Sagaidak Prokop & Maria

Sahaidak, Prokop Sahaidak, Mariya In 1941–1942, the life of Kopyczynce’s Jews consisted of hard work, constant hunger and the attempts to avoid the numerous Actions. One of the local Jewish families, the Weissglases, was able to stay together until the fall of 1942, when two of their daughters, Fania and Nusia, were sent by the Judenrat to the labor camp in Jagielnica to work in a tobacco field. During their absence, in June 1943, approximately 4,000 Jews from Kopyczynce and the surrounding towns were murdered, among them Fania and Nusia’s parents, Herman and Rosa, and their brother Julius. Soon after that, the workers were brought back from the Jagielnica labor camp to the ghetto. Its final liquidation was launched on July 20, 1943. The Weissglas sisters managed to remain undetected in their hiding place in an attic for two days, without food and water, while the ghetto area was constantly searched. When their plight became unbearable and they were ready to go down and try to sneak out of the guarded ghetto, they suddenly heard a voice calling their names. The man who came looking for them was their father’s Ukrainian friend, Prokop Sahaidak. He had bribed the guards to let him enter the ruined ghetto. He was happy when Fania answered his call and descended from the attic. Prokop said that he had promised Fania’s father to care for his daughters after his death and he was ready to fulfill this promise. With many precautions, he led Fania and Nusia out of the ghetto and then out of town, towards his village of Kotowka. After an hour of walk quickly they heard a child’s anguished cries from a nearby wheat field. They found a little Jewish girl named Fancia, who was wandering the countryside, deeply distressed after her whole family had been murdered. Without hesitation Prokop took the child with him as well. When they reached the Sahaidaks’ farm and crawled inside a camouflaged bunker, Fania and Nusia were greatly relieved to see that their two uncles andan aunt were already there. Besides, there also was a young Jewish woman with two children, who had lost her husband during the ghetto liquidation. In total they were ten people, hiding in a hollowed out area under the haystack, which had been prepared by Prokop in advance. They could not stand inside it -- even in sitting position they had to bend their heads. Even while lying down, the grow-ups could not straighten their legs. Every night the host or his wife Mariya would remove a stack of hay at the opening and bring the Jews bread and warm soup, while taking out a pail for cleaning. There were rumors in the village that the Sahaidaks were protecting Jews and one day the Germans and the Ukrainian police stormed their house demanding that they give up those in hiding. Prokop calmly allowed them to search his farmstead. They left without finding anyone. Another time, Germans came to search for wheat usually hidden by farmers who did not provide the Nazis with the demanded quota. Lying motionless on the floor of their dugout, afraid even to breath, the Jews saw the soldiers piercing through the stack of hay above their heads. The ten Jews survived to see the area’s liberation by the Red Army on March 3, 1944. They had spent nine months in hiding. Prokop and Mariya Sahaidak had succeeded in keeping their presence secret not only from the neighbors, but also from their two young children. A couple of years later, the survivors left the Soviet Ukraine for the West. In the late 1940s, Fania (by then, Fanny Melnitzer) settled in Canada, while her sister Nusia (married name, Bein) immigrated to Israel. Others dispersed around the world. Fanny attempted to contact her rescuers but they were afraid to receive mail from the West, and she did not want to harm them in any way. In the summer of 2001, accompanied by her two sons, Fanny revisited the area of Kopyczynce and found Nadia, the Sahaidaks’ daughter, who knew from their stories about the Jews her parents hadrescued. On December 7, 2008, Yad Vashem recognized Prokop and Mariya Sahaidak as Righteous Among the Nations.