Bugay Sofia

Bugay, Sofya Sofya Bugay lived in the village of Kadlubiska, Tarnopol District (today Luchkivtsi, L’viv District). During the war, she worked as a domestic for Maria Bitschan* (see volume Poland), who owned a small estate close to Kadlubiska. On June 30, 1941, the Germans conquered the area and the local Jews were interned in the ghetto of nearby Brody. One day in February 1942, when Bugay was at work on the estate, Bitschan told her that she was hiding a Jewish family in her home. Bugay was then shown a narrow hole under some loose floorboards, under the bed in Bitschan’s bedroom, covered by a carpet, inside of which Dr. Chaim Weiss, a doctor from Brody, his wife, Rivka, and their daughter, Hadassa-Estera were sitting curled up. The family had escaped from the Brody ghetto and wandered around the area until their friend Bitschan invited them into her home. The three Jews roamed freely around her estate and went into their hiding place when outsiders approached the property. The Weiss family hid in Bitschan’s house for 20 months and Bugay helped take care of them. When the Red Army liberated the area, the Jews left their shelter and soon after a gang of Ukrainian nationalists destroyed the estate as revenge for Bitschan’s rescue efforts. Bugay managed to flee; the Weiss family moved to Poland and Hadassa-Estera (later Natan) later immigrated to Israel. On November 5, 1991, Yad Vashem recognized Sofya Bugay as Righteous Among the Nations.