Potężna Maria ; Son: Potężny Tadeusz

Shchepanyuk, Yuliya Shchepanyuk, Roman Góral, Michał Góral, Anna Potężna, Maria Potężny, Tadeusz The Ukrainians Yuliya Shchepanyuk and her husband, Roman, lived in the town of Borysław, Lwòw District (today Boryslav, L’viv District). Their good neighbors were the Weisses: Meir, the head of the family; Genia, the mother, and the children Aharon, Mila and Szewek (later Shevach). Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union, an Aktion was carried out on July 1, 1941, in Borysław, in which several hundred Jews were murdered. Yuliya Shchepanuyk and her husband gave shelter to the Weiss family during that Aktion, as well as during the following ones, until August 1942, thus every time saving them from death. After the August 1942 Aktion, two ghettos were established in Borysław and the Weisses moved to one of them, leaving their house to the Shchepanyuks. In October 1942, when the next Aktion started, they fled, aiming to reach the Shchepanyuks. In the turmoil of flight, the family split: Genia and the younger children hid for several days with a Polish Catholic couple, Anna and Michał Góral. Meir and Aharon Weiss reached their house, now occupied by the Shchepanyuks, and the latter agreed to hide them until the persecutions were over. Shortly afterward, Meir and Aharon were joined by Genia and the younger children, as well as by Helena Greenfeld, Genia’s sister, with her son Milek. All of them were hidden behind the double wall of a storeroom until spring 1943, when suspicions arose that they had been noticed by strangers. Secretly, the Jews moved to the well-camouflaged cellar of a neighboring house, used by the municipality as a kindergarten. At that point Maria Potężna and her son Tadeusz joined the Shchepanyuks in their efforts to save the extended Weiss family. On Potężna’s initiative, Israel Buchman was also brought to the cellar, thus bringing the number in hiding to eight. All of them survived, thanks to the care they received from theShchepanyuks and the Potężnys, until the liberation, on August 7, 1944. A few months later the rescued moved to Poland, from where the Greenfelds moved to Canada. The Weisses found their way to Israel. Aharon Weiss became a Holocaust scholar. Shevach Weiss became a politician – in the years 1992-1996 he was the Knesset Speaker, and in 2000-2004 served as the Israeli ambassador in Poland. On March 5, 1984, Yad Vashem recognized Yuliya and Roman Shchepanyuk as Righteous Among the Nations. On May 15, 2000, Yad Vashem recognized Michał and Anna Góral as Righteous Among the Nations. On March 4, 2001, Yad Vashem recognized Maria Potężna and her son Tadeusz as Righteous Among the Nations.