Pankovych Mykola, Yevdokiia and Andriy

The Pankovych family lived in the city of Kalush, Stanislav region (now – Ivano-Frankivsk region). Yevdokiia and Mykola had three children. Mykola was seriously injured working in the mine long before the Second World War. The family was trading fruits from the garden to make money for a living.

The city of Kalush and its outskirts were occupied by Germans in July of 1941. Already in August, the first anti-Jewish action took place. Near 380 local Jews were killed. There was also a ghetto created in the city. According to the documents, there were more than 6300 prisoners. In 1942 Nazis executed 800 Jews, as “unable to work”. In the spring of 1942, the prisoners of the ghetto were deported to the Belzhec death camp.

Young Jew Joseph Dichek managed to evade the deportation to the death camp. At first, he was hiding within the house of a Polish family, but he was forced to leave it due to the German raids. Later he met Andriy Pankovych, 16-year-old son of Yevdokiia and Mykola. Andriy took the Jewish boy to the safe place in his home, so later Joseph also brought there his bride Rehina Livornyk. The family of Pankovychs constructed a shelter for escapees in the attic of the barn. It wasn’t cold in the barn, and Andriy was secretly providing them food. Joseph and Rehina didn’t stay there permanently. Usually, they were hiding in the nearby forests. It was safer, as Germans were searching for Jews in the houses of local citizens. The escapees couldn’t risk the lives of their saviors, so they were doing everything to divert the suspicion from Pankovychs.  

All members of Andriy’s family knew about the Jews, so they were working together in case of a dangerous situation. Jews were provided with food, shelter, and information about the activity of Germans in the area.

In the summer of 1944 Germans were forced to leave the region. Joseph joined the Red Army. In 1946 Joseph and Rehina emigrated to Canada. But the postwar period was quite hard for their saviors. The Soviet authorities were persecuting the family under the accusation of being “kurkuls” (wealthy farmers). Only in the 1950s, they got permission for returning to their native places. They also managed to renew the communication with Joseph and Rehina.

On April 2, 2000, Mykola, Yevdokiia, and Andriy Pankovych were awarded an honorable title of the Righteous Among the Nations