Kravchuk Opanas, Lykeriya, Dmytro and Nadiya

Rivne region was not only one of the first to be occupied by German troops in 1941, but it was also in the grip of the Nazi occupation regime for perhaps the longest time. According to statistical data, as of June 30, 1941, about 1,500 Jews lived in the town of Zdolbuniv (Rivne region) and the surrounding villages and areas. After the capture of the town, all Jews were forced to wear clothes with special markings and work under difficult conditions at the local cement factory. They were forbidden to leave the territory of the town, and they themselves regularly suffered from numerous pogroms, beatings and violence from the Nazis and local police. The first mass shooting of the city's Jewish population took place on August 7, 1941. In the summer of 1941, the first large ghetto was formed near the town of Zdolbuniv (near the cement plant), where about one and a half thousand Jews were transported. There, on October 13, 1942, the second mass execution took place. Representatives of the Jewish population who managed to survive were forced to work in inhumane conditions until the liquidation of the ghetto after the arrival of Soviet troops in the Rivne region.

However, even in such cruel times of bloody madness there was a place for humanism and helping neighbor. In the area of  Bayury, near the village of Stepanivka, the family of Opanas and Lykeriya Kravchuk lived together with their daughter-in-law Nadiya and their younger son Dmytro, who worked at a cement plant. After the mass shootings of Jews in the town of Zdolbuniv in October 1942, only a few of them managed to escape, hiding in the forest or asking for shelter from local villagers. Among them were Leib and Sofia Tsykery, their sons - 14-year-old Musyk and 12-year-old Meisha. After a few days of wandering through the forest, they accidentally came upon Bayury, which was far from the town of Zdolbuniv. Opanas and Lykeriya could not refuse them help. It is quite interesting that, in contrast to the rescue stories, when secret shelters were set up for the Jews, the Tsyker family lived almost openly with the Kravchuks, helping them with the household every day. Perhaps this was due to the remoteness of the farm from other settlements. Only the second son of the family Mykhailo, who lived with his wife on a neighboring farm, knew about the family secret. During inspections of the Germans and their henchmen, the Tsykers successfully hid in the attic or in the basement of the house. The Kravchuk family not only risked their lives to save the Tsyker family, but also sacrificed their own well-being, because almost the entire harvest went to numerous taxes, while Dmytro's salary for work at the cement plant was so low that it was barely enough for living.

The Tsykers hid in the Kravchuk farm for almost a year and a half - until the spring of 1944. During the retreat of the German troops German soldiers were deployed in Bayury for some period of time. In such conditionsthere was the risk of being found and killed, so the Tsykers had to flee. Moreover, everything happened so quickly that they did not even have time to say goodbye to their saviors. After that, the connection between them was broken, but the memory of Opanas and Lykeriya's kindness and gratitude to them did not disappear. Only in 1991, Meyer-Marvin Tsyker (mentioned as Musyk) flew to Ukraine from the USA to visit the places where the terrible events of his childhood took place, and to find his saviors or at least their home or descendants. Despite numerous efforts, he could not find anyone. The further fate of the rescuers remained unknown.

However, the testimony of the Tsykers was enough for Opanas, Lykeriya, Dmytro and Nadiya Kravchuk to be posthumously awarded the honorary title "Righteous Among the Nations" on April 10, 2005.

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