Lopatinsky Vasily & Lopatinskaya Anna

Lopatinskiy, Vasiliy Lopatinskaya, Anna Vasiliy Lopatinskiy, in his 70s, lived and worked as an engineer in Kosów, Stanisławów District (today Kosiv, Ivano-Frankivs’k District). In 1942, the German authorities appointed Lopatinskiy as manager of a warehouse in which all the property stolen from local Jews was stored. As a consequence of taking up this position, Lopatinskiy developed a warmth and sympathy towards the Jews and he often turned a blind eye to Jews who wanted to reclaim some of their property in order to exchange it for food. Occasionally, he even took articles of clothing to needy Jews. On November 1, 1942, Lopatinskiy was appointed mayor. This was after the vast majority of the town’s Jews were murdered and only several dozen, who survived the Aktionen in hiding, were still in town. The new position enabled Lopatinskiy to find out in advance about the planned deportation of the remaining Jews to the ghetto of Kołomyja (Kolomyya) and, on the eve of the date, November 4, he brought four Jews into hiding in his home – Aharon Wachtel, his sister Esther Laub, her daughter Malka, and a young woman, Pesya Ernst. The four Jews were given a room, food and drink, and when the Lopatinskiys had guests, Lopatinskiy and his wife, Anna, hid their wards in a hideout that Lopatinskiy himself had built. The childless Lopatinskiy couple treated their charges well, and Anna was very maternal towards them. In December 1943, Baruch Engler and his sons Asher and Gideon turned to the Lopatinskiys for help. These three Jews had been evicted from their former hiding place and were desperate. The Lopatinskiys brought them into their home and they joined the four other Jews in hiding there until the liberation of Kosów, on April 4, 1944. After the war, all the survivors left the Soviet Union and later immigrated to Israel. On June 16, 1964, Yad Vashem recognized Vasiliy and Anna Lopatinskiy as Righteous Among the Nations.