Kharchenko Tetiana and Volodymyr

Tetiana Kharchenko with her children lived in the village of Volodarka, Kyiv region. Before the beginning of the Second World War, the Jewish family of Bykovs lived near them. However, in 1939 the father of the family, Yakiv Bykov was arrested and deported to Siberia by Soviet authorities. His wife Hana with children left Volodarka and went to her relatives in the town of Skvyra.

Once in the evening, near two months after the beginning of the German occupation, 12-year-old Mykhailo Bykov appeared at the door of Kharchenko family. He escaped on the eve of the extermination of Skvyra’s Jews and came to Volodarka searching for help.

First of all, Tetiana Kharchenko opened the door and let Mykhailo stay in the house. But later she started to think about how exactly to save him. Their house was situated in the village center and there were many guests almost every day. Besides, Mykhailo lived in Volodarka for many, years so locals knew him. Hence, Tetiana decided to hide Mykhailo in the house of her sister in the village of Kosivka. Tetiana’s son Volodymyr escorted Mykhailo on his way to the new hiding place.

Tetiana explained to the boys how to reach her sister’s village and how to answer the questions of strangers. So, boys successfully reached the village of Kosivka. According to the legend, Mykhailo was an orphan of Russian origin, therefore he lived in Kosivka openly, working for the local villagers.

But in 1942 everything went wrong when Mykhailo accidentally met his prewar acquaintances. The boy was forced to leave the village of Kosivka. For more than one year Mykhailo was roaming through the local villages and forests, till in December of 1943 the region was liberated from the forces of Nazi Germany.

After the war, Mykhailo met with the family of Kharchenkos again and for all his life he was grateful to Tetiana Kharchenko, his first savior.

On January 21, 2000, Yad Vashem named Tetiana and Volodymyr Kharchenko the Righteous Among the Nations.