Lehka Karola (Srebro); Daughter: Osipenkova Helena (Lehka); Daughter: Semeniuk Kazimiera (Lehka); Daughter: Krutnik Józefa (Lehka)

Lehka, Karola Osipenkova (Lehka), Helena Semenyuk (Lekhka), Kazimiera Krutnik (Lekhka), Jozefa Karola Lehka and her teenaged daughters, Helena, Kazimiera, and Jozefa owned a small farm on the outskirts of the town of Buczacz in the district of Tarnopol (today Buchach, Ternopil’ District). One night in mid June 1943, after the local ghetto was liquidated and the town proclaimed “Judenrein,” 22-year-old Bernard Kramer, a Buczacz resident, knocked on the door of their home. Following his escape from a Gestapo prison, he spent the previous two days hiding in the forest. Kramer was hungry, thirsty, and shivering from cold. The Lehkis welcomed him inside, fed him, and let him sleep in the attic of the house. For reasons of security Kramer did not stay long in the Lehkis’ home, but he returned there from time to time, hiding permanently in the forest with a group of Jewish survivors. The other group members also came to the Lehkis occasionally and were always provided with food and drink. Eventually, the neighbors noticed suspicious people entering the Lehkis’ home at night and reported this to the authorities. The Germans set up an ambush and one night a group of Jews heading to the Lehkis was caught. Kramer managed to flee and the following day he decided to return to their home, where he found just burned pieces of wood. Karola and her daughters, who managed to escape the previous night, were near the place that was once their house. Karola was overjoyed to see Kramer alive. She supplied him with a gun and explained how to find another group of Jews that had organized in the forest, and in so doing again saved his life. After the war, the surviving Jews of Buczacz left Ukraine and dispersed around the world. Kramer immigrated to Israel, and his contact with the Lehkis was severed. In 1990, he went back to visit his birthplace and while there he located the family that had saved his life. On March 16, 1992, Yad Vashem recognized Karola Lehka and her daughters,Helena (Yelena) Osipenkova, Kazimiera Semenyuk, and Jozefa Krutnik, as Righteous Among the Nations.