Sniatynskiy Taras

Sniatynskiy, Taras Olga Wolska* (see volume Poland) a Ukrainian woman, was married to Tomasz Wolski, a Pole. They lived in the town of Drohobycz in the district of Lwów (today Drohobych, L’viv). Mendel and Fania Rosen and their daughters, ten-year-old Lili (later Augman) and six-year-old Rosa (later Shoshana Schaffer) lived in their neighborhood. On June 30, 1941, the day after the Germans invaded Drohobycz, the local population carried out a pogrom against the area’s Jews. On the day of the pogrom, Olga returned from the town center with the report that Jews were being killed in the town and urged the Rosen family to take shelter in her home for the duration of the pogrom. Taras Sniatynskiy, Wolska’s younger brother who also lived nearby, knew that she was hiding Jews and he hung around her house all the time keeping guard over her wards and informing them about the goings on. Later, when some of the Jews, including the Rosens were moved to a labor camp, Sniatynskiy kept in contact with them. One month prior to the liquidation of the labor camp on July 20 1943, Fania and her daughters managed to escape and find shelter in the village of Jacowce until the liberation. Mendel did not survive. After the liberation, in August 1944, when many Ukrainian nationalists were attacking Jews, Sniatynskiy went to Jacowce and brought the Rosens back to his sister’s home. Due to the fact that they had been sitting curled up for a prolonged period of time while in hiding, the survivors could not stand on their own and Sniatynskiy carried them on his shoulders in front of the eyes of his hostile neighbors. The Rosens stayed in the Wolskis’ home until they recuperated and then they settled among the few surviving Jews of the community. Fania married after the war, and became Fania Nestel. The family immigrated to Israel in 1948, from where they maintained contact with their wartime rescuers for many years. On January 27, 1993, Yad Vashem recognized Taras Sniatynskiy asRighteous Among the Nations.