Chaikovski Stepan & Chaikovskaya Anna

Chaikovskiy, Stepan Chaikovskaya, Anna Stepan and Anna Chaikovskiy, farmers, lived with their four daughters in the village of Kordibanovka (today Kurdybanivka) in the vicinity of Buczacz (now Buchach, Ternopil’ District). The Germans occupied the area on July 5, 1941. In June 1943, Stepan came across a Jewish family, people that he did not recognize, hiding in the Christian cemetery. There was Ben-Zion Held, his sister, Sosia, his wife, Hana, and Ben-Zion’s five-year-old daughter, Rachel. Against all odds, they had survived the numerous killing operations and round-ups in Buczacz and fled from the ghetto during its liquidation. They had taken to hiding in the fields and the forest, eating whatever food they had managed to steal. On hearing their story, Stepan suggested that the Helds hide out in his barn. His offer was accepted gratefully. Stepan also took in the Halpern family, who were hiding in Buczacz. Lea Halpern, Ben-Zion’s sister, her husband, Moshe, and their 13-year-old son, Mordecai, were on the edge of physical collapse after not having eaten for several days. The Halpern’s sufferings were increased by the recent loss of their 17-year-old daughter and sister, Sara. She had been hiding with a local woman, but was discovered and killed. The Helds and the Halperns remained hidden by the Chaikovskiys for nine months. Anna and her older daughters brought them food and cared for their sanitary needs. Once, when a rumor spread that Jews were hiding in the village, Stepan asked his wards to leave and they moved to the forest for several days. When things quieted down, he brought them back in. On March 24, 1944, Soviet troops forced the Germans out of Buczacz and the nearby villages, and the seven survivors returned to their native town. But two weeks later, during a German counterattack, they found themselves again under German rule for another three more months. During that period, Ben-Zion Held was wounded in his leg and died three weeks later. MosheHalpern also died, of malnutrition and hard labor. Hana died shortly after the final liberation on July 21, 1944. The remainder of the survivors were repatriated from the USSR to Poland and then, in the late 1940s, immigrated to Israel. Lea Halpern raised her orphaned niece, Rachel Held (later, Brunholz). At the beginning of the twenty-first century, Rachel and her cousin, Mordecai, found the Chaikovskiys’ daughters who had moved to Rivne, and hosted the youngest of them, Miroslava Luchka, in Israel. On August 25, 2003, Yad Vashem recognized Stepan and Anna Chaikovskiy as Righteous Among the Nations.