Shevaliov Yevhen and Andrii

Yevhen Shevaliov was born in 1878 in the noble Odesa family. He received higher education at the Emperor’s Novorossiysky University (current Odesa National I.I. Mechnikov University). He was a prominent psychiatrist, doctor of medicine, professor, Head of the Psychiatry Department at the Odesa Medical Institute, and author of over 100 scientific publications.

During 68 years of his life, Yevhen Shevaliov lived through many hardships, but his credo was: “Recognition of the sacredness of life is the primary source of moral”.

The hardships started at a young age when Yevhen got sick with tuberculosis. Thanks to his family, he managed to get treatment in one of the Swiss sanatoriums. There, in Switzerland, young Shevaliov got acquainted with his future wife, the surgeon Yevhenia Yanovska. True love helped the young couple to overcome such difficulties as the parents’ disagreement for marriage, long separation, hunger, and the challenges of bringing up four children in the hard times.

Since 1927, the Shevaliov couple worked at the Odesa Psychiatric Hospital. In October 1941, nearly 600 patients stayed on treatment there, half of which were Jews. Many Jews were also among the clinic staff. In the darkest days, Yevhen Shevaliov personally took responsibility for heading the institution. After the enemy shell hit the Shevaliov house at 9 Gogol Street, the psychiatric hospital became the house for the entire family.

Yevhen Shevaliov ordered to prepare the medical files for all the employees of Jewish origin, changing their names and hosting them in the hospital as the “light disease” patients. Among the rescued medics was the male nurse Mykhailo Hershenzon and nurse Hita Vekselman. The real patients also had their medical files rewritten with false names. The professor’s junior son Andrii Shevaliov, a student of the medical institute, helped to do this. The young man printed the certificates for the Jews with their names and places of residence. After they were verified by the communal service, he added “Orthodox Christian”. Therefore, by early 1942, no Jews had been recorded in the lists of the hospital. None of the 67 employees reported to the occupiers on the “falsification” of Shevaliovs. However, the situation remained very dangerous. The Slobidka district, where the clinic was located, was turned into a ghetto under Romanian rule. The Jews from all over the city were sent there, then taken to the mass extermination sites, mainly the villages of Bohdanivka, Domanivka, and Akhmechetka (current Mykolaiv region). Shortly, the Romanian secret police were deployed in one of the hospital’s departments. When the occupiers came with inspection, Yevhen Shevaliov offered to check the rooms personally but warned that there were sick of typhus and malaria among the patients. Usually, it scared away the inspectors.

However, the visit of the occupation authorities was not the only trouble. The hardships were multiplied by hunger, cold, and absence of medicines. Typically, these factors impacted the death toll in the hospital, especially in the first winter under occupation, but no patients died the violent death. There was a period when only one room was heated in the clinic, that is why it was necessary to warm by turn. Andrii and several employees went around the Odesa markets and neighboring villages, exchanging the belongings of the dead patients for food.

Except for the staff and patients, the friends and acquaintances of the Shevaliov family found refuge at the psychiatric hospital. In January 1942, Andrii took his classmate Volodymyr Tendler, who managed to escape from the deported convoy, to the father’s hospital. Professor Shevaliov explained the boy how to simulate the symptoms of the psychic disease, so he could be demonstrated as the new patient. Then the new similar “patient” Lilia Rappoport got to the clinic. The 17-year-old girl miraculously avoided reprisal. She witnessed the death shooting of her grandmother, mother and sister. Lilia got to Odesa and asked Andrii Shevaliov, with whom she got acquainted in the autumn of 1941 during the fortifications’ construction, to help. Until the end of the occupation, the girl remained in the hospital as an autistic patient.

Professor Shevaliov knew about the mass shootings of patients with mental diseases in Kyiv, Vinnytsia, Kherson, Mykolaiv, and realized the possible consequences of his “falsifications”, but continued to save others. Thanks to the selflessness and humanness of Yevhen Shevaliov, the psychiatric clinic in occupied Odesa became the island of hope for life.

Yevhen Shevaliov died in 1946. His wife Yevhenia, who was always together with her husband while rescuing the Jews, died 22 years later.

Their junior son Andrii volunteered to the front and went across almost the entire Eastern Europe in the ranks of the 34th Guards Rifle Division. He was awarded the medal “For Combat Merit”. After the war, he became a biologist and became a doctor of science.

The elder son of Yevhen Shevaliov, Volodymyr was an ophthalmologist, doctor of medicine, and professor. During the German-Soviet war, he headed the surgical hospital based on the Ukrainian Institute for Eye Diseases. Together with the hospital, he was evacuated to Sevastopol, headed the group of eye surgeons in the 25th Chapayev Rifle Division and simultaneously carried out the functions of the chief ophthalmologist of the Black Sea Army.

In 1998, Steven Spielberg learned about the events that were similar to the plot of his film “Schindler’s List” from the emigrant from Odesa in the USA. The same year, the team of Steven Spielberg recorded the testimonies of Andrii Shevaliov.

On April 12, 2001, Yad Vashem posthumously recognized Yevhen and Andrii Shevaliov as the Righteous Among the Nations.