Sekreta Anna ; Son: Rudolf ; Daughter: Josefa

Sekreta, Anna Yefremova (Sekreta), Josefa Sekreta, Rudolf Anna Sekreta was a widow living with her teenaged children, Josefa and Rudolf, in the town of Czortków, Tarnopol District (today Chortkiv, Ternopil’ District). In October 1941, Sekreta and her children welcomed into their home a young female tenant who looked Slavic and introduced herself as Stefania. She had come to Czortków to work for a German munitions company. The Sekretas’ new tenant was very amicable and she soon became friendly with Josefa and Rudolf. After a few months, Sekreta overheard Stefania crying one night. The following day, when Sekreta asked her why she had cried, Stefania admitted that she was a Jew from Skałat and that her real name was Shufka Pikholtz. The previous day, she had heard that her mother and sister had perished and she now felt that there was no point for her to go on living. Sekreta calmed her down and tried to lift her spirits by promising to keep her secret and to help her. Sekreta’s children also were prepared to conceal their tenant’s true identity and to continue sheltering her. In 1943, Pikholtz met a Jew called Gaikovsky at work who was also living under an assumed identity. He told Pikholtz that he had paid a lot of money to send his five-year-old daughter Basya into hiding with a local farmer but that the farmer’s neighbor had discovered the girl and had insisted that she be sent away. He was now looking for a new hiding place for Basya and, after consulting with the Sekretas, Pikholtz brought the child back to their home. Despite Basya’s young age, she was very aware of the situation and whenever strangers came in to the house she would hide behind a cupboard, where she would sit in absolute silence for hours on end. One day, the Sekretas’ neighbor spotted the Jewish girl, who had black curly hair. She asked Sekreta to remove the child from her home and Basya was thus returned to her father, with whom she survived the war. Basya later immigrated to Israel.Pikholtz stayed with the Sekretas until the liberation, on March 23, 1944, and a few years later she moved to Israel. She maintained contact with the Sekretas until the 1960s, and then renewed it in the 1990s, when she (by then Silvia Berger) traveled to Ukraine and located Josefa (by then Yefremova). Josefa visited Berger in Israel in 1992. On April 12, 1992, Yad Vashem recognized Anna Sekreta and her children, Josefa Yefremova and Rudolf Sekreta, as Righteous Among the Nations.