She was 100 years old: Righteous Among the Nations Lidia Savchuk – a Ukrainian whom both Hitler’s Nazism and Putin’s Rashism wanted to wipe off the face of the earth

At the beginning of November 2025, in Lucerne, Switzerland, Lidiya Klimovna Savchuk quietly passed away — one of the last living Ukrainian Righteous Among the Nations. She was 100 years old. Not a politician, not a media star — an ordinary woman at first glance, who once said “yes” to another’s life in her youth and lived with that choice for the rest of her life.

Bright Shadow of a Century

If we lay out her path in dry lines, we get an almost textbook list: 1925 — birth in Vinnytsia. 1941–1944 — German occupation, underground help to Jews and Soviet soldiers. 1950s — family, children, Kyiv. January 2, 1995 — recognition as Righteous Among the Nations at Yad Vashem. February 2022 — a new war, this time Putin’s-Russian. April 2022 — evacuation from Kyiv. November 2025 — death in Lucerne.

But between these dates — the concrete basements of Vinnytsia, the attic where a soldier was hidden, a cry at the market where Lidiya was once beaten for helping her brother’s Jewish friend, night raids, a communal apartment in Kyiv, an evacuation car under the wail of sirens, and a Swiss lake where the Alps are peacefully reflected.

This chain is her life.

Between Hitler and Putin: A Century of One Woman

The story of Lidiya Savchuk is striking because she literally walked the fault line between two different but very similar wars. In her youth, Hitler came at her with his “racial theory” and punishers in Vinnytsia. In her old age — Putin with the “Russian world” and missiles on Kyiv. Two different eras, two different forms of propaganda, but the same cold view of people as “material.”

In the 1940s, Nazi Germany decided who had the right to live and who did not. The Jewish soldier whom the Savchuk family hid in the attic was simply “superfluous” in the logic of the Reich. In 2022, the Russian authorities similarly tried to erase Ukrainians from reality — “there is no such nation,” “artificial state,” “subject to denazification.” For Lidiya, all these formulas were not abstractions: first, she hid a person whom Hitler wanted to erase, and then she herself ended up in a city that Putin tried to intimidate into silence.

Between these two regimes is her century. The Vinnytsia attic, where food was whispered to the soldier “Ivan Petrov,” who was actually the Kyiv Jew Isaak Tartakovsky. The Kyiv apartment, where at 98 she listened to sirens and asked her daughter to move the bed away from the window so that shards wouldn’t hit. The car that diplomats and volunteers used to take her out of Kyiv — a mirror reflection of how her family once took Isaak out of a dangerous house to another part of the city.

To simplify to the extreme: Hitler built a world where people like Tartakovsky should not have existed. Putin builds a world where people like Lidiya and her Ukrainian neighbors are preferably “unheard and unseen.” And in the midst of this — one woman who at 17 said “yes” to another’s life, and at 98 heard “we must save you” from other people and other states.

Lidiya Savchuk lived her life literally between two Nazis — the old and the new, the “classic” and the modern. But she never became like either of them. It is from this point — the comparison of two wars and one human choice — that her biography should be viewed further.

The Savchuk House: Vinnytsia, Attic, and Soldier “Ivan Petrov”

Lidiya was born in Vinnytsia to Stepan and Nadezhda Savchuk. Under one roof with her parents lived her brother Valentin. Life went on like thousands of families in Soviet Ukraine until June 22, 1941 — the day when Germany and the USSR, having previously divided Poland, the Baltics, and Romania, started a war between themselves.

Valentin was drafted into the “Red Army.” Communication with him soon disappeared. The fear for their son became a constant background for the Savchuks. And it was this feeling — anxiety for their own child — that later pushed them not to turn away from another’s.

In March 1942, a man came to the Savchuk house. He introduced himself: “Ivan Petrov”, a Soviet soldier who escaped from a German prisoner-of-war camp. There were thousands of similar stories in Ukraine at the time, but this one turned out to be special.

The family decided to take him in. Petrov settled in the attic. Lidiya brought him food, talked to him, listened to his fragmentary stories. Gradually, he realized: these people could be trusted. He noticed that Lidiya and her parents were already helping others — bringing food to Jewish acquaintances, sometimes hiding them for a short time.

Not long before, the best friend of their son Valentin — a Jew — had already been hiding in the Savchuk house. He was once recognized at the market; Lidiya was brutally beaten for it. The experience was terrifying, but it did not stop the family.

When Petrov realized that the Savchuks were ready to risk not just in words, he revealed the truth: “My name is Isaak Tartakovsky. I am a Jew from Kyiv.”

