Today is the Day of Remembrance of Ukrainians who saved Jews during World War II. One of them is Fedir Vovk, a native of the Poltava region, and a graduate of Kharkiv University. His way of life is breaking the patterns of Moscow propaganda. A prominent member of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists of Bandera and at the same time the Righteous One of the World. When Mykola Klymyshyn and Ulyana Tselevich, members of the OUN marching group, arrived in German-occupied Nikopol, they were advised to turn to the conscientious Ukrainian Fedor Vovka. On their advice, he gets a job in the agricultural administration. Then he took part in the creation and activities of the Nikopol “Prosvita” until it was banned in the summer of 1942. Under the cover of “Prosvita”, Fedir Ivanovich Vovk created an underground OUN cell, which had 40 members. During the extermination of the Jewish population of Nikopol by the German Sonderkommando in the fall of 1941, F. I. Vovk, together with his wife E. M. Shkandel and teacher M. P. Mizina, saved the teacher Sarah Bakst, her mother and two sons from being shot, and hid them for some time in Nikopol, and then they organized transportation to a safe place. In 1998, the national institute “Yad Vashem” of Israel awarded F. I. Vovk, E. M. Shkandel, M. P. Miziniа with the title “Righteous Among the Nations.” During his stay in Galicia, F.I. Vovk maintained contact with the OUN leadership, the Command of the UPA, and the Initiative Committee for the Creation of a Representation of the Ukrainian People. He received the pseudonym Ivan Fedorovych Vovchuk, which he had until the end of his life. I. F. Vovchuk participated in organizing and holding the first Great Meeting of the Ukrainian Main Liberation Council on July 11-15, 1944, becoming its third vice-president. While abroad after the end of the Second World War, he heads the Organization for the Defence of the Four Freedoms of Ukraine (OChSU), edits the ABN magazine “Liberal Policy”, heads various areas of activity of the Foreign Parts of the OUN faction abroad.
Archive of the OUN in UIS-London
