Ivasiuk Hryhorii and Hanna

Hryhorii and Hanna Ivasiuk lived in the village of Strelkivtsi in Ternopil region. During the Holocaust, the couple hid persecuted Jews in their house.

During the period of German occupation, Arie Varembrand from the neighboring village of Lysivtsi, lived with them. Hryhorii managed to obtain false documents for the Jew. Therefore, with the name Mykola, a man was able to move around the village. The Ivasiuk family told their neighbors and fellow villagers that he was a distant relative whose house had burned down, so they had to shelter him. In fact, Arie managed to escape from the ghetto in the city of Borschiv.

As of December 1942, that ghetto housed almost 4 thousand Jews expelled from neighboring areas. Mass executions began in February 1943 and continued until the summer. Documented dates of extermination: March 13 (400 people), April 19 (800 people), June 5 (700 people), July 9 (1800 people).

Some Jews managed to avoid being shot. They hid in the forests and asked for help from local villagers. Once in the spring, Hryhorii came across their hiding place in the forest. Its inhabitants were frightened and very hungry. Brothers Saul and Sem Stermer asked Hryhorii for some food. There were 12 people in the hiding place, and the food had to be distributed to everyone.

The Ivasiuk couple supported the fugitives with food throughout the year. Until April 1944, they left something grown in their own garden, bought or exchanged, in the specified place. All Jews survived and waited until the Nazis were expelled from the region. After the war, some of them moved to Israel, the USA and Australia.

In 1995, Yad Vashem recognized Hryhorii and Hanna Ivasiuk as Righteous Among the Nations.