Jews' 60-year-long quest to have Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky recognized as Righteous Among the Nations

We continue our publications dedicated to the Ukrainian Righteous Among the Nations. After Holocaust Remembrance Day, we think of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky, a well-known Ukrainian who is recognized as the rescuer of Jews in the Jewish community of Ukraine and Israel. However, he still does not have the Righteous Among the Nations title.

Andrey Sheptytsky is one of the spiritual authorities of the Ukrainian nation. Born as a count and into wealth, he devoted himself to serving the Lord and reached the level of metropolitan. The spiritual authority was tested at a time when totalitarian regimes — National Socialist Germany and the communist Soviet Union — tried to establish their de facto power over Galicia. Sheptytsky had the highest spiritual authority as the head of the Greek Catholic Church in the region during the Shoah.

Officially taking the same position as all Christian churches in Europe (with one exception), i.e., welcoming the new German authorities, Metropolitan Sheptytsky was unofficially active in rescuing Jews. His immediate circle included at least seven Righteous Among the Nations, and no one in Israel denies his participation in rescuing Jews.

Dozens of nominations for Righteous Among the Nations
The Ukrainian Jewish Encounter (UJE) has a comment from Yad Vashem about the nomination of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky. It has been a topic of discussion in the Ukrainian-Israeli dialogue for many years. In 1964, Rabbi David Kagan, who had been rescued by the metropolitan, first nominated Sheptytsky for the Righteous Among the Nations title, according to Dr. Yuriy Skira, a senior researcher at the Institute of Ecumenical Studies of the Ukrainian Catholic University.

Dr. Skira won the 2024 Encounter: The Ukrainian-Jewish Literary Prize for his book Solid. The Life-Saving Footwear Factory (Choven, Lviv, 2023). His book They Were Called Upon: The Monks of the Studite Order and the Holocaust (Dukh i Litera, Kyiv, 2019) was short-listed for the 2021 prize.

After Ukraine gained independence in 1991, its restored Jewish community submitted repeated requests to Yad Vashem to have Sheptytsky recognized as Righteous Among the Nations. The idea was initiated and supported by individual representatives and leaders of Jewish organizations in Ukraine since the early 1990s, according to Josef Zissels, co-chairman of the VAAD of Ukraine. In particular, collective letters were written and sent to Yad Vashem. Even earlier, in the early 1980s, the Society for Jewish-Ukrainian Relations in Israel, headed by Oleksandr Feldman and Yakiv Suslensky, applied to Yad Vashem to have the title of Righteous Among the Nations awarded to Metropolitan Sheptytsky posthumously.

The position of Yad Vashem
According to the legislation of the State of Israel, the title of Righteous Among the Nations is awarded to non-Jews who saved Jews during the Holocaust without receiving any financial gain in return while understanding at the time that they were saving Jews and being aware of the possible terrible consequences for themselves. The decision to award the title is made by the Yad Vashem commission, comprised of Holocaust survivors, historians, rabbis, etc., and approved by the Supreme Court of the State of Israel.

"As of today, no documents have been found that would represent a written record of orders from the head of the Greek Catholic Church to provide Jews with assistance or to help shelter them. This has to do with the dangers of that time and the consequences people faced if these things fell into the hands of the German security police. The testimonies show that the metropolitan made verbal requests to his assistants in this matter of sheltering Jews," says Dr. Skira.

Nevertheless, Yad Vashem informed UJE that "in 2012, the Yad Vashem commission for awarding the title of Righteous Among the Nations devoted an entire session to considering the case of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky, having carefully studied all the documents and testimonies. The Commission recognized that Sheptytsky provided shelter to Jews in his residence during the Holocaust."

The human rights activist Myroslav Marynovych writes in his article "Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky: A Test for Europe" that "Andrey Sheptytsky, the Greek Catholic Church he led, and his brother Klymentiy Sheptytsky, Archimandrite of the Univ Holy Dormition Lavra, deployed an entire network to rescue Jews, who were doomed to destruction under the conditions of Hitler's occupation. They saved some 200 Jews while risking their lives and endangering the Church as a whole."

However, Yad Vashem sees obstacles to recognizing Metropolitan Sheptytsky as Righteous Among the Nations. Dr. Skira notes that at the first hearing of his case in Yad Vashem in the 1960s, the obstacle was that if the head of a church was recognized as Righteous Among the Nations, it supposedly meant that the entire church was involved in saving Jews. However, this cannot be said about any Christian denomination. Only Jehovah's Witnesses refused to take an oath to Hitler as a whole community during the Shoah. For their refusal, they were all deemed enemies of the regime, arrested, and held in concentration camps where they had to carry a special patch in the form of a lilac triangle. In other Christian churches, there were both Righteous Among the Nations and those who supported Hitler's regime, sincerely or for appearance's sake.

