Ivan Rohach (29 May 1913–21 February 1942) was a Ukrainian journalist, poet, writer, and political activist born in Velykyj Bereznyj , Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...

 (modern-day Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

).

From 1933 to 1938, he was the editor of the Novoyi Svobody newspaper in Uzhhorod

Uzhhorod

Uzhhorod or Uzhgorod is a city located in western Ukraine, at the border with Slovakia and near the border with Hungary. It is the administrative center of the Zakarpattia Oblast , as well as the administrative center of the surrounding Uzhhorodskyi Raion within the oblast...

, in Carpathian Ruthenia

Carpathian Ruthenia

Carpathian Ruthenia is a region in Eastern Europe, mostly located in western Ukraine's Zakarpattia Oblast , with smaller parts in easternmost Slovakia , Poland's Lemkovyna and Romanian Maramureş.It is...

, then part of Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...

 and today in western Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

. Between 1938 and 1939, he was the personal secretary to rev. Avhustyn Voloshyn

Avhustyn Voloshyn

Avgustyn Ivanovych Voloshyn was a Ukrainian politician, teacher, and essayist. He was president of the independent Carpatho-Ukraine, which existed for one day on March 15, 1939....

, the nominal Prime-Minister of Carpatho-Ukraine

Carpatho-Ukraine

Carpatho-Ukraine was an autonomous region within Czechoslovakia from late 1938 to March 15, 1939. It declared itself an independent republic on March 15, 1939, but was occupied by Hungary between March 15 and March 18, 1939, remaining under Hungarian control until the Nazi occupation of Hungary in...

 during its several days of independence in March 1939 before it was occupied by Hungary by First Vienna Award

First Vienna Award

The First Vienna Award was the result of the First Vienna Arbitration, which took place at Vienna's Belvedere Palace on November 2, 1938. The Arbitration and Award were direct consequences of the Munich Agreement...

. Rohach was an active supporter and member of the Ukrainian scouting movement, Plast

Plast

The Plast National Scout Organization of Ukraine commonly called Ukrainian Plast or simply Plast is the largest Scouting organization in Ukraine.-First Phase: 1911-1920:...

.

Political career

Rohach was a prolific writer of political pamphlets and short stories dealing with various aspects of religion, human morality, the nationality question, and the cause for Ukrainian self-determination.
He was a member of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists

Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists

The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists is a Ukrainian political organization which as a movement originally was created in 1929 in Western Ukraine . The OUN accepted violence as an acceptable tool in the fight against foreign and domestic enemies particularly Poland and Russia...

 (OUN) and an avid supporter of the Andriy Melnyk

Andriy Melnyk

Andriy Melnyk , Ukrainian military and political leader.-Life:Born near Drohobych, Galicia into a peasant family. Between 1912 and 1914 he studied at the Higher School of Agriculture in Vienna...

 faction. He moved to Kiev

Kiev

Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....

 during the German occupation

Reichskommissariat Ukraine

Reichskommissariat Ukraine , literally "Reich Commissariat of Ukraine", was the civilian occupation regime of much of German-occupied Ukraine during World War II. Between September 1941 and March 1944, the Reichskommissariat was administered by Reichskommissar Erich Koch as a colony...

 in order to aid in the re-establishment of a Ukrainian administration in the nations capital. In January 1942, Rohach became the co-editor of the Nove Ukrainkse Slovo ('New Ukrainian Word') newspaper and the magazine "Lytavry" (Tympani), which united those active in Ukrainian culture and arts in the Ukrainian capital.

Arrest and execution

In 1941, Rohach was arrested by the Gestapo

Gestapo

The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...

 for publicly voicing and publishing a negative opinion regarding the treatment of Jews and psychiatric patients by the Nazis . He was taken to Babi Yar

Babi Yar

Babi Yar is a ravine in the Ukrainian capital Kiev and a site of a series of massacres carried out by the Nazis during their campaign against the Soviet Union. The most notorious and the best documented of these massacres took place on September 29–30, 1941, wherein 33,771 Jews were killed in a...

where, along with his sister, Anna (Hanna), and his entire staff, Rohach was executed.

Legacy

Poems from his collection of poetry "Brosti" have been set to music. A number of the songs have been included in the Plast song book "U mandry" (To wander) and continue to be sung by Ukrainian scouts today.

In 1992, a wooden cross was placed in his memory on the corner of Melnykov street in Kiev.