Melnyk Pelaheia, Lypa Mefodii

Pelaheia Melnyk and her five sons lived in the village of Kotiuzhany in Vinnytsia region. Before the war, there were large Jewish communities in the surrounding villages. Pelaheia had friendly relations with the local Menaker family, and their children also made friends. On the eve of the German-Soviet war, the eldest son of the Menakers was conscripted to serve in the Red Army. There Yakov met the Nazi invasion of Ukraine, was captured in the border battles, from where he escaped before it became known about his Jewish origin. He reached his native village in the fall of 1941, when Vinnytsia region was already occupied and the persecution of Jews had begun. Yakov found out that his family managed to evacuate to the east, and that the occupiers live in their house, so he asked for shelter from his neighbor – Pelaheia Melnyk.

Pelaheia's sons constructed a hiding place in the farm building where they concealed Yakov.

In the summer of 1942, the Nazis intensified raids on Ukrainians with the aim of deporting them to forced labor in Germany. Pelaheia's five children were now also in danger, so they found another hiding place for Yakov on the estate of their neighbor, Mefodii Lypa. Later, Mefodii managed to obtain documents with a German name for the Jew, allowing him to live freely in the occupied territory until the expulsion of the Nazis.

After the war, Yakov Menaker reestablished contact with his saviors and supported them after his relocation to Israel.

In 1983, Yad Vashem recognized Pelaheia Melnyk and Mefodii Lypa as Righteous Among the Nations.

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