Liudmyla Tkach

Liudmyla Sara Tkach (Knysh, after her stepfather) was born on December 25, 1936, in Tarashcha, Kyiv Oblast. 

When Liudmyla was 2 years old, her father, a colonel, was arrested by the NKVD at night. Soon after, Liudmyla’s mother remarried a friend of her first husband.

On September 29, 1941, Liudmyla and her mother, Olena Yukhymivna Borodyanska-Knysh, were taken to Babyn Yar. At night of September 30, at 00:30, they were forced to the last group for the execution. The mother and the daughter jumped into the ravine without waiting for the shots  and survived. At night, Liudmyla and her mother got out of Babyn Yar and searched for a hiding place. 

According to the testimony of Olena Borodyanska-Knysh, for 4 days they were hiding at Fedora Shelest’s place at 19 Borychiv Tik Street, apartment 5. Then they lived with Yevheniia Litoshenko at 3 Prytysko-Mykilska Street, apartment 12. After that they were hiding at a friend’s place (known only by her last name – Shkuropadska).

Liudmyla was 5 years old at the time, so her memories are confused and may differ from her mother’s testimony. According to Liudmyla, they were hiding at Yevheniia Pliuyko’s place for two weeks. Then – with her mother’s friend. And then – at Natalia Doli’s place at 3 Prytysko-Mykilska Street. Later – with Yevheniia, whose last name she does not mention.

According to the Book of the Righteous, after her previous hiding places Liudmyla and her mother lived with Valentyna Lytvynenko (at 37 Frunze Street (presently Kyrylivska str.)) with whom Olena had worked before the war at the Krasin tram depot (presently the Podil Tram Depot). Valentyna has the status of a Righteous of Babyn Yar.

In December 1941, Liudmyla and her mother hid in the village of Popilnia at the house of  a local resident, Halyna. Her mother worked in the garden, and later, because she did not look Jewish, she helped Halyna cook for the German soldiers who were stationed in the village. Later, the escapees reached Bila Tserkva, then Skryva and Mynkivtsi, where Olena had a friend. The woman’s family was against harbouring the fugitives, so they had to look for another place. Liudmyla and her mother stayed with a woman named Aghata for about a year, doing hard work.

In September 1942, Liudmyla and her mother finally got a vacant house in the village of Mynkivtsi. Their neighbours, the family of Mykhailo and Lukeria Hryhorenko and their children Lidiia, Olha and Mariia, helped them. All of them were recognised as Righteous Among the Nations.

In January 1943, Olena went to Kyiv on a partisan mission. She was suspected and, after questioning, was beaten, sustaining a broken skull. On her way back, Olena saved a wounded soldier, Mykola, from committing suicide and returned to the village with him. Her neighbour Halyna Protsenko looked after Liudmyla.

In March 1943, the Germans came to the village and started collecting food for the army. They did not have enough and decided to take people hostage, including Liudmyla’s mother. But she managed to escape. 

In the autumn of 1943, a guard beat Liudmyla for picking up spikelets of grain after the harvest. Combat against the retreating Germans reached the village of Mynkivtsi. Liudmyla, her mother, Mykola, and the village girls hid in a cellar. By November, the village was liberated by Soviet troops.

In April 1944, Liudmyla’s family received an apartment in Kyiv at 3 Frolivska Street. They began moving in. Olena sent Mykola, who was wounded, to a hospital. She returned to Mynkivtsi to buy food, leaving Liudmila alone as the girl had been ill for a long time. On her way back, Olena had an accident and had to stay in the hospital for a year. Liudmila lived alone, looking after the neighbours’ children for food.

Liudmyla’s illness did not recede, and in early 1945 her neighbours took her to a tuberculosis clinic. It was discovered that she had suffered from double pneumonia. The girl was assigned to one of the dispensaries and fed potato soup once a day. Her neighbours helped her. Over time they had trouble providing even for themselves, so the girl had to sell water and beg at the Zhytniy Market. She let some lodgers in, but they did not pay her with food nor money. Later, her neighbours helped her drive them out.

As Liudmyla had no means of survival, she turned to the local police for help and they sent her to the Krekhiv orphanage by Zhovkva, where she lived till 1947.

Later, she was assigned to look after children with scabies. Helping the nurses she received her first money and sent it to her mother, who had already left the hospital.

After she recovered, Liudmyla’s mother came to pick her up and they returned to Kyiv together. Upon her return, Liudmyla got meningitis.

In 1955, Liudmyla married Valentyn Tkach. She attended night school and completed her secondary education. A year later, the couple had a son, Anatolii. However, family quarrels forced Liudmyla and her son to leave her husband.

For 38 years Liudmyla had been working at the Mayak plant, where she was never promoted because of being Jewish.  It was only over time, after overcoming a series of bureaucratic obstacles, that she got an apartment.

Liudmyla’s son Anatolii Tkach emigrated to Los Angeles in 1989. Four years later Liudmyla flew to visit her son. According to Liudmyla, in America she felt free from antisemitism, received disability documents and obtained an apartment.

Liudmyla died in 2002.