Uniyat Prokop & Melania ; Daughter: Rozenberg Natalya (Uniyat)

Uniat, Prokop Uniat, Melanya Rozenberg (Uniat), Natalya Prokop and Melanya Uniat, farmers, lived with their 12-year-old daughter Natalya in the village of Stegnikowce in the district of Tarnopol (today Stehnykivtsi, Ternopil’ District). Uniat was acquainted with the Rozenberg family that lived in the village of Wytkowce (Vytkivtsi), some 20 km north of Zbaraż (Zbarazh). When the German-Soviet war broke out, Rozenberg and his eldest son were conscripted into the army, and his wife, their two daughters and their younger son Andrey, remained in the village. The Germans occupied the area in early July 1941, and the Rozenbergs were soon deported to the ghetto in the town of Wiśniowiec (Vyshnivets’), where they worked as forced laborers until the ghetto was liquidated in August 1942. When the Rozenbergs were led to the killing pits, before the mother was shot she covered her son Andrey with her body, and they both fell into the pit. At night, the boy crawled out and began wandering in the area, but since he feared he might be recognized, he distanced himself from the village of his birth. One day, after long wandering, Andrey met Prokop Uniat, and remembered that the man had been a visitor in their home before the war. Uniat also recognized the Jewish boy and after hearing his story, offered him refuge in his home. From the summer of 1943, until the liberation, in the spring of 1944, Andrey hid on the Uniat farm, in a small hiding place built for him in the barn, and no one in the village knew he was there. Uniat, his wife, Melanya, and their daughter Natalya treated the boy with compassion and devotion, and provided him with his basic needs. After the liberation, in March 1944, Andrey left the home of his rescuers but stayed in constant touch with them. In 1965, he married Natalya and, in 1991, they immigrated to Israel. On January 11, 1993, Yad Vashem recognized Prokop and Melanya Uniat and their daughter Natalya, as Righteous Among the Nations.