Kupchan Stefan & Yulia

Kupchan, Stefan Kupchan, Yulia The day after the Germans invaded Drohobycz, Poland (now Ukraine), on June 30, 1941, the local population carried out a pogrom against the town’s Jews. The butcher, Mendel Rosen, his wife, Fania, and their daughters, ten-year-old Lili (later Augman) and six-year-old Rosa (later Shoshana Schaffer), found shelter with their neighbors, Tomasz and Olga Wolski (recognized as Righteous Among the Nations in 1993). A short time later Mendel Rosen got a job at the Hyrawka agricultural labor camp, run by Wehrmacht Major Eberhard Helmrich (recognized as Righteous in 1965). The German officer was able to gain the consent for this from the SS by claiming that the camp would ensure the fresh supply of vegetables to the German personnel in the vicinity. Mendel’s family moved to the grounds of the camp, and they were thus shielded for a time from the brutal treatment of the Jews in town. The camp was dissolved at the end of the summer of 1943, and Mendel found a Polish acquaintance in the village of Wacowice, who agreed, for a price, to shelter Fania and the girls, as well as Azriel Heller, Fania’s brother. When they arrived in the village, they discovered that he had not prepared a hiding place in advance. He put them in the barn of his unsuspecting neighbor Stefan Kupchan. Two days later, Stefan’s wife, Yulia, found them there and called her husband. He did not report them or chase them away. He took pity on the frightened Jews, especially the children. Eventually the group grew to include two other families: the Ernsts (Zygmunt, his wife, Faiga, and their sons, Shlomo and Icchak) and the Kupferbergs (parents and their twin daughters, Tzila and Sala). Stefan and Yulia looked after the whole group of 14 Jews, hiding them in the loft of the barn, under the thatched roof. Stefan brought them something to eat twice a day. He was very poor, and although he grew produce, it was certainly not enough to feed so many people. Some of his wards offered their meager possessions for him to sell. He was afraid that would only draw attention and cast suspicion on him. Faiga Ernst was not from the area and did not look Jewish, so she went to sell the belongings and gave the money to Stefan. Winter came, and with it Stefan moved the Jews into his one-room cottage. He and Yulia slept in the kitchen. One day their young niece came to visit and peeked in the room and saw one of the women. Stefan told her that it was just her imagination and then sent her with his wife on a shopping trip to town. He moved the Jews to the barn and cleaned the room. When the two got back from town, he showed his niece the room filled with sacks of grain and potatoes, convincing her that she had imagined the whole thing. After she left, he returned the Jews to the cottage, where they remained under the care of the Kupchans until the liberation of the area in August 1944. The Rosens returned to Drohobycz, having already heard that Mendel had been murdered. Fania remarried and became Fania Nestel. The Rosens and Ernsts immigrated to Israel in 1948. Azriel Heller and the Kupferbergs relocated to the United States. On April 1, 2014, Yad Vashem recognized Stefan and Yulia Kupchan as Righteous Among the Nations.