Berezhnitski Yas & Olena

Berezhnitski, Yas Berezhnitska, Olena The Berezhnitskis were a poor farming family and lived in the village of Starunia, in the vicinity of Nadwórna, Stanisławów (today Nadvirna, Ivano-Frankivs’k Distirict). In early 1943, at the time of the liquidation of the Stanisławów ghetto, Yosef Shtekler and his friend Izio Miler escaped through the sewage tunnels. They headed for the Carpathian Mountains with the aim of finding a hiding place. After walking for two weeks in the freezing snow, Miler collapsed from exhaustion and was unable to continue. Shtekler carried on alone to the outskirts of the small village of Starunia (Starunya), where he saw a farmer’s cottage with a child playing with a dog outside. The child, who noticed Shtekler, told him not to be afraid of the dog, and then she asked him if he was “one of those people who haven't eaten for two years.” A young farmer then exited the cottage and immediately realized that the man standing before him was a Jew. Upon hearing Shtekler’s story, this man, Yas Berezhnitski, instructed Shtekler to fetch his friend and he offered to afford them both shelter in his home, where he lived with his wife Olena, and their two children, seven-year-old Anna and ten-year-old Fyodor. During the first weeks of hiding, the two Jews preferred to hide in the nearby forest. At night, due to the freezing temperatures, they found shelter in the Berezhnitskis’ stable. At times they would enter their home for a chance to bathe and warm up. As the financial condition of the Berezhnitski family only worsened, Shtekler and Miler decided to leave their hideaway and join a group of seven Jews that had found refuge in Stanisławów. Upon hearing this plan, the Berezhnitskis insisted that they would also shelter the group of seven Jews in their home. Thus, Olena went to fetch them and brought them back to the house in her hay-covered cart. All nine Jews hid in the hiding place in the stables that Berezhnitski prepared, until the liberation ofthe area on July 27, 1944. Despite the difficult conditions, there was always a sense of love and companionship there. Alongside Shtekler and Miler, the Berezhnitskis also saved the lives of Dudek Berler and his wife Bronya, Dzyunya Gotenberger, Pulo Gottleib, Herman Bergman and his wife, and Hilda Lewin. On October 4, 1994, Yad Vashem recognized Yas and Olena Berezhnitski as Righteous Among the Nations.