Zarivny Józef & Zarivna Barbara

Zarivny, Józef Zarivna, Barbara Before the German invasion of the Soviet Union, the Ukrainian family, Józef and Barbara Zarivny from Nagorianka, a village near Buczacz (Tarnopol District, today in Ukraine), were acquainted with the Jewish Hecht family: Herman (Samuel Hersch), his wife, Pepa (née Hirschhorn), and their son, Izydor, a boy ten years-old when Buczacz was occupied on July 7, 1941. During the second murder operation (Aktion) in Buczacz on November 27, 1942, the Hechts hid at the Zarivnys and then returned to the ghetto. At the time of subsequent murder operations in the ghetto, the family hid in the shelters previously prepared inside the ghetto. But on one occasion, Pepa, Herman’s wife, was shot on the street and died. In mid-May 1943, the ghetto was liquidated. Herman Hecht and his son managed to escape and survived for several months by hiding in the forests. Then, in September-October 1943, they came for the second time to the Zarivny house, where Herman’s mother-in-law, Reiza (Rosa) Hirschhorn, her daughter, Malya (Mala), and a four-year-old granddaughter had been in hiding from the time of liquidation of the Buczacz ghetto. They spent most of the time in a hideout in the barn, which they would only leave at night. On particularly cold winter nights, they were invited to sleep in the house with the Zarivnys. The Zarivnys also provided them with food. On February 18, 1944, when the Zarivnys where not in the house, policemen arrived. Izydor and his grandmother where inside, while Herman, his sister-in-law and niece were outside and tried to escape to the fields but were shot. The Zarivny buried them there later. A month later, Buczacz was liberated by the Soviets on March 23, unexpectedly reoccupied by the Germans, and liberated for good on July 21, 1944. Between the retreat and the final liberation of Buczacz, Izydor and his grandmother moved to Skałat with the Red Army and therefore survived. In 1950, Izydor, then 19 years old, came back to Buczacz looking for his rescuers but was unable to locate them. He learnt that their house had been burnt down and that the family had moved to Poland. Through Poland and Germany, Reiza Hirschhorn arrived in Mandatory Palestine in 1947 where her daughter, Betty Gibsch, had been living since 1935. After Józef Zarivny fell in battle at the front in 1945, Barbara moved to Poland, following her son, who had married a Polish woman. She passed away in Poland in 1980. On June 15, 2005 Yad Vashem recognized Józef and Barbara Zarivny as Righteous Among the Nations.