Sokoliuk Mikhail & Anna ; Daughter: Rutkowska Bazilina (Sokoliuk)

Sokolyuk, Mikhail Sokolyuk, Anna Rutkowska (Sokolyuk), Bazylina Mikhail and Anna Sokolyuk and their daughters, 15-year-old Bazylina and young Maria, lived in the village of Rosochacz, in the district of Stanisławów (today Rosokhach, Ivan-Frankivsk District). Abba and Lyuba Sherzer and their daughter Dora, who was friendly with Bazylina, lived in the neighborhood. In early July 1941, the Germans conquered the area and sent the Jews of the village to forced labor on a nearby estate and later to the Kołomyja ghetto. In September 1942, the Jews were loaded on wagon trains to be deported to the Bełżec death camp. During the journey, Dora managed to jump from the small window of the wagon car, leaving her mother and little sister behind. Despite hitting her head, she succeeded in distancing herself quickly from the railway tracks and after a day she reached the Sokolyuks’ home. Bazylina and her parents welcomed 17-year-old Dora into their home. She was overjoyed to be reunited there with her father, who had been hiding with the Sokolyuks for a few weeks. After a short time, Dora and her father moved to another hiding place in the nearby village of Winograd (Vynograd) where Abba Sherzer was born. However, one night when he left the shelter in search of food, he was recognized as a Jew and executed, on March 15, 1943. When the Sokolyuks heard this, they insisted that Dora return to their home, where she stayed hidden until the liberation, at the end of March 1944. Dora (later Stenzler) eventually left the Soviet Ukraine for Israel. Bazylina married a Pole and moved to Trzcianka, Poland from where she maintained contact with Dora for many years. On January 17, 1990, Yad Vashem recognized Mikhail and Anna Sokolyuk and their daughter, Bazylina Rutkowska, as Righteous Among the Nations.