10 June 2001
Committee for the Remembrance
of Poles Saving Jews
I would like to assert that my parents, Gabriel and Zofia Szypowski, risking their lives as well as the lives of their five children, sheltered Jews during the German occupation (1942 – 1944).
1. During the displacement of Jews from Tarczyn, near Warsaw, three boys escaped, aged 11, 12, and 15 respectively. They arrived at the Many property, located eight kilometers from Tarczyn. My father worked there as a steward and decided to hide the boys in the stable. It was agreed with the neighboring property of Jeżewice (owned by Mr. Miński) that each of them would hide the boys every other week. In this way, they were in my father’s custody for three years. In summer, during the Warsaw Uprising, when the boys were moving from Many to Jeżewice, Germans came by in a car. They noticed the oldest boy hiding in the grain. When he raised his head, a shot was fired and he was killed. The other two escaped through the fields to Jeżewice. They have not been heard of since.
2. A Jewess, around 20 years old, escaped from the Warsaw ghetto and came to my parents to Many, near Tarczyn. She said she was a Warsawian, that her name was Fryderyka Poznańska,, and that she was married to Tadeusz Poznański. Her father and sister had fled to Russia, while she had just escaped from the Warsaw ghetto and was looking for a place to hide. My parents registered her as a housekeeper under the name of Zofia Zakrzewska. One day, a telegram from Kraków came, which said, “Dear Fredzia, Tadzio is dead”. Her demeanor – that of a well-educated and well-bred person – raised suspicions that she might be a Jewess. After a year and a half or so, the suspicions of the locals intensified so much that it was necessary to find her a safer hiding place. Then it was suggested that she volunteer as a young Polish worker for labor in Germany, and this is what actually happened. My parents exchanged correspondence with her until the end of the war. Afterward, she looked them up in the Łęczyca district, where they briefly resettled in their old property. She thanked them for their care and for helping her survive. They had no further contact because then my parents had to leave the Łęczyca district as “landlords”.
Attached please find statements corroborating my account, which have been made by the following persons, who at that time stayed at my parents’ house. These persons are as follows:
1. Jan Junk, lawyer, resident of [...] Bydgoszcz [...];
2. Jadwiga Narębska, resident of USA, [...] Los Angeles [...];
3. Irena Pomorska, resident of [...] Radom [...];
4. Izabela Zglinicka-Hertling nee Tołwińska, resident of [...] Poznań [...].
On the strength of this, I hereby petition for memorializing my parents and their service to the Jewish nation.
My parents’ details:
Gabriel Hipolit Szypowski, b. in Morzyce near Radziejowa in 1902, d. 1972 Zofia Szypowska née Żakowska, b. in Jackowo near Łęczyca on 21 stycznia 1905, d. 1970
Aleksandra Łyp
née Szypowska
[...]