Vovkotrub Hryhorii, Maria and Ivan

Hryhorii and Maria Vovkotrub, during the Second World War, saved 10 Jews from perishing. The lives of Naftula and Pepa Baum and their daughter Relka Pik, Ella Kanner, Anna (Nehama) Kremnitzer, Arnold (Ancel) Kremnitzer, David Pik with his mother Tsylia Schwartz, Dora Tsipper and Berta Sharf are owed to their family.

On July 2, 1941, the German army occupied the town of Zolochiv in Ternopil region (now part of the Lviv region).

The Second World War began in those areas as early as 1939 when Soviet forces entered Western Ukraine. Zolochiv Castle turned into a bloody prison. In early July 1941, when the Red Army retreated, local Jews became targets as the Nazis propagated the myth of "Judeo-Bolsheviks".

In the Zolochiv pogrom, 3,500 people lost their lives. Among the few survivors were Arnold Kremnitzer, his wife Anna (Nehama), and their three daughters: 19-year-old Berta, 14-year-old Dora, and 11-year-old Ella.

In August 1942, rumors of the future pogrom spread through the town, and Arnold asked his acquaintance Hryhorii Vovkotrub, a resident of the village of Kopani, located 3 km from Zolochiv, to hide his family.

Hryhorii and his wife Maria, living in poverty, agreed to shelter the Jewish family, even though they could barely feed themselves and their children. They dug a pit under the barn, and the Jews stayed there for several weeks.

Upon learning that the surviving local Jews were gathered in the Zolochiv ghetto established on December 1, 1942, and the situation there was relatively calm, Arnold Kremnitzer and his family left their hiding place.

As soon as he arrived at the ghetto, Arnold was captured and sent to forced labor. His wife and children remained behind barbed wire. The Vovkotrubs often threw them food packages over the fence.

On April 2, 1943, the liquidation of the ghetto began. Anna and her daughters were fortunate to escape. They reached the place where Arnold worked, and together they returned to the Vovkotrubs. Despite the enormous risk, the Vovkotrubs hid them again in the barn.

Hryhorii and Maria took care of five Jewish fugitives until the Nazis were expelled from the region on July 18, 1944. The Vovkotrubs also helped other Jews in Zolochiv and the surrounding areas by providing food and shelter.

After the war, the saved Kremnitzer sisters left Ukraine. Ella (married to Kanner) and Dora (married to Tsipper) moved to the USA, and Berta (married to Sharf) went to Canada. For many years, they maintained contact with their rescuers and their children.

On September 12, 1993, Yad Vashem honored Hryhorii Vovkotrub and his wife Maria with the title "Righteous Among the Nations".

The Vovkotrub's son, Ivan, helped his parents rescue Jews: he hid them and brought them food. In Yad Vashem's records, there are many examples when Righteous Among the Nations' families did not tell their children that someone was hiding in the house during the Holocaust, as a child could accidentally reveal it at school or on the street, endangering both Jews and their rescuers. Therefore, children were often told that a house elf or ghost lived in the basement or attic – so that, hearing rustling, they would be scared and not go there. But Ivan knew everything that was happening around.

In 2018, Ivan Vovkotrub was recognized as a Righteous of Ukraine: his life was at risk during the rescue.