Didukh Andrey & Anelya ; Daughter: Petrushka Stefania (Didukh)

Didukh, Andrey Didukh, Anelya Petrushka, Stephania (Didukh) The Peczenik brothers—Melech (b. 1898), Shmil (b. 1901), Yakov (b. 1913), and Yosef (b. 1914)—lived in the village of Toporow, in the Lwow (today Lviv) district, Ukraine. Their father had passed away before the war. In the prewar years the brothers’ parents, storeowners in the village, became friendly with Andrey and Anelya Didukh, who had been their customers. This connection became useful when the Germans invaded in 1941. A year later, with their mother already murdered, the brothers turned to Andrey and Anelya for help, finding them in their home in the village of Trojca, in the Lopatyn subdistrict of Lwow (today Lviv). The couple agreed to assist the brothers. They hid in various places on the Didukhs’ property, primarily in an attic and a bunker underneath a haystack. Stephania, the Didukhs’ daughter, who was 12 years old at the time, helped bring the hiding brothers food and invented creative excuses to keep playmates away from the haystack when they suggested playing there. Shortly after the liberation, the brothers left for Poland and a DP camp in Germany. Later, the eldest brother, Melech, immigrated to the United States, and the other three went to Israel. In the 1960s the brothers managed to renew contact with their rescuers, and the next generations of both rescuer and rescued have remained in touch, periodically visiting one another and sending letters and packages. On July 9, 2013, Andrey and Anelya Didukh and their daughter Stefania Petrushka were recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations.