Savchuk Olha and Mariia

Olha Savchuk and her 18-year-old daughter Mariia lived in the village of Kormylcha in Khmelnytskyi region. During the Nazi occupation, they hid a Jewish girl, Hanna Novozhena.

The persecution of Jews began immediately after the occupation of the region by units of the Wehrmacht. By the end of August 1941, the occupiers conducted almost 25 “actions” on its territory, during which more than 31 thousand people were executed. During May – October 1942, the Jewish population was exterminated in in the greater part of the region. In the village Zinkiv, where Hanna Novozhena came from, in May 1942, the occupiers killed almost 600 local residents of Jewish nationality. Her mother pushed a 15-year-old girl out of the firing squad ordering her to run away. Hanna wandered around the surrounding villages in search of food for several days, until Olha Savchuk accidentally noticed her outside the village of Kormylcha.

Together with her daughter, the woman was returning home from the village of Chemerivtsi. Stopping the cart on the side of the road, she called the girl. Her haunted look and exhausted appearance evoked sympathy. Mariia offered her mother to take the traveler home. While they were driving, Hanna told her story, admitting that she was Jewish. This did not scare Olha, who firmly decided to save the unfortunate girl. The Savchuk family hid the girl in their neighborhood, while Olha arranged with an acquaintance who worked in a German office, and she produced false documents in the name of Hanna Stolarchuk. Then the rescued woman was introduced to the neighbors as a distant relative, and she was already able to freely walk around the village. Mariia taught her Christian prayers and customs, together the girls worked on the household.

After the expulsion of the Nazis in March 1944, Olha Savchuk found out that none of Hanna's relatives survived the Holocaust. Therefore, before marriage, Anna lived with Olha, who called her daughter.

In 1998, Yad Vashem recognized Olha and Mariia Savchuk as Righteous Among the Nations.

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