Leshchuk Mariia

Mariia Leschuk lived with her six-year-old son Ivan in the village of Klubivtsi near the city of Ivano-Frankivsk (until 1962 – the city of Stanislav). In 1939, with the arrival of the “first Soviets” in the region, her husband was arrested and imprisoned. The woman knew nothing more about him. In 1941, the German invaders came to the region and new tests began. On August 1, the city found itself in the newly created district “Halychyna”. Already on October 12, 1941, on the so-called Bloody Sunday, the SS, with the complicity of the Ukrainian auxiliary police, shot about 12 thousand Jews. Two months later, the Stanislav ghetto was officially created for the 20 thousand survivors.

Once, while working to the livestock in the barn, Mariia saw an unfamiliar teenager in the hay. The woman woke him up and began to demand an explanation. The boy called himself Menakhem Dresher, admitted that he had escaped from the Stanislav ghetto in September 1942 and was wandering around the surrounding villages begging. His mother Henia, sister Olena and brother Kalman remained in the ghetto. Mariia took pity on the boy and offered him to stay. For the inquisitive, she made up a story, saying that this is a relative of her husband; he lost his house and parents during the fire, and therefore sought shelter. In fact, the woman was very afraid that Menachem's origin would be exposed, because in the village they periodically organized roundups, sometimes on Jews, then on young people, in order to send her to forced labor in Germany. However, everything worked out, and the boy lived under Mariia's care until the expulsion of the Nazis in the summer of 1944.

After the war, he learned that no one from his family survived. In 1946, he left the Soviet Union, and two years later, he emigrated to Israel.

After visiting Ukraine in 1991, Menakhem Dresher searched for the family of his saviors. Mariia Leshchuk had died at that time, and Ivan and his family still lived in the village of Klubivtsi.

In 1991, Yad Vashem recognized Mariia Leschuk as Righteous Among the Nations.

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