Buksa Mykola & Michalina

BUKSA, Mykola BUKSA, Michalina Eliezer and Feiga Zandberg were farmers in Jaseniow, a Ukrainian village in the Lvov district with only seven Jewish families. By June 1941 the village was already under German occupation. The Jews of the town were forced to give up valuables, including furs, to the occupying authorities. On 1 September 1941 a German and a Ukrainian policemen entered the Zandberg’s home and murdered Eliezer, claiming that he did not submit all his fur products. This was the start of a difficult year for Feiga and her three children; their fields were requisitioned and their crops stolen. The eldest son Adam (b. 1921) worked in the coal mines. He heard rumors that the local Jews were to be rounded up and sent to the ghetto in nearby Brody. He and his uncle Simcha attempted to dig in a pit in the forest in which to hide, but they were arrested and jailed. They later escaped from prison. Adam returned to his village and hid with someone whose name is unknown. He was later joined by his family in this hideout for six months. Rumors of roundups forced them to leave their village. They found shelter in the hayloft of Mykola and Michalina Buksa, indigent farmers with ten children. Times were difficult and food was often lacking for both the Zandberg family and their rescuers the Buksas. They ended up staying in the hayloft for a year; once the Russians occupied the region, the Zandbergs fled east. Adam joined the Red Army and the rest of his family settled in Kamieniez. During this period Feiga visited her old village and the gravesite of her late husband; while there, she was murdered. Adam deserted the Red Army and crossed the border into Poland. His siblings joined him and in 1948 they moved to Israel. The Zandberg children did not keep in touch with Mykola and Michalina Buksa, but in 2004 the youngest son Mordecai (b. 1931) visited his old village and reconnected with the Buksa family; since then, the families have remained in contact. On 20 September, 2011, Mykola and Michalina Buksa were recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations.