Levchuk Fedir, Hanna and Ivan

Fedir and Hanna Levchuk with their children Ivan and Olha lived in the village of Holubivka in the Zhytomyr region. In early September 1942, Hanna Levchuk, while picking mushrooms in the forest, came across a Jewish teenager. Having asked who he was and where he was from, she found out that the boy had escaped from a column of Jews who were being led to be shot at pre-prepared pits on the outskirts of the town of Ruzhyn. Hanna was horrified, hearing the details of the death of hundreds of innocent people, mostly women, children, and the elderly. She suggested the boy come to her in the evening, explaining where her house was in the village. At home, she told her husband about the meeting in the forest. Together they decided to help the Jewish child.

At night, the boy was already in the Levchuk’s house. When he gave his name – Yakiv Bilylovsky, – Fedir realized that he knew his father, carver Bentsion Bilylovsky. The guest was a year older than Ivan Levchuk, so the boys quickly got along. The rescuers hid Yakiv’s presence from the occupation authorities, but they trusted their closest neighbors, so the boy could freely move around the house and yard, help the hosts in the beds and in caring for the cattle. Work distracted him from memories of his parents, brothers, and sisters who died in Ruzhyn.

In the fall of 1943, two more Jews settled in the Levchuk family: Avrum Pliskovsky and Yankel Kriger. They were also from Ruzhyn. Shoemaker Avrum and tailor Yankel led a semi-legal existence after the shooting of Ruzhyn Jews, they went from village to village, working for rural households for a roof over their heads and a piece of bread. They lived with the Levchuks until the Hitlerites were expelled from the village in December 1943.

In January 1944, Fedir Levchuk, Avrum Pliskovsky, and Yankel Kriger were mobilized into the Red Army. Fedir and Avrum were killed, Yankel returned to Ruzhyn, where he lived until his death in 1975.

Yakov Bilylovsky was found and adopted by relatives from Moscow (Russia). For many years he and his friend Ivan Levchuk corresponded.

On October 24, 2002, Yad Vashem honored Fedor and Hanna Levchuk and their son Ivan with the honorary title of Righteous Among the Nations.