By this time, Kyiv had already experienced Babi Yar, and Vinnytsia — mass killings of Jews and the creation of a ghetto. Isaak knew: without a family like the Savchuks, he had almost no chance.

Vinnytsia Attic, Old Town, and Liberation

From that moment, Isaak lived with the Savchuks under, for them, his real name, although officially he continued to be listed as “Ivan Petrov.” His refuge was the attic. When patrols passed by the street or inspectors came into the house, he climbed higher and hid.

In April 1943, the family received an order to vacate the house: German soldiers wanted to settle in it. The Savchuks had to hastily pack their things. It seemed like a convenient moment to “accidentally forget” about the Jewish neighbor. But they took Isaak with them.

The family moved to the Vinnytsia suburb Old Town. There they introduced him as a relative. In the new room, everything was simple: beds, a table, a couple of chairs. But there was also an attic where Isaak went when inspectors or officials came to check documents.

In the fall of 1943, the Vinnytsia ghetto was finally liquidated, and the remaining Jews were killed. A few people managed to escape and, trying to save themselves, knocked on the doors of local residents. Against this backdrop of tightening regime, the Savchuks had to be even more cautious: the slightest mistake could cost not only their lives but also the life of the person they were sheltering.

March 20, 1944, the Soviet army came to Vinnytsia. Isaak came out of hiding, returned to the troops. The family saw him off as they would a relative. They did not know if they would see each other again.

Meeting on the Street and Family After the War

After the war, Isaak Tartakovsky was demobilized, graduated from the Kyiv Art Institute, and stayed in the capital. He started with small orders, gradually becoming a well-known artist. This was already another life — with a studio, paints, and canvases, but the memory of Vinnytsia did not disappear.

In early 1951, something happened that is usually presented in films with music. Isaak was walking down a Kyiv street — and suddenly saw a familiar face. It was Lidiya. A chance meeting, a few words, then another meeting — already planned.

Two years later, in 1953, they got married. For some, it’s a romantic plot about a “savior and the saved,” but for them, it was a union of people who went through the same fire.

They had two children — Anatoliy and Elena. Both followed the artistic line. Paintings, studios, exhibitions — all this became a continuation of the story that once began in the Vinnytsia house with an attic.

Kyiv Years and Recognition by Yad Vashem

The family settled in Kyiv. Lidiya worked, kept house, supported her husband. In their home, memories of Vinnytsia occasionally surfaced: about brother Valentin, about the Jews they tried to help, about how she lay on the ground after being beaten at the market. But these were conversations “for their own,” without pathos.

Only in the 1990s did the Savchuk story receive official continuation. January 2, 1995, Yad Vashem awarded Stepan, Nadezhda, and Lidiya Savchuk the title of Righteous Among the Nations. A neat frame with a document and a medal appeared on the wall in the Kyiv apartment.

For Lidiya, it was not so much an “award” as a confirmation: what they did was indeed seen and recorded.

When War Returned: February 2022

By the time of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Lidiya was 98 years old. She lived in Kyiv, with her daughter Elena and son-in-law Oleg.

The night of February 23 to 24, 2022, shattered the usual silence: explosions, news, calls. Soon one of the shellings hit their house — broken windows, glass shards, cold air in the apartment. Lidiya’s health was already poor: dementia, weakness, dependence on others’ help.

They talked to her about evacuation — train, bus, volunteer cars. According to relatives, she initially just shook her head: “Leave? Again?”. She had already seen once how a war ends and did not believe that she would manage to escape a second time.

For almost one and a half months, the family lived under sirens. Nights in the corridor, bags with things by the door, conversations about which medicines were missing. At some point, it became clear: staying meant “playing roulette.”

Road to a New Life: Diplomats, Foundation, and Border

Lidiya’s story reached people involved in rescuing vulnerable groups — Holocaust survivors, Righteous, the elderly.

From the Israeli side, Ambassador to Ukraine Michael Brodsky got involved. On the other — British public figure Jonny Daniels and his organization From The Depths. They did what they do best: turned the story of a specific person into a very practical plan.

On April 11, 2022, Lidiya was put in a car and taken out of Kyiv. Along the way — checkpoints, destroyed buildings, missile craters. For her, it was the second evacuation in her life. At the Polish border, her status as Righteous and the attention of Israeli diplomats helped: document checks, approvals — all this was done as quickly as possible.

Then — more roads, and finally — Switzerland.

Lucerne: Lake, Mountains, and Quiet End of the Story

Lucerne greeted her with different air: humid, lake, with the smell of rain and coffee. Lidiya’s granddaughter had found a small apartment in advance. There was everything simple but important: a bed, a window with a view of a piece of sky, a kitchen where you could cook soup, and an elevator — without it, the wheelchair would not be lowered.

