Hrechkovska Fedora

On the eve of World War II, the population of the village of Vyderta in Volhynia was  multinational and numbered about 1,500 people. There were Roma among them.

From time to time they roamed from village to village, forged, repaired carts, all kinds of agricultural implements. According to old residents of the village of Vyderta, the local population was sympathetic to the nearby Roma camp.

    "Gypsies lived near farms, did no harm to anyone. Somebody made the plough, somebody brought the knife. And for that people gave them food: some potatoes, some lard”. From the memories of Oleksandra Tarasiuk

In 1939, at the beginning of the Second World War, the village came under the rule of the "first Soviets", and a year and a half later, in June 1941, it was occupied by German troops.

During the Nazi occupation, many different partisan groups were active in the region, and sometimes peasants could not even identify them by their affiliation. There were the Ukrainian People’s Revolutionary Army of Taras Bulba-Borovets, Soviet partisans, fighters of the Organization of the Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, and unidentified paramilitary units. Apparently, it was the intensification of these combat groups that provoked the anti-Roma action in Vyderta in September 1943, as the Nazis often accused Roma of espionage, links with partisans and sabotage.

The punitive operation with the participation of German units and local auxiliary police was particularly brutal. When the encirclement began, the Roma, leaving their herds, rushed to the village. The locals feared that the Nazis would burn down their houses as well, so they fled – they hoped to hide behind the village in ditches. Eventually, the Nazis chased the Roma down Martyhonova Street, drove them to the barn, and began shooting. Those who did not die immediately were killed with bayonets, cut with knives, and strangled with bridles.

“The older sister was impaled, and then that pale propped up the shed. That's how she died in agony…”. From the memoirs of Mykola Yuzepchuk

According to researchers, the victims of the Nazi action in the village of Vyderta were about 50 – 60 Romani people. Just few of them survived.

Two Roma children were rescued by a lonely peasant Fedora Hrechkovska.

    "Fedora, a neighbor, hid two Gypsy kids in a ditch. She kept those children for a while, because she had no children of her own. The Gypsies heard about it and took one kid away. Fedora did not show the second kid anyone, fed the boy all year. And after the war she told the head of the village administration Vasyl Naumyk about this. The Gypsy boy had stayed at Fedora’s house for four years and ran away with the Gypsies. Sometimes he sat at the gate, mumbled something, sang, whistled. And he saw the Gypsies passing by. And no one knew for 20 – 30 years about his fate. Later people said that the boy became a Gypsy baron". From the memories of Oleksandra Tarasiuk

The fact of rescuing a Roma girl by Fedora Hrechkovska was confirmed by a witness of the tragedy, Halyna Liskovska.

    "There was massacre of the Gypsies on Martyhonova Street. It was said that many Gypsies were murdered and one survived. She was little girl of three years old. And Fedora was there. It was said that the child came out from under the corpses, and Fedora said: "I will take her home, I have no children". She hid the kid for a week. But the Gypsies heard about it, came and took the girl away". From the memories of Halyna Liskovska

Another four Roma children were rescued by other Ukrainian and Polish neighbors.

Fedora Hrechkovska died in 1995, but the memory of the rescuer lives on. Every year on the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Roma Genocide, the descendants of the dead and rescued come to the village of Vyderta and always bring flowers to the grave of Fedora, the savior of Roma children.

In 2004, a memorial cross to the executed Roma was erected by the local community and Roma activists in the village cemetery, near the site of the tragedy.