Martynets Tykhon and Fedora

Tykhon and Fedora Martynets and their children lived on a farm near the village of Zabolottia in Volyn. On June 25, 1941, the area was occupied by Wehrmacht units.

Having occupied the region, the Nazis immediately set about arranging a ghetto for Jews. They were forced to work in forestry and road repair. They were periodically taken out in small groups and shot behind the Jewish cemetery in the western part of Luboml. Local residents helped the Jews as much as possible, gave them food, and hid them in villages and forests. Several hundred people were saved in this way. In October 1942, all the slaves of the ghetto were led in long columns and shot in the quarries of a brick factory on the northern outskirts of the city. Up to 5 thousand Jewish people were executed in Luboml.

A few days after the liquidation of the ghetto, while chopping firewood in the forest, Tykhon Martynets saw Volf and Bella Shainvald, their 16-year-old daughter Sonia, and Bella's brother Khershel Lakhter. They looked pitiful and begged for something to eat. The man offered the fugitives to move to the part of the forest that is closer to his home. 2 km from the farm helped to arrange a shelter for the winter. Tykhon or his wife Fedora and their children could now give them food and warm clothes. The winter was very frosty, so time after time all the Jews took turns going to warm up and spend the night in the Martynets' residence.

 “When Tykhon looked at me, he began to cry and said: “Your parents are older, although they managed to live, and you are only sixteen, you have not yet managed to see anything but suffering, and now you can die...” From the memoirs of Sonia Orbukh (Shainvald)

In the summer of 1943, a Jewish family joined the partisans. Khershel Lakhter died during one of the tasks.

After the war, the Shainvald family emigrated to the United States, and they resumed contact with their saviors only in the early 1990s.

In 2001, Yad Vashem recognized Tykhon and Fedora Martynets as Righteous Among the Nations.