving Jews in the Second World War.

Oleksiy Domushchei died on July 18, 2020. He was the last of the “Righteous Among the Nations” from the family of Domushcheis