Andrey Sheptytsky also wrote letters of greeting to Hitler. Yad Vashem said in its response to UJE that "the Commission took into account Sheptytsky's initial support for Nazi Germany and his role in encouraging Ukrainians to join the auxiliary forces that later participated in the murders of Jews. Having considered these complex historical factors, including Sheptytsky's significant influence as a Ukrainian national leader at the initial stage of the war, despite his subsequent change in position, the Commission confirmed its previous decision not to award him the title of Righteous Among the Nations."

How Metropolitan Sheptytsky saved Jews during the Shoah
We have previously discussed the Shoah and the rescue of Jews in Western Ukraine. Dr. Skira notes that "in the matter of sheltering Jews, Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytskyi engaged only his closest circle, i.e., people whom he could trust with such difficult and dangerous work." These included his secretaries, Rev. Ivan Kotiv and Volodymyr Hrytsai, selected monks and nuns of the Studite Order, and individual nuns from various orders and congregations, such as the Order of Saint Basil the Great.

Anatoly Podolsky, historian and director of the Ukrainian Center for Holocaust Studies, says that "when the Nazi occupiers arrived, Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky was in Lviv and contacted the occupiers. It is important to understand that in 1939, after two years of crimes committed by the Soviet authorities in Galicia, few people thought that the German authorities would be as criminal as the Soviet ones." When the metropolitan realized how fatal the situation was for the Jews, he became involved in their rescue. "In 1942, he wrote a letter to Himmler in which he spoke out in defense of the Jews. The Germans wanted to arrest him, but the metropolitan's influence in the Lviv region was gigantic," says Podolsky.

Also, according to new data from documents declassified in 2020 from the Vatican archives, at the beginning of World War II Sheptytsky wrote Pope Pius XII warning that: “Jews are the first innocent victims.” This was reported at a seminar of the Echoes and Reflections project dedicated to the Shoah.

Myroslav Marynovych comments in an academic article: "The history of Sheptytsky's attitude towards the OUN and the UPA deserves careful and impartial study. The time to carry it out has finally come after the 'distorting mirrors' of totalitarian ideologies were broken. Obviously, we will also find some tactical miscalculations made by Sheptytsky. However, I firmly believe that we will not find indulgence in the heroics of retribution, as was sometimes the case even with the clergy on both sides. This is confirmed by the numerous warning messages sent out by the metropolitan and, oddly enough, the suspicion harbored by Ukrainians in Galicia at the time that his restrained position was caused by his pro-Polish leanings."

Myroslav Marynovych also refers to the research carried out by Dr. Julian Bussgang: "Dr. Bussgang rightly notes that 'Sheptytsky's support for the newly formed Ukrainian government was not reckless. In his addresses at the time, the metropolitan clearly outlined the conditions under which the Church would support the activities of this government: (1) if its decrees did not contradict God's laws, (2) if the state exercised its power wisely, and (3) if the state heeded the needs of all residents of the country, regardless of religion, nationality, and social status.'"

Righteous Among the Nations from Sheptytsky's entourage
According to Dr. Skira's research, the following individuals stand out among the people who received the title of Righteous Among the Nations and worked closely with the metropolitan to rescue Jews:

• Abbess Iosefa (Viter), who was mother superior of the Holy Protection Convent of the Studite Order for many years
• Blessed Hieromartyr Klymentiy (Sheptytsky), the younger brother of Metropolitan Sheptytsky and Archimandrite of the Univ Holy Dormition Lavra of the Studite Order
• Hieromonk Marko (Stek)
• Father Nykanor (Deineha), an auxiliary bishop of the Lviv Archdiocese of the Greek Catholic Church during the underground period and its only bishop on this list as of 2024
• Hieromonk Daniil (Tymchyna)
• Monks Luka (Shyian) and Teodosy (Cybrivsky).

Sheptytsky's godson, Vasyl Popel, is also Righteous Among the Nations. Born in Boryslav, he rescued the Jewish Lipman family with the help of his relatives. The "Word of the Righteous" series includes a film about Popel's family.

"I fully support recognizing Metropolitan Sheptytsky as Righteous Among the Nations. He has earned this title many times. This is not only my opinion but also the position of Ukraine's Jewish community, which awarded the metropolitan the title of Righteous of Ukraine. I believe a new generation of researchers at Yad Vashem will come to this," Podolsky says.

He believes that the problem with Sheptytsky not being recognized as Righteous Among the Nations has to do with the lack of punishment for the crimes of Leninism, Stalinism, and the Gulag, in contrast to the crimes of National Socialism. "The lack of a unanimous international position on the crimes of Stalinism influenced the decision of the people at Yad Vashem. This is one of the reasons that made it possible for Russia to attack Ukraine today. As a Ukrainian historian and a Jew, I believe this war should speed up the decision-making process at Yad Vashem in favor of Metropolitan Sheptytsky as Righteous Among the Nations," Podolsky concludes.

Marharyta Ormotsadze
Marharyta Ormotsadze is a co-founder/producer of the Word of the Righteous project, which tells about the valor of Ukrainians who saved Jews throughout Ukraine during the Holocaust.