Kukhta Yan, Yuzefa, Anelia, Yan and Vladyslava

Yan and Yuzefa Kukhta with their children Anelia, Yan and Vladyslava lived in the village of Lukovets-Vyshnivskyi near Rohatyn. In July 1941, the region was occupied by German troops. The district center therefore becomes a city of regional importance as part of the district "Halychyna". A "Jewish residential area" (an open ghetto) is organized there, and all Jews who lived elsewhere are forced to move there. The Judenrat (Jewish council) is established, as well as the Jewish police and the employment service. Ghetto residents must wear yellow armbands with a Star of David. In autumn, their fellow tribesmen who lived in villages near the city of Rohatyn are also ordered to move to the ghetto. On October 15, 1941, the occupation authorities issued another document on residence in the General Governorate: to Jews who leave the area where they are assigned without permission, the death penalty awaits.

Despite the threats, on the eve of the liquidation of the Rohatyn ghetto in the summer of 1943, the Kukhta couple saved the family of an old acquaintance – Davyd Liberman. They sheltered him with his wife Ester and son Zvi in their house. During the year, Yan and Yuzefa and their children took care of refugees. On the eve of the roundup, Yan-father and Yan-son took the Jews to hiding places arranged in the forest. During one of these trips to the forest, the Kukhta family came across another fugitive – Moishe Prynts. So when the danger passed, they returned home in an even larger group.

After the war, the rescued Jews emigrated to Israel, and their saviors were forcibly resettled by the Soviet authorities to Poland.

In 1998, Yad Vashem recognized Yan and Yuzefa Kukhta and their children Anelia, Yan and Vladyslava as Righteous Among the Nations.

/