Kovalchuk Fedir and Olha

Fedir and Olha Kovalchuk with their young daughters Liza and Mariia lived in the village of Novyi Svit in Khmelnytskyi region. At the beginning of the German-Soviet war, Olha's childhood friend Rakhil Eiven returned there with her husband Hersh and children Yevheniia, Mariia and Fima. The family moved from the village Felshtyn (current – Hvardiiske village), fleeing from the brutal persecution of the Jewish population. The Rakhil’s sisters inhabited in the village of Novyi Svit, and it was relatively peaceful there. Most of the local Jews, as before, lived in their homes.

However, in less than a month, they also began to be sent to the ghetto – to the town of Horodok. In desperation, Rakhil asked Olha for a hiding place. The Kovalchuk couple agreed, and she and her husband and four-year-old Fima were saved, staying in their house. It so happened that the older daughters of the Eiven family, as well as Rakhil's sisters and the teenage children of one of them, Sofiia, Viktoriia and Mykhailo Arynovych, went to the ghetto together with their other tribesmen. Later, all minors were moved to the ghetto in the village of Yarmolyntsi, where they stayed until December 1942. All four girls and a boy were lucky to avoid being shot during the liquidation of the ghetto and reach the home of the Kovalchuk family in the village of Novyi Svit. Fedir and Olha hid them in the cellar, but there was very little space there, so they decided to seek shelter for them with other reliable people. An old peasant woman agreed to take in several Jews for a fee. So Rakhil with her daughters and nieces moved in with her, and the Kovalchuk family continued to help them with food.

In the summer of 1943, someone reported on the family, the occupiers came to search. Fortunately, Hershko was in the field with his son and nephew, so everything went well. However, staying with the Kovalchuk family became dangerous for everyone. Both Arynovych and Eiven families moved to the forest, where Fedir helped them build a hiding place. Once, Rakhil wanted to make her way to the village to get a supply of food for the week, but she was caught on the way. Later, Hershko and his young son were found murdered. The daughters of the Eiven family – Mariia (married Kats) and Yevheniia, as well as the Arynovych family – Sofiia (married Vuhman), Victoria (married Hrois) and Mykhailo managed to survive the Holocaust.

After the war, some of them settled in the USA, some remained in Ukraine and maintained contact with their saviors.

In 1996, Yad Vashem recognized Fedir and Olha Kovalchuk as Righteous Among the Nations.

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