Lyubov Gerasimchik lived with her husband Pavel on the family’s farm in the village of Szubków (now Shubkiv, Ukraine). The couple had three children, Klavdiya, Galina, and Nikolay, and also cared for an orphaned relative, Sinaida.
In September 1942 Lyubov Gerasimchik’s husband brought an endangered Jewish family to the farm. Isaak and Polina Khomut and their daughter Laura had narrowly escaped the murder of all Jews in neighboring Tuczyn (now Tuchyn) by the German occupiers. Lyubov Gerasimchik helped her husband to hide the family and take care of them. The Gerasimchiks harbored the family on their farm for 18 months. They thus risked their own lives, since the German occupiers were known to shoot entire families if they took in Jews. Both families survived.
The Israeli Holocaust memorial center Yad Vashem honored Lyubov Gerasimchik as Righteous Among the Nations in 1990.
Lyubov and Pavel Gerasimchik on their farm, Szubków, before 1939. Source: Yad Vashem Archives, Jerusalem, 4577
The Gerasimchik family outside their house in Shubkiv after their liberation. Back row, right to left: the sisters Galina and Klavdiya, their mother Lyubov, two relatives, front row: foster-daughter Sinaida Shpak and Pavel Gerasimchik (seated). Source: Yad Vashem Archives, Jerusalem, 4577
