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ALL RESIDENTS OF THE VILLAGE ISPAS WERE NAMED RIGHTEOUS AMONG THE NATIONS
By Anna Harhalia, Chernivtsi
The Day Weekly Digest
Tuesday, 2 February 2010
On Jan. 27, 2010, the entire world commemorated Holocaust victims
VASYLYNA DENYS AND IVAN SHTEFIUK, WHO HELPED THEIR PARENTS RESCUE
JEWS WHEN THEY WERE CHILDREN, LOOKING AT THE PHOTOS FROM THEIR
GRANDCHILDREN'S TRIP TO ISRAEL
In 1991, when Ukraine just gained independence, President Leonid
Kravchuk came to Babyn Yar to say words of grief and compassion and
apologized before Jews on behalf of the entire Ukrainian people for the
crime committed by the German occupants on the territory of Ukraine.
There were thousands of Ukrainians who risked their lives and
sacrificed themselves, rescued and hid Jews - representatives of
an ethnic group with whom our people have lived side by side for
centuries. Some of these Ukrainians are now named Righteous among
the Nations. This title, according to the Israeli law "On the Memory
of the Catastrophe," is conferred on non-Jews, who in the years of
Nazi occupation of Europe rescued Jews from persecution. The Day
is carrying two stories about the Righteous among the Nations - one
from Chernivtsi and the other one from Kirovohrad, while there are
thousands of them. Let us commemorate and thank these people.
The village Ispas of Vyzhnytsia raion, Chernivtsi oblast, is located on
the picturesque bank of the Cheremosh River. The village is populous;
at the beginning of the previous century, over 2,000 people resided
there, which was a significant figure in those times.
Newcomers were attracted by the favorable location of Ispas, which
lies on the road going from Chernivtsi to Vyzhnytsia and further to
the Ivano-Frankivsk region and Galicia, which was part of another
state at the time. So, besides Ukrainians, Ispas was a place of
residence for Romanian families, Poles, Jews, and Armenians. They
all treated each other in a friendly way. Houses of families with
different ethnic background stood side-by-side, so women went to
their neighbors to borrow matches or a pinch of salt and exchanged
recipes of national dishes, while their children attended the same
school and played with each other after classes.
"At school I sat at one desk with a Jewish girl, Rivka Herstel,"
says Vasylyna Denys, recalling her childhood years. "As we lived
close, we often came to see each other: Rivka's mother treated us to
kartoplianyky (potato pancakes). At the time, all of us wore national
costumes, so we, as girls of any time, liked to exchange clothes. We
hid in my house behind the stove and exchanged our clothes. I remember
that Rivka was fond of my embroidered shirts."
The peaceful life of the Ispas residents was ruined by World War II.
The region was again occupied by Romania, an ally of Hitler's Germany,
and the persecution of Jews started. In July 1941, local members of
the pro-Fascist organization Kuzi organized a bloody massacre in the
villages Milieve and Banyliv, which were near Ispas.
"From there a band of 20 men, armed with pitchforks, scythes, and axes
(I remember that only one of them was carrying a rifle) rushed to
our village," recalls Tanasii Shtefiuk, an eyewitness of those events.
His father Ivan Shtefiuk was the first to learn the news.
Wheelchair-bound, this man enjoyed great authority among the
villagers. He immediately sent his children for the village headman,
priest, and other respectful men. They had to decide together how to
defend their Jewish co-villagers.
The negotiations with the aggressors took place in the house which
is still standing in one of the village's central streets.
"The men were refusing to leave for a long while," Tanasii says. "They
boasted about how they had killed Jews in their villages: their
narrations still make blood curdle. They tried to instigate my father
and other residents of Ispas to give them a possibility to 'purify'
our village, too. But our men held their own ground and succeeded
in making the murderers go away. In spite of that, just in case,
the villagers hid the Jews for a couple of days. I remember that two
girls were hiding in our threshing barn, which stood in the garden,
and my mother brought food and warm clothes to them."
Finally, 15 Jewish families were rescued: 2,000 residents of Ispas
risked their lives to save 100 people.
The members of the International Tolerance Foundation, which conducts
surveys on the history of the Holocaust in different countries of the
world, learned about the deed of the village's residents. The center
initiated erecting a monument to "the collective righteous": the
ceremony of laying foundation of the future monument was held in 2008.
The foundation did not limit itself to this effort only. Children
from the Israeli city Sderot visited Ispas, while grandchildren of
Ispas residents who saved their Jewish co-villagers in wartime went
to Israel in exchange. All the residents of the village were named
Righteous among the Nations.
