Kozak Ivan & Paulina

Kozak, Ivan Kozak, Paulina Hersch and Pnina Griffel lived in the town of Buczacz (in the Tarnopol district, in present-day Ukraine) with their two daughters, Dvora (b. 1930) and Aliza (b. 1936), and Pnina’s mother, Hinda Schwarz. The Griffels owned a flour mill and a grocery store in town and were a well-to-do family. In September 1939 Poland was occupied by Germany, and in early July 1941 German troops entered Buczacz. The Griffels stayed in their home, which was located within the boundaries of the ghetto that was established toward the end of 1942. Two deadly Aktions (mass executions) followed, and in the spring of 1943, the Griffels, along with the other few Jewish survivors who were still left in town, decided to move to the nearby town of Czortkow, where a larger ghetto existed. Hersch had family there, so the Griffels moved to their relatives’ house. In July 1943 another Aktion took place, which the family survived by hiding in a closet. It was then that the Griffels decided to escape. With the help of a Ukrainian policeman, they secretly left the ghetto, hoping to reach Hersch’s native village of Biala Boznica to seek help. When they arrived, however, no one would help them, and the family was left stranded, tired, and hungry. For the next few days, they wandered around the area, sleeping in the fields and begging for food. In their wanderings they came to the outskirts of the village of Tribuchowce. In desperation Pnina went up to knock on the door of a small, isolated house. When asked who was there, she answered: “Unfortunate souls.” Paulina Kozak, the woman of the house, opened the door and let them in. She immediately made food for the group, which in addition to the Griffels now included a Jewish woman by the name of Drescher and her daughter. Paulina and her husband, Ivan, who had three children, decided to shelter the Jews in their home. They were extremely poor people, so the Griffels gave them what little money they had left in order to help them feed seven additional mouths. After a few weeks the Kozaks became anxious, and it was decided that the group should split: Pnina, little Aliza, and Grandma Hinda went to live in the home of one of Ivan’s brothers, and Hersch and Dvora were sent to Paulina’s brother Michailo. Mrs. Drescher and her daughter also left and hid somewhere in the village, but it was not too long before the mother was caught and killed. Her daughter survived, and after the war she was taken by her uncle to the United States. The Griffels remained in their respective hiding places until they could no longer stay there, fearing detection. In December 1943 they all returned to Buczacz, where they had nothing left. The women remained in an abandoned house on the outskirts of town while Hersch went out again to look for shelter. He eventually arrived in the village of Wojciechówka and found a woman by the name of Aniela Kaprocka (recognized as Righteous Among the Nations in 1978), who agreed to take them in. The Griffels stayed with her until the area was liberated in March 1944. Over the next few years, the Griffels kept in touch with Ivan and Paulina, and Dvora and Aliza even went back to visit them in the village. But soon the Griffels learned that the Kozaks had been exiled to Siberia, never to be heard from again. In 1948 the Griffels immigrated to Israel, and in 2012 Dvora and Aliza applied to Yad Vashem to honor the Kozaks. They never forgot the kindness of their rescuers and their willingness to help “unfortunate souls” despite the immense risk. Although they have been lost to the Griffels, Ivan and Paulina’s names and their acts live on with Dvora and Aliza’s families. On July 3, 2012, Yad Vashem recognized Ivan and Paulina Kozak as Righteous Among the Nations.