OREST ZAHAIKIEWICZ
HELENA ZAHAIKIEWICZ MELNYCZUK
Ukrainian Rescuers

Orest and Helena Zahaikiewicz, New Jersey, 1986
Orest and Helena were students living with their father in the Ukrainian city of Peremysl. Edek and Eda Scheffler came to their home in the middle of the night in September, 1943, literally from the grave. Photograph

The Schefflers had escaped the liquidation of the Jewish ghetto by hiding in a truck filled with Jewish corpses. When the truck emptied its load in a mass grave, the Schefflers made their escape. After being turned away by several other families, they came to seek shelter with the Zahaikiewicz family. There they stayed hidden, at tremendous risk to the family, until the liberation.

Orest: "Our father somehow thought we would make it through. He believed in people."

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