By Anna Harhalia, Chernivtsi
The Day Weekly Digest
Tuesday, 2 February 2010
On Jan. 27, 2010, the entire world commemorated Holocaust victims
VASYLYNA DENYS AND IVAN SHTEFIUK, WHO HELPED THEIR PARENTS RESCUE
JEWS WHEN THEY WERE CHILDREN, LOOKING AT THE PHOTOS FROM THEIR
GRANDCHILDREN'S TRIP TO ISRAEL
In 1991, when Ukraine just gained independence, President Leonid
Kravchuk came to Babyn Yar to say words of grief and compassion and
apologized before Jews on behalf of the entire Ukrainian people for the
crime committed by the German occupants on the territory of Ukraine.
There were thousands of Ukrainians who risked their lives and
sacrificed themselves, rescued and hid Jews - representatives of
an ethnic group with whom our people have lived side by side for
centuries. Some of these Ukrainians are now named Righteous among
the Nations. This title, according to the Israeli law "On the Memory
of the Catastrophe," is conferred on non-Jews, who in the years of
Nazi occupation of Europe rescued Jews from persecution. The Day
is carrying two stories about the Righteous among the Nations - one
from Chernivtsi and the other one from Kirovohrad, while there are
thousands of them. Let us commemorate and thank these people.
The village Ispas of Vyzhnytsia raion, Chernivtsi oblast, is located on
the picturesque bank of the Cheremosh River. The village is populous;
at the beginning of the previous century, over 2,000 people resided
there, which was a significant figure in those times.
Newcomers were attracted by the favorable location of Ispas, which
lies on the road going from Chernivtsi to Vyzhnytsia and further to
the Ivano-Frankivsk region and Galicia, which was part of another
state at the time. So, besides Ukrainians, Ispas was a place of
residence for Romanian families, Poles, Jews, and Armenians. They
all treated each other in a friendly way. Houses of families with
different ethnic background stood side-by-side, so women went to
their neighbors to borrow matches or a pinch of salt and exchanged
recipes of national dishes, while their children attended the same
school and played with each other after classes.
"At school I sat at one desk with a Jewish girl, Rivka Herstel,"
says Vasylyna Denys, recalling her childhood years. "As we lived
close, we often came to see each other: Rivka's mother treated us to
kartoplianyky (potato pancakes). At the time, all of us wore national
costumes, so we, as girls of any time, liked to exchange clothes. We
hid in my house behind the stove and exchanged our clothes. I remember
that Rivka was fond of my embroidered shirts."
The peaceful life of the Ispas residents was ruined by World War II.
The region was again occupied by Romania, an ally of Hitler's Germany,
and the persecution of Jews started. In July 1941, local members of
the pro-Fascist organization Kuzi organized a bloody massacre in the
villages Milieve and Banyliv, which were near Ispas.
"From there a band of 20 men, armed with pitchforks, scythes, and axes
(I remember that only one of them was carrying a rifle) rushed to
our village," recalls Tanasii Shtefiuk, an eyewitness of those events.
His father Ivan Shtefiuk was the first to learn the news.
Wheelchair-bound, this man enjoyed great authority among the
villagers. He immediately sent his children for the village headman,
priest, and other respectful men. They had to decide together how to
defend their Jewish co-villagers.
The negotiations with the aggressors took place in the house which
is still standing in one of the village's central streets.
"The men were refusing to leave for a long while," Tanasii says. "They
boasted about how they had killed Jews in their villages: their
narrations still make blood curdle. They tried to instigate my father
and other residents of Ispas to give them a possibility to 'purify'
our village, too. But our men held their own ground and succeeded
in making the murderers go away. In spite of that, just in case,
the villagers hid the Jews for a couple of days. I remember that two
girls were hiding in our threshing barn, which stood in the garden,
and my mother brought food and warm clothes to them."
Finally, 15 Jewish families were rescued: 2,000 residents of Ispas
risked their lives to save 100 people.
The members of the International Tolerance Foundation, which conducts
surveys on the history of the Holocaust in different countries of the
world, learned about the deed of the village's residents. The center
initiated erecting a monument to "the collective righteous": the
ceremony of laying foundation of the future monument was held in 2008.
The foundation did not limit itself to this effort only. Children
from the Israeli city Sderot visited Ispas, while grandchildren of
Ispas residents who saved their Jewish co-villagers in wartime went
to Israel in exchange. All the residents of the village were named
Righteous among the Nations.