Kucheruk Yosyp and Yevdokiia

Yosyp and Yevdokiia Kucheruk lived with their little daughter in the village of Medzhybizh in Khmelnytskyi region. During the German-Soviet war, the Holocaust did not bypass their settlement. The Germans occupied it on July 8, 1941. In the autumn of 1942 and spring of 1943, mass executions of the Jewish population took place. More than 7 thousand people were killed near the village of Letychiv, and about 3 thousand elderly people, women and children were killed near the village of Medzhybizh. Medzhybiz Jewish men were forcibly sent to earthworks, they paved the road, and worked on construction. The occupiers created a ghetto near Banna Street, surrounded by a high fence with barbed wire. Jews were settled in houses of 15–20 people per room and were forbidden to leave the territory. Slaves lived in cold, hunger and unsanitary conditions. On September 22, 1942, the occupiers surrounded the ghetto and gathered its inhabitants in the market square. Young people were separated from others; some were then transferred to a camp in the village of Letychiv. The rest were ordered to pack their belongings to send to work. Some believed – they hoped that they would really be used in the construction of another object, but the Jews were taken beyond the village of Medzhybizh, towards the village of Rusanivka, and near the river in the ravines were shot. Ukrainian villagers managed to save several of them. Among the survivors was 12-year-old Mykhailo Milis. The Kucheruk family gave him shelter in their home.

Misha was in the ghetto with his mother and younger brother. Both of them were executed, and the older boy managed to get out of the firing pit. For several days, he wandered and hid in the basement of his former classmate, and then asked his mother's friends Yosyp and Yevdokiia Kucheruk. They quickly prepared a warm hiding place in the attic next to the chimney. This is how a Jewish boy safely overwintered in a Ukrainian family. However, Yosyp was afraid that their little daughter, not yet understanding the tragedy, would identify the fugitive – and then everyone would suffer. Therefore, in the spring, the man arranged a shelter for Mykhailo in a nearby barracks. Kucheruk family took care of him not only before the expulsion of the Nazis from the region, but also after the war.

As an adult, Mykhailo Milis emigrated to Israel.

In 1995, Yad Vashem recognized Kucheruk Yosyp and Yevdokiia as Righteous Among the Nations.

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