Ulanovskyi Yulian and Ryshard, Opalko (Ulanovska) Lidiia

Yulian Ulanovskyi and his children, 10-year-old Ryshard and 13-year-old Lidiia, lived in the village of Zimna Voda (current Lviv district) in the Lviv region. It was multinational. In addition to Ukrainians, Poles and Jews, many German colonists also lived there.

With the beginning of the Second World War, the village, located a few kilometers from the city of Lviv, found itself in a whirlwind of events. In September 1939, Soviet troops entered there and immediately established their order. A year later, echelons with deported families of German colonists were sent from the railway station there. Before leaving, some of the local residents came to say goodbye to their former neighbors. In memory of themselves, they presented them with a holy image painted with oil paints – for the Greek Catholic Church. This fact is one of the evidences that the relations between Ukrainians, Poles, Jews and German colonists in the village of Zimna Voda were good neighborly, warm and sincere.

After the German attack on the Soviet Union, there were no special battles on the territory of the settlement. Together with the neighboring village Volia-Konopnytska, it became part of the city of Lviv and ended up under the Nazi occupation. The Hitlerites established a ghetto there, where they took Jews from the surrounding villages. In addition, on the street Adam Mickiewicz (current Ivan Sirko Street), German Sonderkommando shot the condemned. In the city of Lviv and the surrounding villages, announcements were posted everywhere, forbidding local residents to help Jews under threat of death.

On the eve of Second World War the 40-year-old Yulian Ulanovskyi was a court secretary. During the Nazi occupation, he did not work in his specialty and had little money. In 1942, his wife Sofiia died, so raising the children fell on the husband's shoulders.

In the spring of 1943, Polish comrade Zyhmund Kurzei turned to Yulian and asked to shelter his acquaintance – Liudvika Menkes. He produced false documents for her in the name of the Polish woman Yanina Hadzinska. Knowing that it is difficult for Ulanovskyi to raise children and take care of the household alone, Zyhmund suggested that Mrs. Liudvika help him as a widower. Yulian agreed, although he knew that she was Jewish and that by letting her into his home, he exposes himself, his son and daughter to mortal danger. Later, at Liudvika's request, Julian also brought her sister Mariia Menkes to his home from Lviv.

He agreed to shelter other Jews who were lucky enough to escape from the ghetto in the village Zymna Voda. At first, he accepted families who were able to participate in the costs of their maintenance. However, thanks to the first installment of some of the fugitives, he was able to hide several insolvent persons in the house. For his wards, Yulian built a hiding place in the house and provided them with food. To disguise that shelter, he made and placed cages above it, in which he raised rabbits. Ryshard and Lidiia helped their father take care of the Jews. During the year, 11 people found shelter on the Ulanovskyi yard. Among the rescued were: Liudvika Holdkhamer (Menkes), Mariia Lipa (Menkes), the Feiman family: Moisha, Ryva and their children Davyd and Viktor from Rivne, Moisha Fishel, as well as pharmacist Met and his wife [names unknown] from Hlyniany Lviv region, Pelberh [name unknown] from Berlin (Germany) and Strickler [name unknown] from Hdynia (Poland).

It was difficult to hide so many fugitives at the same time. It was necessary to buy food and the most necessary things without attracting attention. In order not to arouse suspicion among his fellow villagers, Yulian often went to other cities and towns for purchases. When the money ran out, at the request of Moisha Feiman, he secretly made his way to the ghetto, where he found a cache of jewelry that the fugitive's family had managed to hide there. Part of the treasure was exchanged for food for everyone – both Jews and saviors. Meanwhile, rumors spread through the village that Lidiia and Ryshard's nanny was not actually Polish, Yanina Gadzinska, but Jewish. The police visited the house more than once, conducting checks and raids. However, despite his poverty and constant danger, despite searches around him, Yulian Ulanovsky took care of the Jews from the spring of 1943 until the expulsion of the Nazis from the village Zymna Voda in the second half of July 1944.

After the retreat of the German troops, Mariia Menkes left her family and returned to her home in Lviv, and later moved to Katowice (Poland), where she married Vilhelm Lipa and lived until 1957. After emigrating to Israel, her family also kept in touch with Yulian and his children. Liudvika stayed with Ulanovskyi for a long time, took the name of his late wife Sofiia and took care of his children.

In 2005, Yulian Ulanovskyi, his children Ryshard Ulanovskyi and Lidiia Opalko (Ulanovska) were awarded the title of Righteous Among the Nations.

The Ulanovskyi family, 1945

Decree of the mayor of Lemberg, Dr. Egon Heller, on the creation of a Jewish residential area, 15.06.1942

A wall of memory with the names of the Righteous Among the Nations – the Ulanovskyi family