Wola Szydłowska, 6 February 1946
To the Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes
In utter despair, my heart heavy with harrowing experiences, I, formerly a permanent resident of Warsaw (6 Sierpnia Street 18, flat 3), having been deprived in one instant of my happy family life and livelihood by the Nazi torturers, hereby address the most Honorable Commission with a heartfelt request to help me learn the fate of my husband, Seweryn Józef Oranowski (70 years old), a former office worker of the Audit Department of Towarzystwo Kredytowe Miejskie [Municipal Credit Union], recently an old-age-pensioner, awarded with the Gold Cross of Merit for social work. Together with me and my brother- in-law Adam Chamski, on 4 August 1944 he was evicted from 6 Sierpnia Street 18, flat 3. All residents of the house were evicted at the same time, and at the Gestapo headquarters in aleja Szucha the men were separated from the women. We, the women, were detained for two days and nights; we were marched in front of tanks and under a hail of bullets. On 6 August we were released and told, “Your houses are burned. Go to your folk and tell them that the hostages, your husbands, will be killed if the insurgents don’t stop that stupid gunfight.”
It is surely impossible that there is no trace left of such a large group of men!
All my efforts to find them have been to no avail, and now it got more difficult for me to make any inquiries as I work in village schools near Mława.
In October 1939, the Germans took my brother Adam Ołdakowski from his estate together with his son Bogdan, a Cadet. His second son, Mariusz, was in the navy, and Lieutenant Zbigniew Chamski, the son of my sister – in Kozielsk [Soviet camp]. All of them disappeared without a trace.
Hoping that the Honorable Commission will respond to my desperate request,
I remain yours sincerely
Maria Józefowa Oranowska