Pavlyshyn Ivan and Kateryna, Lubinets Fedir

Ivan and Kateryna Pavlyshyn lived with their three teenage daughters in the Dubnyky farm near the town of Burshtyn in the Ivano-Frankivsk region. German troops occupied their territory at the beginning of July 1941 and immediately began to establish a "new order". First of all, the restrictions concerned the Jews. Ghettos and labor camps were created for them in the towns and villages of Ivano-Frankivsk region. There were persecutions and executions of innocent citizens. Jewish residential areas and labor camps also appeared in the neighboring town of Burshtyn and the urban-type settlement of Bukachivtsi (current – settlement Bukachivtsi, Ivano-Frankivsk district). The occupiers relocated Jews from all the surrounding areas there. Later, these places became checkpoints for Jewish prisoners who were taken to the concentration camp in Belzec (Poland). Rumors spread everywhere about the terrible living conditions, the hard work of the condemned, as well as the shooting of all who tried to escape and save themselves.

At the end of 1942, a non-local boy appeared on the doorstep of Ivan and Kateryna Pavlyshyn and asked for food. The guest admitted to the hosts that he was the Jew Shymon Nahelberh from the nearby village of Chahriv. In the summer of 1941, together with his relatives, he was moved to the ghetto in the urban-type settlement of Bukachivtsi. Shymon told about the hard and shameful work to which the prisoners were sent, as well as about the escape attempt and the death of all his relatives. Only he was lucky to be saved. After learning that the boy had nowhere to go, the Pavlyshyn family offered him to stay. Young Nahelberh willingly accepted the offer – he washed, changed his clothes and settled down in a hiding place prepared in the attic. Realizing all the risks they were exposing their family to, Ivan and Kateryna gathered their daughters and ordered them not to tell anyone about the Jewish boy.

Later, other fugitives approached the Pavlyshyn family, in particular, a doctor from the town of Burshtyn Lipa Shumer and Yakiv Feldman – both with their wives. They all asked to shelter them. After escaping from the stage, these Jews wandered around the neighborhood, hid with unfamiliar villagers, but had to leave because they were afraid of betrayal. Pavlyshyn family wanted to contribute, but were limited by financial hardship. So they let the Jews into their home, but decided to trust their neighbor Fedir Lubinets, who was asked for help in turn. Fedir also took care of the doomed. He prepared food for them at home and brought it to Ivan and Kateryna's house every evening.

After a few weeks, it became much more difficult to hide the presence of a considerable number of outsiders on the farm. So, at the family council, it was decided to transport the Jews to the forest. Pavlyshyn family knew that the local forester Fedir Penderetskyi was hiding fugitives in shelters. Therefore, Fedir Lubinets took the Shumer and Feldman families to the forest, where his namesake took care of them with his household.

All the escapees survived. After the war, they left Soviet Ukraine: the Shumer family emigrated to the United States, and the Feldman one – to Israel. Shymon Nahelberh stayed with the Pavlyshyn family until the expulsion of German troops from the region in the summer of 1944, and after the war he also lived with his saviors for some time. In 1956, he moved to Poland, then to the USA.

In 1997, Ivan and Kateryna Pavlyshyn, as well as Fedir Lubinets, were recognized as Righteous Among the Nations.