The Swiss foundation Gamaraal Foundation, which has been supporting Holocaust survivors and those who saved them for many years, got involved in her fate. The head of the foundation Anita Winter helped organize doctors, medicines, basic care.

Lidiya almost did not walk, but for some time she still had clear moments. Her daughter Elena did everything to ensure these moments were not associated with hospital walls but with something alive. If possible, she took her mother to Lake Lucerne: water, boats, children with ice cream, the noise of buses — ordinary peaceful life, which Kyiv so lacked.

It was here, in Lucerne, that Lidiya’s story became known to the European audience. Blick and SonntagsBlick wrote about her, published photos, and told how one woman survived two wars and was saved twice — first in Vinnytsia, then in Kyiv.

Last Autumn and November 2025

By 2024, Lidiya turned 99. She was congratulated at home, without loud events. Doctors spoke cautiously: the condition was severe but stable for such an age.

In the fall of 2025, her body began to give up. She slept more and reacted less to conversations. The family decided not to send her to the hospital. Elena sat nearby, held her hand, sometimes read aloud or played Ukrainian songs that reminded her of childhood.

At the beginning of November, Lidiya Savchuk’s heart stopped.

The Gamaraal Foundation reported her death, and the Ukrainian publication JewishNews wrote an obituary: one of the last Ukrainian Righteous Among the Nations died in Lucerne. She was buried in Switzerland, but part of her biography remained forever in Vinnytsia and Kyiv.

Why We Need to Know Her Name

The story of Lidiya Savchuk is not just a plot about saving a Jew and evacuating an old woman from Kyiv. It is a route that connects Vinnytsia, Babi Yar, Kyiv, Yad Vashem, the border of Ukraine and Poland, Swiss Lucerne, and dozens of people who at different times said: “We owe her.”

• For Ukraine, it is an example that human dignity is not exhausted by regimes or borders.
• For Israel — a living illustration of why the institution of the Righteous appeared at all.
• For Europe — a reminder that war and genocide are not abstractions, but specific faces, addresses, attics, and kitchens where decisions are made.

Remembering the name Lidiya Savchuk means acknowledging that history does not end in archives. It continues in how we relate to someone else’s misfortune today.

Name: Lidiya Klimovna Savchuk
Place of Birth: Vinnytsia, Ukrainian SSR
Main Feat: sheltering Isaak Tartakovsky and other Jews during the German occupation
Title: Righteous Among the Nations (Yad Vashem, January 2, 1995)
Years of Life: 1925–2025

And yes: this is that rare story where the word “righteous” sounds not like a cliché, but as a literal description of the profession — to be human.

What This Means for Us — NAnews. News of Israel

For NAnews — News of Israel — the story of Lidiya Savchuk is not a “beautiful plot from the past,” but a mirror of what is happening with us today. One Ukrainian righteous woman lived a century between Hitler and Putin, and both regimes at different times tried to deprive her of her home, her country, and her right to a peaceful old age.

When Israel and Jewish organizations help such a woman escape from a destroyed Kyiv and meet her last years by a lake in Lucerne, it is not charity “for the sake of appearances.” It is a direct answer to the question: who are we — the descendants of the saved and the saviors — in a world where peaceful cities are shot at again and the language of hatred sounds again.

For Israelis, for Ukrainians in Israel, for Jews in Ukraine, this story is a reminder that our common experience of the Holocaust, Soviet repressions, and today’s wars of Ukraine and Israel is one long, very inconvenient conclusion for dictators: people like Lidiya Savchuk cannot be intimidated to the end.

And if today Putin’s Russia tries to play “fight against Nazism,” we must each time call things by their names: Nazism is where cities are destroyed, children are deported, and the existence of an entire nation is denied. That is why NAnews will continue to tell such stories — about those who did not agree to be a victim neither under Hitler nor under Putin, and about those who today choose to be on the side of “light,” not on the side of the aggressor.

Sources

At the age of 100, one of the last Righteous Among the Nations from Ukraine, Lidiya Savchuk, died

Lidiya Savchuk — DontBeABystander.org

The incredible story of Lidia Savchuk — Blick

One life, two wars — SonntagsBlick / Swiss Press Award

Aid campaign Ukraine — Gamaraal Foundation

NOW LIVES IN SWITZERLAND “RIGHTEOUS AMONG THE NATIONS” FLED THE WAR IN UKRAINE (PDF, Jewish Europe)

This is 97-year-old Lidia Savchuk, a Righteous Among the Nations… — Gamaraal Foundation (Instagram)