Kondratiuk Lukian, Feodora, Fedir and Nina, Makarevych Kuzma, Mariia and Stepan, Kozel Yevdokiia

In the village Ozhenyn, near the town of Zdolbuniv in the Rivne region, during the Nazi occupation, Ukrainian families rescued persecuted Jews. The city was occupied by the Nazis on June 28, 1941. In less than a year, a ghetto was organized there, where up to 5 thousand Jews, mostly women and children, were kept. Mass executions of its inhabitants took place on October 13, 1942 in a chalk quarry near the village of Staromylsk More than 1,500 people were killed that day. On October 14-15 in the village of Mizoch – about 1,500, on October 15 – 1,800, in total more than 4,500 people.

Motel Klyuchnyk managed to avoid being shot. He reached the village. He reached the village of Ozhenyn and came to the house of his acquaintance Yevdokiia Kozel. The man told about the tragic fate of thousands of Jews driven to the ghetto and how he managed to escape. Yevdokiia could offer shelter for a few days at most, because her house was almost in the center of the village and could be seen from everywhere. Therefore, she took the Jew to her friends Lukian and Feodora Kondratiuk, who lived on the outskirts of the village with their teenage children, Fedor and Nina. Lukian was a forester, his son helped him in everything, so the Kondratiuk family quickly dug a shelter hole for the Motel in the forest, insulated it with straw. Soon, his older brother Yurii Kliuchnyk moved to the hiding place. That same autumn, a man named Marek came to the Kondratiuk’s house. He was very cold and, warming himself by the stove, told that he was unloading wagons together with other Jews who were working on the construction of the road from the village of Ozhenyn to the village of Taikura. Marek separated from the group, and the guard somehow did not pay attention to him. Therefore, he managed to escape. The Kondratiuk family fed the Jew and decided to call him to the hiding place, where the Klyuchnyk brothers had already settled. The Ukrainian Makarevych family joined in helping the fugitives, who were becoming more and more numerous. Together, they built several more hiding places and took care of the wards. In total, during the war, they rescued 17 Jews, among whom was the Valdman family of six people. The duties of Fedor Kondratiuk, his 14-year-old sister Nina and Stepan Makarevych included delivering food and water to the Jews in the forest, where they stayed until the spring of 1944.

After the war, the Valdman family emigrated to the United States, Motel Klyuchnyk stayed to live in Zdolbuniv, his brother Yurii died under unknown circumstances.

In 1997, Yad Vashem recognized Yevdokiia Kozel, Lukian, Feodora and Fedor Kondratiuk, as well as Kuzma, Mariia and Stepan Makarevych as Righteous Among the Nations. In 2000, Nina Sadovnyk (Kondratiuk) received this title.

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