Why a CT rabbi and synagogue are honoring the memory of a young, widowed mom executed by Nazis for hiding Jews

Kateryna Sikorska was a 36-year-old widow with three young daughters when the Nazis executed her for hiding three Jews under the floorboards of her kitchen in Ukraine.

Her daughters, ages 6 to 13, helped care for the three. The girls also assisted other Jews by bringing food and false IDs.

Sikorska’s daughters were spared death, but the middle daughter, Krystyna, 10, was beaten by the Nazis as they tried, but failed, to get information from her.

The three people hiding — a town photographer and two children from another family — were taken to concentration camps, where they ultimately were killed.

Sikorska, along with about 2,600 other heroes who helped rescue Jews during the Holocaust in Ukraine will be honored Sunday at Congregation Or Shalom in Orange, during the synagogue’s 16th commemoration of Kristallnacht.

Kristallnacht, which translates into “Night of Broken Glass, is considered “the opening scene,” of the Holocaust, said Rabbi Alvin Wainhaus.

The night occurred on November 9, 10 in 1938 when the Nazi’s bombed, dynamited and torched, every synagogue in Germany and Austria and destroyed tens of thousands of Jewish businesses, Wainhaus said.

There was glass everywhere from the destruction, including stained glass.

It’s important to remember the event, Wainhaus said, “not just because it’s the beginning of this most horrific period,” but also because in the aftermath, the “world was largely silent.”

“We know now it was that very silence that allowed Nazism to grow,” Wainhaus said. “We gather to condemn that legacy and to condemn evil, to condemn bigotry, to condemn racism.”

Every year the event focuses on a person or people who put their lives on the line to save Jews, or as Wainhaus always says, “Ordinary people who did extraordinary things.”

This year Wainhaus wanted to focus on heroes of the Ukraine because of “Russia’s barbaric assault on Ukraine.” The Nazis occupied Ukraine in 1941.

The free event, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. is available on Zoom, as well as in person. For more information or to register, visit: https://www.jewishnewhaven.org/kristallnacht

A guest speaker via Zoom from Canada will be Sikorska’s granddaughter Iryna Korpan, who is working to raise funds to restore the historic synagogue in her grandmother’s hometown of Pidhaitsi, Ukraine.

Korpan, a well-known filmmaker in Canada, also released a documentary film about her grandmother’s ordeal, entitled, “She Paid the Ultimate Price.”

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., will present a U.S. Senate Certificate of Special Recognition to Iryna, which she will receive on behalf of her grandmother.

Young Adult author Marsha F. Skrypuch also will speak about her youth novel “Don’t Tell the Nazis” inspired by Sikorska’s story.

Wainhaus, whose own father was spared from the Nazis through the kindness of others, said Sikorska and her girls, ages 13, 10 and 6, managed to shelter the three in a space dug out below the kitchen for eight months.

The girls, Krystyna, 10, Iryna, 13 and Maria, 6, assisted by bringing food to the three. At night, the three hiding came into the other portion of the house and socialized. Filmmaker Korpan is Krystyna’s daughter.

Wainhaus said someone in the neighborhood “betrayed” Sikorska by informing them of her guests.

One day they showed up at the door, searched the house and detected a hollow area under the floor.

Sikorska was tried and sentenced to death, leaving her three daughters orphans. The oldest, Iryna, became like a mother to her sisters and took care of everyone for a year, until the girls were taken to other homes.

Wainhaus said the Kristallnacht commemoration takes on extra special meaning this year because of an uptick in antisemitism evidenced by an increase in attacks on Jews and inflammatory language.

The commemoration, open to all on Zoom. is presented by Congregation Or Shalom with support from the Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven.