Lyashchuk Yermolay & Yefimia ; Daughter: Nifaka Nadezhda

Lyashuk, Yermolay Lyashuk, Yefimiya Nifaka (Lyashuk), Nadezhda Yermolay and Yefimiya Lyashuk and their daughter Nadezhda were farmers, living in the village of Chotiaczów, district of Wołyń (today Khotyachiv, Volyn’ District). They met Esther Worzel, a resident of nearby Uściług (Ustyluh) in autumn 1941, when the occupying German authorities temporarily allowed Jews to work for the locals. Worzel was employed by the Lyashuks to work in the fields and on the farm, for which she received enough food for herself and her family members living in the Uściług ghetto. On August 31, 1942, all the Jews were ordered to return to the town, from where they were marched to the ghetto in Włodzimierz (Volodymyr-Volyns’kyy). Worzel met up with her sister Lea, who had been working in a neighboring village, and together they headed for the gathering point. On their way, some people warned the two girls that the Germans were planning to slaughter all the Jews the following day and so they returned, terrified, to the Lyashuks’ home. The Lyashuks pitied the sisters and constructed a hiding place in the hayloft for them. The entrance to the hideaway was concealed with sacks of food for the livestock. In early 1943, the girls’ brother Faivel joined them, and they all hid there until April 1943, when a neighbor spotted Faivel helping Lyashuk. The Jews then decided to return to Uściług, where a work camp had been established for the Jews. Faivel headed back first and when his sisters reached the town the following day, they were informed that he had been caught and killed. The sisters therefore decided to head straight back to the Lyashuks’ home, where they were hidden in the same place. When house searches in the area intensified, they were moved to a field, where they hid in a haystack. While there, the Lyashuks, in particular 15-year-old Nadezhda, brought the Jews food and other necessities every night. When the frontline approached the area, the sisters were moved back into theLyashuks’ home, where they remained until the Red Army liberated the area, in June 1944. In the late 1940s, the Worzel sisters left Ukraine and they later immigrated to Israel. They renewed contact with Nadezhda Lyashuk in the 1990s, by which time her parents were no longer alive. On January 22, 1992, Yad Vashem recognized Yermolay and Yefimiya Lyashuk and their daughter, Nadezhda Nifaka, as Righteous Among the Nations.