Kut Ivan & Maria ; Son: Jaroslav ; Daughter: Kornienkova Stefania (Kut)

Kut, Ivan Kut, Mariya Korniyenkova (Kut), Stefaniya Kut, Yaroslav Ivan Kut, his wife, Mariya, and their teenaged children, Yaroslav and Stefaniya, were farmers living in the village of Folwarki Mały, Tarnopol District (today Malosilky, L’viv District). For many years, Kut regularly ground his grain at the flourmill in nearby Brody, owned by the Schlienger family. Immediately after the Germans conquered the area, on June 30, 1941, the Schliengers sent their 12-year-old son Rafael to Kut’s farm to help out with the work there. Kut and his family treated Rafael affectionately and he often stayed with them for a night or more, particularly because of the atrocities perpetrated against the Jews of Brody. He was there during the two large-scale Aktionen, on September 20 and on November 2, 1942, when his parents, Yakov and Sima Schlienger, and four brothers perished. After the establishment of the ghetto, at the end of the year, Rafael moved there and remained with the last Brody Jews until the ghetto’s liquidation in May 1943. He was among the group of Jews gathered in one of the ghetto buildings and shot by the Ukrainian police. He was wounded and fainted as a result of blood loss, but he woke up a few hours later and unhesitatingly headed for the Kuts’ home. Mariya tended to his wound and Rafael was hidden in their home for the next two months. The whole Kut family was involved with looking after him. Rafael was hidden in the barn loft and Stefaniya and Yaroslav brought him food and drink twice a day. When the front was approaching the area, the Germans began to construct fortifications. Rafael, who did not want to further endanger the Kuts’ lives, decided to leave their home. He headed for the marshlands, where he spent the remainder of the war posing as a Ukrainian orphan. Right after the war, Rafael left the Soviet Ukraine and, in 1947, reached Eretz Israel. In 1992, Rafael (by then Shalev) renewed his contact with the Kut family. A year later Stefaniyavisited him in Israel. On December 22, 1992, Yad Vashem recognized Ivan and Mariya Kut and their children, Stefaniya Korniyenkova and Yaroslav Kut, as Righteous Among the Nations.