From the testimony of Anna Derkacz from Stechnikowce (Tarnopol province and district):
"In the village of Stechnikowce, one of the Ukrainians married a Polish woman and they had two daughters. At the end of 1943, he got a letter from the UPA Banderas, which demanded that he immediately kill his wife and both daughters because they were Polish. The husband and father - a Ukrainian, did not carry out this order. So he got another letter with the same demand and threats, but for the second time the demand was not carried out. Some time later he received a third letter with a similar message, warning him that if he did not do it, others would do it. After this third letter, he realised that the killers were going to come over. So he sharpened his ax, not to carry out the demand, but for self-defence. A few days later during the night, someone pounded loudly on the door, so he grabbed his ax and stood in the hallway behind the door. When the door was forced open, and the first killer burst in, the defending homeowner struck him with the sharpened ax with all his strength. The attacker fell, before a second attacker burst in. He was met with the same fate. There were no more attackers. Then the farmer lit a lamp to look at these Banderas. And he saw the bodies of his father and his brother."
Based on: Romuald Niedzielko, "Kresowa księga sprawiedliwych 1939-1945. O Ukraińcach ratujących Polaków poddanych eksterminacji przez OUN i UPA” ("The Kresy book of the Righteous. About Ukrainians who Saved Poles from Extermination by the OUN and UPA"), Warsaw 2007.
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