Honchar Denys, Feodora, Ivan, Stepan ta Mariia

Denys and Feodora Honchar, along with their sons, the young Olexander and the teenagers Ivan and Stepan, lived in the village of Yosypenky in Vinnytsia region. Denys's sister Maria Honchar, who later took monastic vows and moved to the monastery, lived with them. With the beginning of the war, Oleksandr was conscripted to the front, and he tragically lost his life in 1942.

When the persecution of Jews began, a 23-year-old woman named Ryva Milshtein appeared on the Honchar family's estate, seeking refuge. Denys had known Ryva's mother, Rakhill, a widow from Nemyriv, for a long time. During the Holodomor in 1933, he had hidden a bag of grain at her home. At that time, the Milshteins saved bread for the Ukrainian family. The friendship between the two families began from those days. Therefore, when the Jews found themselves in trouble, Denys and Feodora immediately responded to their distress. Within a few days, Ryva returned with her mother, whom she had rescued from the Nemyriv ghetto. The Honchar family prepared a hiding place for the Jewish women in the barn, where they stored hay, and during the cold winter months, they were take them into the house to spend the night. The boys Ivan and Stepan also took care of the fugitives in every possible way.

Later on, the Honchar family managed to obtain a false birth certificate for Ryva. She later joined a partisan unit, while Rakhill remained with the Ukrainian family until the expulsion of the Nazis from the region in the spring of 1944.

In 1995, Yad Vashem recognized Denys and Feodora Honchar, their sons Ivan and Stepan, and Maria Honchar as Righteous Among the Nations.

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