Sikorska Kateryna and Hutor (Sikorska) Iryna

For centuries, Jews, Ukrainians, Poles, and Czechs coexisted in the ancient Galician town of Pidhaitsi. On the eve of World War II, the Jewish community was the largest, numbering over 3,000 people, which accounted for about 60% of the population.

With the onset of World War II in 1939, the town came under the control of Soviet troops and was incorporated into the Ukrainian SSR.

After the Nazi Germany attack on the USSR, at the beginning of July 1941, it was captured by units of the Wehrmacht. That same month, the German occupation authorities established a Judenrat and Jewish police there. A monetary contribution and various taxes were imposed on the Jewish population, and sometimes healthy Jews were conscripted for forced labor.

The first Nazi liquidation action took place in Pidhaitsi in September 1942, when about 1,000 local Jews were arrested and deported to the Belzec death camp by the forces of the German security police, gendarmerie, and local auxiliary police. The action was accompanied by shootings right on the streets.

Then a ghetto was created in the town, which existed until June 1943.

The danger of hunger, disease, and executions forced Jews to seek salvation outside the ghetto, hoping for the help of people of other nationalities.

In September 1942, the Kressel family tried to find shelter with their Ukrainian neighbors, the Sikorskis.

Kateryna Sikorska was a 41-year-old widow and raised three daughters herself: Iryna (13 years old), Khrystyna (10 years old), and Maria (9 years old). Before the war, the Kressels and Sikorskis had very warm, friendly relations. Mrs. Kressel was a doctor, and when Kateryna’s children were sick, she always came to help, not taking payment for treatment. In turn, the Ukrainian woman, having a cow in the household, reciprocated with products.

“The sons of the Kressels always came to us as guests. Often [we] went to their father’s bookstore and received gifts from him. During Ukrainian holidays they congratulated us, and we congratulated [them] on their holidays.” From the memories of Iryna Hutor (Sikorska)

When the Germans organized the ghetto, Kateryna and her children brought food to their neighbors. At some point, when the situation in it became critical, Kressel turned to Sikorska with a plea to hide her sons Leon and Adolf (14 and 17 years old), and she agreed to help without hesitation.

Kateryna and her brother Ivan Lutsiv dug and arranged a hiding place under the floor in the kitchen of their house. The Sikorski household became a shelter not only for the two boys, but also for another Jewish acquaintance of Kateryna – photographer Moishe Klyar. While still in the ghetto, thanks to Kateryna Sikorska, he organized the supply of prisoners with “Aryan documents”.

“Photographer Klyar – he was our acquaintance. In Pidhaitsi there was only one photographer, and all people knew him very well, and we also knew him. When mom was getting married, he took wedding photos for mom and dad. He came and asked mom to go to the village of Verbiv, where one man lived, and he knew how to make Aryan papers. Mom asked her brother Ivan Lutsiv to alternate so that it would not be noticeable. Mr. Klyar wrote a note: to whom – and the years of those people, and mom carried it”. From the memories of Iryna Hutor (Sikorska)

Thanks to such documents in the name of Bohdan Tovpash, Moishe Klyar’s son Leon survived the Holocaust.

Kateryna Sikorska hid three of her Jewish neighbors in a shelter under the floor for nine months.

But in March 1943, after a denunciation, the SS and police came to her house with a search.

“Balytsky beat me with a rubber baton on the head, and Herman – with leather gloves on the face, and asked where the Jews were hiding. I told them that we were not hiding any Jews. Conducting a search and, tapping the floor in the kitchen, they found a hiding place in which Moishe Klyar, Leon and Adolf Kressel were hiding. They were arrested and taken to the Ternopil Gestapo”. From the memories of Khrystyna Korpan (Sikorska)

The next day, having set a trap near the Sikorski house, the Germans captured Kateryna. She spent several months in prison in Berezhany. Later, she was transferred to Ternopil, where she was sentenced to death. In August 1943, the rescuer was executed.

"From Pidhaitsi to Berezhany is 30 km. We had nothing to bring to mom, except that someone there from the people gave some bread or a piece of cheese. And so we came to mom every Sunday, we met with her, but we could not tell her anything, nor could she tell us, we cried, and all she said was: “What will my poor children do?..” From the memories of Khrystyna Korpan (Sikorska)

The fate of Moishe Klyar and the Kressel brothers is unknown.

After the death of their mother, Kateryna’s orphaned daughters had to wander and take care of themselves. Until the end of the war, they lived and were brought up by relatives and acquaintances.