"Whoever saves one life, saves the world."

This is a quote from one of the most successful films, called "Schindler's List." I am sure many of you saw this movie, but if not - I advise to do it. It described the life of Oscar Schindler, industrialist and member of the Nazi Party, who saved 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust. For this he was awarded the title of "Righteous Among the Nations" and even buried on Mount Zion in Jerusalem.

But the same people as he lived in Ukraine. Only this summer the honorary title of "Righteous Among the Nations" was received bysix families. During his speech in the Parliament President of Israel Reuven Rivlin gave special attention to them, called them "sparks that shone brightly during the dark twilight of mankind." There are two and a half thousand of such sparks in Ukraine, it has 4 place in the world by the number of people awarded the title of "Righteous Among the Nations."

I want to tell you a story about one of them, that breaks all the stereotypes. In 1936 in Nikopol, in the Dnieper region lived Fedir Vovk,who was the teacher and school principal. And then a trouble came. It took only few months for hostile German troops to get the city where he lived and capture it. Many people have fled but Fedir remained.

And not just that. He had a plan, decided to become the chief agronomist of the land council. Hi took this position to help people, who were extremely lacking food. He gave to the German occupation administration understated bills of harvesting, and gave the hidden surplus to the hungry people. Moreover, he had connections and rescued Ukrainians from forced departure to work in Germany. And yet he joined the UNO. He built the nationalist underground network, which included about a hundred people. Of course, he headed it.

And this Ukrainian nationalist did a lot to save Jews. When the Germans established their administration in Nikopol they began to killJews. Among those,who could die, was Sarah Davydivna Bakst, teacher from the school where Vovk worked. Her family turned to him with a request of salvation. And he did not leave them in the lurch. He scheduled special plan to Sarah with her husband, two children, mother and nephew – and they survived.

Sarah lived with the children in the cellar, which belonged to a school colleague, and mother with nephew were sent to the village. At the same time Vovk has prepared false documents that helped the family to move to Dolinsky district at Dnipro area. The operation was successful - all rested alive. But soon Vovk was arrested. All were afraid, that the reason was his help to Bakst’s family. And, fortunately, they only exposed the machinations with harvest, so he was able to pay off corny.

But when the Soviets came back, Fedor realized that he should escape. Then the family moved to Galicia, where Vovk became vice-president of Ukrainian Supreme Liberation Council, so-called "belligerent parliament of Ukraine." He got a mission and lived in hiding in exile, in Slovakia and Germany, and later - moved to the United States.

History of Fedir Vovk was told by his student, he found Bakst and Sarah submitted her memoirs for consideration for the title of "Righteous Among the Nations." Vovk and his wife received this high award in 1998.

I want you to know - this is not the only example when Ukrainian nationalists saved Jews. And now, unfortunately, we just can not know how things were at the time of the occupation, because many sources are destroyed and were left behind years of Soviet propaganda, which influenced the coverage of the story. Israel is still looking for people who risked their lives to save Jews during those terrible times.

Although now plans of Ukrainian and Jewish people are aimed at mutual cooperation today and in the future, we must always remember the terrible experience of our past and appreciate it.