Chaikovskyi Stepan and Hanna

Stepan and Hanna Chaikovskyi lived with their four daughters in the village of Kurdybanivka, near the town of Buchach in the Ternopil region.

The Germans occupied the district center on July 5, 1941. During the registration of the local population on August 26, they found out bout 700 people of Jewish nationality, 350 of them were shot the next day on the outskirts of Buchach. During October-November 1942, over 3 thousand Jews were taken to the Belzhets mass extermination camp. The rest of the ghetto residents were executed in February-July 1943. The Kheld family was lucky to be saved during the liquidation of the ghetto. Bentsion Kheld with his wife Khana, five-year-old daughter Rakhill and sister Sosia hid in the bushes of the cemetery, where Stepan Chaikovskyi came across them. The men had known each other since before the war and had friendly relations. Stepan offered the fugitives to hide in his shed. Later, the Halpern family joined to the Kheld family. Leia Halpern, Bentsion's sister, her husband Moisei and 13-year-old son Mordkhei reached the village Kurdybanivka being exhausted, having previously lived without food or water for several days. They were grieving the loss of their eldest daughter, 17-year-old Sarah, who was hidden in the town of Buchach by local residents. During the search, she was found and killed.

For nine months, the Chaikovskyi family took care of two Jewish families. Hanna and her older daughters brought them food and took care of hygiene. When rumors of raids began to spread, Stepan asked the Jews to go to the forest and stay there until the danger passed. All seven wards survived. When the Soviet troops recaptured the city of Buchach for the first time on March 25, 1944, the Jews returned there. However, in two weeks, because of the German attack, the city was once again under the rule of the Nazis for three months. During this period, Bentsion Kheld was mortally wounded, Moisei died of malnutrition and exhausting work, and Hanna passed away immediately after the final expulsion of the Germans from the city on July 21, 1944. The rest of the Jews left for Poland, and later to Israel.

In 2001, Rakhil Brunholts (Kheld) and Mordkhei Khalpern restored the lost connection with the daughters of their saviors. The youngest daughter of the Chaikovskyi family Myroslava visited Israel at the invitation of the Jews saved by her parents.

In 2003, Yad Vashem recognized Stepan and Hanna Chaikovskyi as Righteous Among the Nations.

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