Radyshkevych Hanna, Sokolovskyi Vladyslav, Mariia, Veslav and Khrystyna

Hanna Radyshkevych lived in Volodymyr-Volynsk (current – Volodymyr) in Volyn. The city was occupied by Hitler's troops on June 23, 1941. A large concentration camp was created there, where 56 thousand people were in more than three years. There were three major massacres of the townspeople. If in 1939, 37 thousand of people lived in the district center, then after the war, 7 thousand of them remained. Many Ukrainians, Poles, Jews, and people of other nationalities were shot. In April 1942, a ghetto for Jews was created in the city, where they were also resettled from the surrounding areas. About 18 thousand of prisoners lived on both sides of the territory fenced with barbed wire. In August – September 1942, the Nazis carried out the final liquidation of Jews of the town of Volodymyr. Mass shootings continued near the village of Piatydni: according to estimates, 25 thousand of people, transported from the entire district, died there. Units were saved, most often thanks to their friends and compatriots.

Hanna Radyshkevych, who lived near the ghetto, agreed to hide the Bitman family in the basement of her house. They got to the hostess with another Jewish family – the Likhtenshtein family. In total, 14 people were accommodated in the basement, but it was by no means designed for that many. And Hanna herself did not expect such an influx of refugees. In desperation, she turned to her sister Mariia Sokolovska, who also lived in the city – with her husband Vladyslav and teenage children Veslav and Khrystyna. The Sokolovskyi famaly began to help with food, because it was too difficult for Hanna to feed everyone on her own. In order to expand the basement space, the Jews dug a tunnel, thus setting up an underground dwelling for almost two years.

After the war, the rescued emigrated to Israel and renewed ties with their saviors as late as the 1990s.

In 1999, Yad Vashem recognized Hanna Radyshkevych, Vladyslav, Mariia, Veslav Sokolovskyi and Khrystyna Dubasevych (Sokolovska) as Righteous Among the Nations.

/