Skakalska, Zinaida Samczuk z d. Skakalska Musij Skakalski, Hanna Skakalska, Hanna Skakalska, Zinaida Samczuk z d. Skakalska - Instytut Pileckiego

The medal / Recipients

Skakalska, Zinaida Samczuk z d. Skakalska Musij Skakalski, Hanna Skakalska, Hanna Skakalska, Zinaida Samczuk z d. Skakalska

Awarded in 2022.

„In 1939, the Russians came, so we expected to be deported to Siberia [...]. Amid all this misery, we received assistance from the Skakalskis – the family of Musiy Skakalski – who were Ukrainians".

Musiy Skakalski (1902–1974)
Hanna Skakalska (1905–1987)
Hanna Skakalska (1887–1966)
Zinaida Samchuk née Skakalska (1926–1996)

The Skakalski family lived on Szeroka Street in Krzemieniec, Volhynia. Before the war, Musiy served in the Polish army and then worked as a telegraphist at the post office. His wife Hanna kept the home with the help of their daughter Zinaida, who was studying at the Krzemieniec High School. Musiy’s older sister Hanna also lived at the house. After the Soviets entered Krzemieniec in 1939, the Skakalskis took in Maria Pietroniec and her sister Janina Paulus with her four-year-old daughter Alicja. The two families knew each other – Hanna, Musiy’s sister, had been Alicja’s nanny. The Skakalskis gave the Polish women shelter and food, and saved them from deportation to Siberia. Zinaida was 13 years old at the time and provided both families with food, which she obtained from relatives in the countryside. In 1943, when Ukrainian nationalist activities intensified, Musiy received warning that hiding Polish neighbors would be met with a hostile reaction from members of the OUN-UPA. As a consequence, the family under the Skakalskis’ protection had to leave their home. Musiy helped the women arrange escape via train from Krzemieniec to the Lublin region. After the war, the families kept in touch. They managed to meet again in 1965. Musiy took up photography and ran a photography business in Krzemieniec. Zinaida worked as a laboratory technician in a hospital, married, and raised two sons.

„In 1939, the Russians came, so we expected to be deported to Siberia [...]. Amid all this misery, we received assistance from the Skakalskis – the family of Musiy Skakalski – who were Ukrainians. They took us to the city center and assured us that we were safe there [...]. They were wonderful, they helped us survive and escape from Krzemieniec.” Recorded with the rescued Alicja Gienc née Paulus, Archive of the Pilecki Institute, IP/DF/SE/1464

Survivors and their helpers. Sitting from the left: Janina Paulus, Alicja Paulus, Hanna Skakalska, Maria Pietroniec. Standing first from the right is Zinaida Samchuk
The Skakalski and Samchuk families. Standing: Volodymyr and Zinaida Samchuk; sitting: Musiy, his sister Hanna and his wife Hanna with grandsons Volodymyr and Yaroslav
The Skakalski family house in Krzemieniec, where Maria Pietroniec and Janina Paulus with her four-year-old daughter Alicja found shelter
The rescued Alicja Gienc née Paulus, 2021

See also

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  • Petro Hrudzewycz

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    When local Soviet functionaries told him to remove the cross from the grave of soldiers of the Polish Army, he refused. However Petro was punished for his resistance, each year he attends the commemoration of the battle known as the Polish Thermopylae.

  • Aristides de Sousa Mendes do Amaral e Abranches

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    Aristides de Sousa Mendes do Amaral e Abranches
    (1885–1954)

    In the first months of the Second World War, Bordeaux in southern France seemed like a safe place – deep behind the front, far from the border of the Third Reich.