Timus Grigoriy & Anna

Timus, Grigoriy Timus, Anna Grigoriy and Anna Timus lived in the town of Tłuste in the district of Tarnopol (today Tovste, Ternopil’ District). Grigoriy worked as a mechanic and his wife raised their four-year-old son Lubomir. On July 9, 1941, the town was occupied by Hungarian troops and two months later was transferred to German control. In early 1942, the couple started to exchange food for articles of clothing with the local Jews. In this manner they met the Kleiner family. As time passed, the Timuses, feeling compassion for their new acquaintances, ceased taking anything in return for the food. Furthermore, during the Aktion in September 1942, the Timuses hid Izak and Pepi Kleiner in their home and later that year helped their children, Edward and Elsa, find work. In November 1942, Elsa made an attempt to move to Krákow, to live there under an assumed identity. To this end, Anna gave Elsa her papers. Grigoriy accompanied her to the train station, where the police accosted the Jewish-looking young woman. Thanks to Grigoriy’s firm stand that Elsa was his Ukrainian wife, she was released, but abandoned the idea of living in the open. In April 1943, the Judenrat assigned Edward, Elsa and their 14-year-old brother Leon to a labor camp in the vicinity of Tłuste. In the following two months, all their relatives that remained in the ghetto, including parents and grandparents, perished. At this point the Timuses offered Edward and his siblings shelter in his home. Thus, at their first opportunity, the Kleiners, as well as Mendel Weinstok, Elsa’s future husband, escaped from the camp. Initially, they hid in the attic, but later moved to an underground bunker in the cellar that Timus built with the assistance of his wards. After some time, the Kleiners’ aunt, Fryma Schachner (later Berenhaus) joined them in their hiding place. In late 1943, the full burden of looking after the five Jews fell on Anna after Timus joined the nationalists and fell in combat. She alonetook care of all their needs until the liberation, on March 23, 1944. After the war, the survivors invited Anna to go with them to the United States but she turned down the offer. She died shortly after their departure. On September 7, 1988, Yad Vashem recognized Grigoriy and Anna Timus as Righteous Among the Nations.