Zelinska Hanna, Simkov Vasyl and Hanna

Hanna Zelinska, Vasyl, and Hanna Simkov, who saved the life of the Jewish girl Lyudmyla Panych during the Holocaust, lived in the town of Shepetivka.

Lyudmyla was born in December 1940 in the town of Izyaslav in the family of Pinya and Liza Panych, being their second daughter.

On July 5, 1941, the Germans occupied their town, and after some time, a ghetto was organized there. Pinya and his elder daughter were killed during one of the actions in 1942. Shortly before the ghetto's liquidation in January 1943, Liza managed to pass her younger daughter to her friend Olga Skrypnyk. Olga took care of Lyudmyla until a neighbor threatened to report to the police, prompting Olga to hand her over to her friend Antonina Poplavska. Lyudmyla lived with Antonina for two weeks while Olga searched for a more suitable option. She brought Lyudmyla to the town of Shepetivka and left her in the square, watching from a distance to see who would take her. The girl cried, drawing the attention of Hanna Zelinska, who, out of compassion, took her in. Upon questioning the child about her name and parents, Hanna understood that the family was Jewish. Despite being pregnant herself, Hanna decided to keep Lyudmyla with her. One day, friends Vasyl and Hanna Simkov visited them.

The child immediately endeared herself to the childless couple, and they wanted to adopt her. The Simkovs were not deterred by the child's Jewish origin and were prepared to hide her until the danger passed.

After the Nazis were expelled from Shepetivka on February 11, 1944, Vasyl and Hanna officially adopted Lyudmyla. They raised her as their own daughter, and for a long time, the girl knew nothing about her true origins. However, she remembered that her parents carefully preserved a child's black fur coat and burgundy felt boots. Later, it turned out that in this clothing, she was saved on a winter day in 1943. When Lyudmyla was 10 years old, her maternal aunt and uncle, Bella Weinstein and Ida Varkhover, visited the Simkovs. From Olga Skrypnyk, they learned that their niece had survived. Initially, Bella wanted to take Lyudmyla through the court. The Simkovs were afraid of losing their daughter, so they forbade the girl to see her aunt. However, noticing how attached she was to her new parents, Bella abandoned her intention.

Lyudmyla Panych (later Yanushevska) continued to live in Shepetivka, where she got married and raised three children.

"I wish no one would experience what I had to go through, and that everyone had their real mothers. And I want there to be peace, and no one suffers, and everyone lives well in this world". From an interview with Lyudmyla Yanushevska (Panych) to the USC Shoah Foundation Visual History and Education Institute, 1997.

On May 27, 2002, Hanna Zelinska, Vasyl, and Hanna Simkovs were honored with the title "Righteous Among the Nations".