Szczyrba Mikołaj & Agata (Głód); Father-In-Law: Głód Piotr ; Mother-In-Law: Głód Helena

File 4708 Szczyrba, Mikołaj Szczyrba, Agata Głód, Piotr Głód, Helena In April 1942, when the ghetto in Borszczów (Tarnopol district) was established, local young people there organized a resistance group. They managed to obtain a small quantity of weapons and in June 1943, before the ghetto was liquidated, slipped into the surrounding forests, from where they conducted sporadic raids against Ukrainian policemen and groups of Ukrainian nationalists. The Jewish fighters found it difficult to obtain food and arms, and the only people who assisted them were the Szczyrbas, hardscrabble peasants who lived at the edge of the forest. Despite the antisemitic nature of the local population, Mikołaj Szczyrba and his wife Agata provided them with basic foodstuffs at no charge. To avert suspicions, Helena, Agata’s mother, and Piotr Głód, her second husband—an elderly couple that served as liaisons between their children and the Jewish fighters—performed the delivery missions. On December 6, 1943, a powerful German force attacked the band of Jews. In the ensuing clash, most of the armed Jews were killed; only eight of them survived by slipping into a well-camouflaged trench. Alone, starving, unarmed, and demoralized in the harsh winter conditions, the Jews awaited death. Suddenly the “old man,” Piotr, appeared, sent by his stepson and his wife to determine whether anyone remained alive and needed help. From then until July 1944, when the Red Army liberated the area, the Szczyrbas and the Głóds assisted the eight Jewish refugees in the forest and met their basic needs, considering this their contribution to the war against the common enemy. Three of the eight survivors, who eventually resettled in Israel, testified about their strong recollections of the Szczyrbas and the Głóds as people with humane values who, at mortal risk to themselves, without hesitation, aided persecuted Jews in their time of distress. On October 12, 1990, Yad Vashem recognizedMikołaj Szczyrba, his wife Agata, his mother Helena Głód, and Helena’s husband Piotr Głód as Righteous Among the Nations.