Trach Ivan and Rozaliia, Trach Petro

Ivan and Rozaliia Trach and their children lived in the village of Kachanivka in the Ternopil region. During the Nazi occupation, the family saved five Jews from extermination.

In the summer of 1943, three young men came to the couple's house and asked for shelter. They were the Hilson brothers: Yakiv, Zyhmunt and Beniamin. Ivan and Rozaliia decided to help, even though they had four children of their own. The Hilson brothers chose a place in a barn and within a few days dug a hole there two meters deep. They dug two shelters in different directions from it, giving them the shape of a vault, and lived in the Trach family farmstead for over a year. However, about six months after the arrangement of that shelter, there were not two but five Jews in it. Rozaliia came across two teenage girls: Rakhil and Malka Khirshklau, who had escaped from the shooting and were wandering through the forest. Before the war, the sisters lived in the village of Pidvolochysk (now the village of Pidvolochysk, Ternopil region), their parents died, and they and other relatives were transported to a camp in the town of Skalat. From there, the girls escaped. Despite the risk of being shot along with the Jews, the Ukrainian family accepted them as their own. They shared everything they had equally and never complained. 14-year-old Petro Trach herded two cows and remembers that their mother shared the milk among everyone.

Petro remembers that once his mother was careless to hang a lot of washed clothes in the yard. A neighbor noticed this and, as if jokingly, asked if they had taken someone into the family. After that, the family was very afraid that they would be exposed, but the desire and awareness of the importance of helping was stronger than the fear.

After the Nazis were expelled, the Hilson brothers were mobilized to the front. In the postwar period, the Jews who were hiding in Trach family settled in Israel. They sent gifts from there. However, the Soviet authorities forced Ivan and Rozaliia to sign a document stating that they did not need these packages. Then, gradually, the connection between the two families disappeared. But, despite this, the rescued testified about the heroic act of the Ukrainian family.

In 1995, Yad Vashem recognized Ivan and Rozaliia Trach as Righteous Among the Nations. Their son, Petro Trach, is a Righteous of Ukraine.