A book about Feodor Vovk, a Righteous Among the Nations and one of the leaders of the OUN, will soon be published – Boris Lozhkin
The detailed life story of Feodor Vovk, who changed his name to Ivan Vovchuk in emigration, is currently being prepared by Phronesis Publishing house with the support of the Vovk Foundation. This has been shared by the President of the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine Boris Lozhkin.
Feodor Vovk is one of the characters of the book “The Righteous Among the Nations. Ukraine”, which was published in 2021 by the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine.
There is a story there of the rescue of the Jewish family of Sara Bakst during the Holocaust. In Nazi-occupied Nikopol, the Jews escaped death thanks to Feodor Vovk, his wife Yelizaveta Shkandel and their fellow teacher Maria Mizina. All three of them were recognized in 1988 as Righteous Among the Nations by Israel’s Yad Vashem – The World Holocaust Remembrance Center.
What is noteworthy in this story, Boris Lozhkin said, is that Feodor Vovk was also one of the leaders of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). Shkandel and Mizina were also OUN members.
“He was Vice-President of the Ukrainian Supreme Liberation Council (UHVR), Stepan Bandera’s deputy in the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and at the same time a Righteous Among the Nations. The case of Vovk is not unique among the Ukrainian nationalists. There were other members of the OUN who risked their lives, sheltered Jews and forged documents, turning them into Ukrainians during the Holocaust,” the JCU president wrote.
In Oleh Protsenko’s book “National Tribune. The Life and Ideas of Ivan Vovchuk” many facts about Feodor Vovk and his family will be published for the first time.
“As many people as possible, not only in Ukraine, but also abroad, should get to know about the nationalist Righteous Among the Nations. This will help to destroy the myth of Ukrainian anti-Semites and further strengthen relations between Ukrainians and Jews,” emphasized Lozhkin.
