Sirik Straton ; Daughter: Petrushka Yekaterina (Sirik)

Sirik, Straton Sirik, Valentina Petrushka-Sirik, Yekaterina Straton Sirik, a farmer, and his extended family lived in the village of Wierzchów (today Verkhiv, Rivne District). Just before the German invasion into the USSR, one of his daughters, Yekaterina, married Binyamin Petrushka, a Jew from Ostrog. The couple settled in Ostrog, but when the persecution of the Jews began in the summer of 1941, they fled to Wierzchów, where Binyamin was given shelter by his wife’s family. Many residents of Ostrog and the surrounding area knew Binyamin and knew that his wife was a Ukrainian, so when the murderers came to round up the Jews for the slaughter they went to look for Binyamin in his father-in-law’s home. They appeared at Straton Sirik’s home one morning in January 1943 and demanded that he produce the Jew. Under a rain of blows, Straton continued to insist that Binyamin had left the village long ago – though, in fact, at that moment he was in hiding in the home of Valentina, another Sirik daughter, who lived down the street. When Ukrainian thugs realized that they would get no information from the old farmer, they grabbed Yekaterina, and started to torture her in front of her father. They then took her to a nearby forest, abused her mercilessly, murdered her, and left her body in the wild. Until the liberation of the region by the Soviets in the spring of 1944, the police continued to harass the Sirik family in an attempt to find out where the Jew Binyamin was hiding. Binyamin Petrushka continued to be sheltered by Straton Sirik and his many relatives, whose shock at Yekaterina’s murder did not change their attitude. Yekaterina left an infant daughter, Anna, who was hidden by the family separately from her father. The baby was usually looked after by Valentina Sirik, who took her into the forest when strangers appeared around the house. After the liberation, Binyamin returned to his native town of Ostrog. He remarried, and he and his wife raised Anna, their onlychild. Until his death he expressed his gratitude to the Sirik family and honored the memory of his first wife, Yekaterina, who had paid with her life to save him. On June 11, 2000, Yad Vashem recognized Straton Sirik and his daughters Valentina Sirik and Yekaterina Sirik-Petrushka as Righteous Among the Nations.