Makar Roman and Hanna

Roman and Hanna Makar with two children, Volodymyra and Orest, lived in Boryslav. The family was wealthy. Roman was an engineer in the oil industry and owned a few boreholes. His father was a city mayor. Hanna was a participant of the local branch of the Union of Ukrainians organization.  

Since the beginning of the Nazi occupation, the massive exterminations of the Jewish population were often. The local doctor, Elkan Harmelin, asked Roman’s father for help. For some time, they lived in the labor camp for doctors, but Elkan understood, that despite the status of a doctor, he will be killed sooner or later.

Roman’s father sent them to his son. Roman made a special room in the basement of his house. During the occupation, thirteen Jews were hiding there. Members of Roman’s family provided them with food and even created a small library. Among those who survived were also doctors from Lviv: Ryta Brauner, Hana Brunenhraber, Elkan, Regina, and Raul Harmelins.

After the end of the war, all rescued emigrated to Australia but saved connection with a family of their saviors. Ryta found that her family was deported to the Nazi camps. Ryta’s mother died in Auschwitz and her father survived in Mauthausen. In 1945 she married Raul Harmelin. They always remember Roman and Hanna, who risked their lives in the name of goodness and humanity.

In 2015 the family of Roman and Hanna Makar became Righteous Among the Nations.