Alla Savelyeva (Supyk)

The Supyk family, construction engineer Ivan with his wife Natalka and daughter Alla, lived in Kyiv on Tarasivska Street. In the neighborhood informally called “The Latin Quarter”, many Jews used to live.

When the Soviet Union entered WWII, Ivan Supyk was not drafted into the army because of heart disease, but instead was told to remain in Kyiv and was given an underground assignment. After the Nazi occupation of Kyiv, when mass extermination of Jews at Babyn Yar began, a former construction company coworker of Ivan Supyk’s, Moisey Shpilberg, who violated the order and didn’t go to the collection point, asked for his help.

The Supyk family hid Shpilberg in a shed at the yard of their house behind the woodpile. Natalka and Alla brought him food, which they passed through a broken fence board. During the day, he sat in the shed, and at night, left the shed to walk outside.

It was very dangerous to hide Jews in the middle of occupied Kyiv where occupation policemen watched everything. Ivan Supik, who worked at the occupation administration supplying Germany with the labor of young Ukrainians, obtained forged documents for Shpilberg made in the name of Pavlo Mashchenko. While the documents were being prepared, food for Shpilberg was brought by Natalka’s childless elder sister Domnikiya Prylypko, who convinced Natalka that it would be better if she does it and not put her sister and niece in danger.

With the new documents, Shpilberg was moved to a safe place.

On June 14, 2007, Jewish Council of Ukraine recognized Ivan and Natalka Supyk as Righteous of Babyn Yar, and their daughter Alla – as Daughter of Righteous of Babyn Yar.