{{Short description|Ukrainian writer (1913–1942)}} thumb|Ivan Rohach '''Ivan Andriyovych Rohach''' ({{langx|uk|Іван Андрійович Рогач}}) (29 May 1913 – 21 February 1942) was a Ukrainian journalist, poet, writer, and political activist.
==Biography== Rohach was born in Velykyi Bereznyi ({{langx|hu|Nagyberezna}}), Ung county, Austria-Hungary (modern-day Ukraine). From 1933 to 1938, he was the editor of the ''Novoyi Svobody'' newspaper in Uzhhorod, in Carpathian Ruthenia, then part of Czechoslovakia and today in western Ukraine. Between 1938 and 1939, he was the personal secretary to Avhustyn Voloshyn, the nominal Prime-Minister of Carpatho-Ukraine during its several days of independence in March 1939 before it was occupied by Hungary following the First Vienna Award. Rohach was an active supporter and member of the Ukrainian scouting movement, Plast.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://ua.proua.com/news/2008/02/21/170520.html |title=(Ukrainian) Сьогодні у Києві вшанують пам'ять пластунів, розстріляних у Бабиному Яру (Today we honour the scouts who died in Babyn Yar |access-date=2008-03-09 |archive-date=2008-12-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081204183527/http://ua.proua.com/news/2008/02/21/170520.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>
===Political career=== [[File:Ivan Roman.jpg|thumb|Ivan Rohach, Ivan Roman and Fedir Tatsynets in uniforms of the Carpathian Sich, 1938]] Rohach was a prolific writer of political pamphlets and short stories dealing with various aspects of religion, human morality, the national question, and the cause for Ukrainian self-determination. He was a member of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and a supporter of the Andriy Melnyk faction (OUN-M). He moved to Kyiv during the German occupation in order to aid in the re-establishment of a Ukrainian administration in the nation's capital.
In January 1942, Rohach became the co-editor of the newspaper ''Nove Ukrainske Slovo'' ("New Ukrainian Word")<ref name="Dynamo">{{cite book | url =https://archive.org/details/dynamotriumphtra0000doug/mode/2up?q=Rohach| page = 117 | accessdate = 2008-03-02 | title = Dynamo: Triumph and Tragedy in Nazi-Occupied Kiev | author = Dougan, Andy | author-link = Andy Dougan | year = 2004 | publisher = Globe Pequot Press | isbn = 1-59228-467-1 }}</ref> and the magazine ''Lytavry'' ("Tympani"), which united those active in Ukrainian culture and arts in Kyiv. The newspaper expressed strong antisemitic sentiments. In 1941, the paper described Jews as the "greatest enemy of the people."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Dolinsky |first=Eduard |date=2017-04-11 |title=Opinion {{!}} What Ukraine's Jews Fear |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/11/opinion/what-ukraines-jews-fear.html |access-date=2023-11-06 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
===Arrest and execution=== In 1941, Rohach was briefly arrested by the Gestapo during a crackdown on Ukrainian nationalist activities, after he and others refused unconditional cooperation with the Germans.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Berkhoff |first=Karel |date=October 2018 |title=BASIC HISTORICAL NARRATIVE OF THE BABYN YAR HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL CENTER |url=https://babynyar.org/storage/main/e0/ce/e0ced2fd93bcb8a9abbdeb5df828416f12fdac9eaf096d2766b54c989e86e48b.pdf}}</ref> In January 1942, Rohach was allegedly taken to Babi Yar where he, along with his sister, Anna (Hanna), and his entire staff, was executed although the precise location of his execution is disputed by modern historians.<ref name="Dynamo" /><ref name= "Radchenko 2023b">{{cite web|first = Yuri|last=Radchenko|url= https://uamoderna.com/backward/padaiut-v-bratni-mohyly-chleny-orhanizatsii-ukrainskykh-natsionalistiv-natsystski-represii-proty-melnykivtsiv-1941-1944-rr-chastyna-2/|title= "They Fall into Mass Graves… Members of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists": Nazi Repressions Against the Melnykites (1941–1944). Part 2|language=Ukrainian|date = 5 August 2023|website=Ukraina Moderna |accessdate= 12 June 2025}}</ref><ref name = "Rudling 2011">{{Cite journal| last = Rudling P.A. | title = The OUN, the UPA and the Holocaust: A Study in the Manufacturing of Historical Myths | journal = The Carl Beck Papers in Russian and East European Studies| volume = 2107| publisher = University Center for Russian and East European Studies| location = Pittsburgh | date = 2011| url = https://www.academia.edu/1122859| access-date = June 7, 2025}}</ref> Per Anders Rudling concludes that the method or location of the executions is unknown but that their bodies probably ended up at Babi Yar.<ref name="Rudling 2011bk">{{cite journal|title=Terror and Local Collaboration in Occupied Belarus: The Case of Schutzmannschaft Battalion 118. Part I: Background|last=Rudling|first=Per Anders|journal=Historical Yearbook|date=2011|pages=195-214|volume=VIII|publisher=Romanian Academy|location=Bucharest}}</ref>
==Legacy== thumb|right|Wooden cross in Babi Yar in memory of Olena Teliha and other Ukrainian nationalists executed there in 1942
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.<ref>[http://www.plast.org.ua/news?newsid=2046 Пластуни вшанували своїх побратимів, що загинули в Бабинім Яру]</ref>
In 1992, a wooden cross memorial was erected in memory of Olena Teliha and executed OUN members. It is located in Babi Yar south of Yuriia Illienka Street (formerly until 2018 Melnyk/Melnykov Street) at Oleny Telihy Street in northwestern part of Kyiv near Dorohozhychi subway station.<ref>{{cite web |title=Photos of Babi Yar Memorial |url=https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g294474-d613393-Reviews-Babi_Yar_Memorial-Kyiv_Kiev.html#/media-atf/613393/432421766:p/?albumid=-160&type=0&category=-160 |accessdate=2021-11-28}}</ref>{{rp|memorial #15}} Rohach's name is the 6th from the top on the right side marble plaque.<ref>{{cite web |title=Memorializing Babyn Yar: Politics of Memory and Commemoration of the Holocaust in Ukraine |first=Galyna |last=Kutsovska |url=https://liu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1330405/FULLTEXT01.pdf |date=June 2019 |accessdate=2021-11-28}}</ref>{{rp|41}}
== References == {{Reflist}} *Entsykolpedia Ukrainoznavstva Vol 7 p. 2547 *[http://exlibris.org.ua/zakarpattia/r12.html ПОДІЇ НА ЗАКАРПАТТІ ДО 30 ВЕРЕСНЯ 1938 РОКУ] at exlibris.org.ua *[http://litopys.org.ua/grendzha/grendzh06.htm Щоденник Частина 5. Василь Ґренджа-Донський. Щастя і горе Карпатської України] at litopys.org.ua *[https://web.archive.org/web/20071215220842/http://www.kmv.gov.ua/ru/info.asp?Id=34961 Трагедия Бабьего Яра: массовые казни людей нацистами (1941—43)] at www.kmv.gov.ua
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Rohach, Ivan}} Category:1913 births Category:1942 deaths Category:Antisemitism in Ukraine Category:People from Zakarpattia Oblast Category:Czechoslovak writers Category:Ukrainian murder victims Category:OUN members executed by Nazi Germany Category:People murdered in Reichskommissariat Ukraine Category:20th-century Ukrainian journalists Category:20th-century Ukrainian male journalists Category:Czechoslovak journalists Category:20th-century male journalists