Baran Ilya & Maria ; Son: Grigori

Baran, Mikhail Baran, Agafia Baran, Ilya Baran, Mariya Baran, Grigoriy Mikhail and Ilya Baran, brothers, lived with their families in the village of Petlikovce Nove (today Novi Petlykivtsi, Ternopil’ District) where they were farmers. Both brothers and their families were familiar with Avraham Khalfan and his wife, Sara who lived in Buczacz (now Buchach). Avraham was a dentist and Sara an internist, and both would come to the village to treat patients. In the summer of 1942, one of the residents of the village asked Ilya if he would be prepared to hide Avraham and Sara, along with Avraham’s sister and son, Eliyahu, who were hiding in his house. The villager mentioned that Avraham had been paying for the hiding place and was prepared to continue paying. Ilya’s wife, Mariya, hesitated but in the end complied with her husband’s wishes. At the end of that summer, the doctors and family moved to Ilya’s home. In July 1943, when the last of the Jews of Buczacz were executed, two others, Avraham’s colleagues, joined them. Mikhail also hid Jews during that same period. One day when he was working in the field, he was approached by two familiar faces, Shlomo Grines and nephew, Willi Anderman. The two had escaped during the murder operation and had hidden in the forest. Now they sought a new place to hide and Michail offered to hide them in his home. They were later joined there by their friend, Yakov Hornreich, also from Buczacz. The three hid in the attic. Unlike Avraham, they were penniless. Because Mikhail had a hard time financially, Ilya would at times help him buy food. Through cracks in the attic, the Jews could look out at the Barans’ yard and watch their little son at play. Hornreich, a tailor, sewed clothes for the boy. When the Soviets arrived in Buczacz and the vicinity, at the end of March 1944, the survivors left Petlikovce Nove and moved eastward with the retreating Red Army. The area was successfully liberated again in July 1944. After the war, someof the survivors immigrated to Israel. Willi, who was 14 in 1943, was the only one of the nine survivors who returned to visit Buczacz and the vicinity (today in the Ukraine) and renewed his contacts with the children of his rescuers. On June 11, 2001, Yad Vashem recognized Mikhail and Agafia Baran as Righteous Among the Nations. On September 4, 2001, Yad Vashem recognized Ilya and Mariya Baran and their son, Grigoriy, as Righteous Among the Nations.