Before the war, Władysław and Maria Krystyna Dydyna lived in the village of Zawadówka (Podhajce District, Tarnopol Province), where they ran a farm. The Dydyna family was large; Maria's mother – Tekla Sobotkiewicz (1872–1966) – and six of their children: Bronisław
(b. 1924), Longin (b. 1933), Piotr (b. 1935), Stanisław (b. 1942), Stanisława (later Soszka,
b. 1926) and Anna Paulina (later Król, b. 1931) lived under one roof.
In October 1942 several Jews hid on their farm - three women named Klein: Chawa, Binka and Alfreda as well as Chawa's children: Bracha, Hersz and Chaim. Chawa's husband was killed during the operation in Monasterzyska, and she got to Buczacz with her children. The group most likely escaped from there. On 17 October an operation was carried out in Buchach, and 1,600 Jews were sent to the Bełżec death camp as its result.
According to the statement of Longin Dydyna written in 1992, the women and children found shelter in a tobacco drying room in the orchard belonging to the Dydynas. Maria Dydyna discovered their presence after three days: "She went to the orchard to take the drying underwear. The hiding Jews called her and asked for something to eat and some clothes, because they were just naked and barefoot". Dydyna brought clothes and food for them. The next day, it turned out that the Jews did not go away: "They begged and cried to hide them for some time, or otherwise just immediately turn them in to the Germans. The mother felt very sorry for them (especially children) and hid them all in the barn without telling the father until some safe hiding place would be prepared". When Maria told her husband and other family members about the hidden Jews, "they all were terrified at first, because this act could be punished by death to the whole family and the Jews, and the whole house would be burned down". The uncle and his family who lived in the same house did not know about the hiding Jews until the end of the war.
Władysław Dydyna prepared a hiding place in the barn, told the Jews never to go out "and said that if we die, we all die together". The Jews entered the grain storage room through the ceiling in the barn. Dydyna installed wooden bunk beds there. At night the hiding Jews could go down to the stables using a retractable ladder to wash, warm up and straighten up.
Maria cooked potatoes for them. The Dydynas' children also delivered them and took out waste from the hiding place. Horses and cattle were still kept in the barn. In winter, Maria warmed bricks in the oven – they were then wrapped in cloth and handed over to the Jews, so that they could warm up a bit.
According to Longin, after a few weeks Binka and Alfreda Klein left the hideout. After some time, Binka came back alone "saying that her sister was killed by the Germans in Podhajce".
Several days later the Dydynas' home was searched by the Germans and Ukrainians. Władysław happened to be in the mill at the time. The hiding Jews were not found, but Longin claimed that attempts were made to "bribe the younger siblings with chocolate so they would turn in the Jews, [and] when this had no effect, the Germans told the children to get dressed and threatened to take us instead of the Jews". The children remained cool and the Germans left the farm. From that time, however, the family was under constant surveillance "by Ukrainian citizens, Ukrainian police and Germans". The children had to stop inviting other children to play in the backyard.
In the spring of 1944, with the first coming of the Soviet army, Binka Klein left the hiding place and walked away with the troops. Chana with children stayed with the Dydynas. Germans returned to the village, and German soldiers were quartered in the Dydynas' home. "Armoury was arranged in the larder where the shelter was located. We were really afraid that the Germans would discover the hiding people, since they were separated only by a thin plastered wall, and they could be discovered even when a nail was hammered into the wall", recalls Longin. Pretending to be playing, the children provided food prepared by Maria to the hiding place: "The sign to open the shelter was a triple tap on the ceiling".
In September of 1944 the Dydynas left supplies of food to the Jews and left the house. When they returned, the shelter was empty. After the war the Dydynas lived in Różanka in the Kłodzko Valley, and the Klein family initially settled in Gliwice, and then moved to Israel. Maria Dydyna corresponded with the Kleins for some time.
In 1991 Maria Dydyna with one of her sons visited the family home, and she found the hiding place intact.
In 1994 the Yad Vashem Institute awarded Maria Krystyna and Władysław Dydyna the title of Righteous Among the Nations.
