Buhai Vasyl, Maryna, Anastasiia, Mariia and Kateryna

Vasyl and Maryna Buhai lived in the city of Konotop in the Sumy region. On the eve of the German-Soviet war, their adult daughters Anastasiia, Mariia, and Kateryna lived with them.

On September 3, 1941, the city was occupied by German troops. A few months later, an acquaintance, Pelaheia Feldman, approached the Buhai family. Her Jewish husband had been at the front since the first days of the war, and she remained in the occupied city with her three-year-old son Mark. When the persecution of the Jewish population began, Pelaheia, worried that someone would expose her half-blood boy to the Nazis, began to look for a safe place for him. Vasyl and Maryna agreed to save the little boy and set up a hiding place in the attic of their home. It was difficult to keep Mark there all the time, the child missed his mother. Pelaheia visited her son several times, but Vasyl asked her not to go so that the neighbors would not become suspicious. The man promised to make every effort to save the boy. Pelaheia listened to his advice and left the city to visit relatives.

During the occupation, Vasyl's daughters took care of the little Jew –  they fed him, entertained him, tried to comfort him in some way. In the evenings, they took him out for fresh air. The baby quickly got used to his new family.

Pelaheia did not see her son for a year and a half and was only able to pick him up in September 1943, when the Nazis were expelled from Konotop. After the war, the Feldman family maintained their friendship with the Buhai family and always thanked them for saving their son.

In 2001, Yad Vashem recognized Vasyl and Maryna Buhai and their daughters Anastasiia, Mariia, and Kateryna as Righteous Among the Nations.

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