Pshenichni Panasi

Pshenichnyi, Afanasy Pshenichnyi, Maksim Buryak, Anton Buryak-Penkna, Dariya The brothers Afanasy and Maksim Pshenichnyi were farmers who lived in the village of Lozovataya (today Lozovata, Vinnytsya District). In the second half of July 1941, the area was conquered by the Germans, and in the spring of 1942, a woman with four children, whom Afanasy did not know, appeared at his home. The woman, Chaya Malyar, was from the neighboring village of Vakhnovka (now Vakhnivka). In September 1941, on the eve of the annihilation of the village’s Jews, she, her husband, and their children had fled to the village of Yasenki, where they stayed in farmers’ silos and basements in return for doing manual labor. This went on until Chaya’s husband was caught and shot. The rest of the family fled at once and reached Lozovataya that night. Afanasy, whose home was located at the entrance to the village, agreed to hide the fugitives. A few days later he told the story to his brother, Maksim, who agreed to take in Chaya and her young son Leonid. One of the girls was sent to Pshenichnyi relatives in another village, and Polina and Vera Malyar remained with Afanasy. In time, Vera and Leonid were moved to the home of Anton and Dariya Buryak, the parents of two little girls, who lived in the same village. The Malyar family members tried their best to help with the household chores and look after the rescuers’ children. Both the rescuers and their wards feared informers, so an effort was made to ensure that the Jews did not stay in the same place for long; aided by the Pshenichnyi brothers, they moved to other homes in Lozovataya and in nearby villages. In the fall of 1943, when Polina was on her way from one home to another, she was spotted by policemen. To get away, she swam across the river and then walked a few kilometers, eventually dying, apparently from pneumonia. The rest of the Malyar family – the mother and three children – survived until the liberation of the area in March1944. On the eve of the liberation, Anton Buryak was killed in shelling. Dariya, his widow, remarried after the war, and took her new husband’s name, Penkna. On March 14, 2000, Yad Vashem recognized Afanasy Pshenichnyi, his brother Maksim, and Anton Buryak and his wife Dariya Penkna-Buryak, as Righteous Among the Nations.