Płock, 20 February 1946
Eugenia Lewandowska née Pęska
post office clerk in Płock
domiciled in Płock at Tumska Street 9, flat 2
To the Warsaw District Commission
for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland
With respect to the appeal published in the press, I would like to inform you that on 18 January 1944, the following people were taken by the Gestapo from a private flat, no. 43 at Świętojerska Street 22: 1) my deceased brother Tadeusz Pęski (born on 13 October 1913 in Szpetal Dolny), a student in the 4th year of the Faculty of Humanities in Warsaw, a disabled soldier of 1939 (a corporal of the 36th Infantry Regiment of the Academic Legion) 2) his wife, Janina Pęska née Jakubiak, and their tenants, Ludwik Węgrzyn, now deceased, and his wife.
Of the above-mentioned people, only citizen Węgrzynowa, after a stay in the Ravensbrück camp, is still alive and lives now in Radziwie (address: Płock-Radziwie, Zielona Street 11, flat 2, at Mrs Wasielak’s).
My brother, Tadeusz Pęski, and Ludwik Węgrzyn were on the red list of hostages. Węgrzyn as no. 2, Pęski as no. 3. Both were executed between 28 January and 2 February, probably at Aleje Jerozolimskie, house no. 35, although I have not managed to confirm this to this day. Both were tortured in al. Szucha, where they had been taken with their wives, as I know from citizen Węgrzynowa. From al. Szucha they were taken to Pawiak, and there Janina Pęska was called out of the cell a week after they had been arrested, and nobody has heard from her since. Citizen Węgrzynowa later saw her fur, the one which Pęska had on while leaving the cell, the cell in which she had been incarcerated with citizen Węgrzynowa, Składkowska, and other Polish women. On that day, executions were carried out in Pawiak by the execution wall and in the gas chamber, but nobody was deported from the prison that day. This is why I believe that my sister-in-law was also killed. Both of them [she and my brother] had belonged to some organizations which were being persecuted by the enemy. To which organizations they had belonged, I do not know.
Citizen Węgrzynowa was taken to the camp, as her husband had forbade her to join the organization, although both he and Pęscy had belonged to it.
Carpenter Płachta, who lived in the same house at Świętojerska Street 22, witnessed the arrest of my brother and my sister-in-law, as he had come to my brother, who was a house administrator during the war, about some business. I don’t know Płachta’s address.
At the same time as Pęscy and Węgrzynowie, a courier of the organization was arrested; she had lived at Świętojerska Street 22 but had moved out some time before the arrest. Citizen Węgrzynowa did not give me her real name, but told me that the woman was using the name of a friend, “Kucharski”. Allegedly she was released immediately after arrest. A mother of my sister-in-law, Maria Jakubiak, lives now in Warsaw (address: Pańska Street 96, flat 22, at Zofia Radzanek’s). She went to al. Szucha several times to inquire about her daughter and her son-in-law, she has a clipping from the red list with my brother’s name on it and she will know my sister-in-law’s date of birth.
More details concerning the reason for which my relatives had been arrested could be provided by barrister Domiński, residing in Warsaw before the war, whose current address I do not know. He was my brother’s friend and he knew more about these matters [...], as I lived during the war in Płock with my mother. I know that my brother and my sister-in- law were hiding for several months in a village near Warsaw, but they returned to the city in September 1943.
Should the commission know of any details concerning my deceased relatives, I kindly ask you to let me know.
P.S. During the arrest and incarceration of my brother and his wife, a Płock inhabitant, Maria Lewandowska, was working in Pawiak; now she is a clerk in the Municipal Court in Płock. She saw that my brother and my sister-in-law were brought to Pawiak from the Gestapo.
(Barrister Domiński’s name does not figure on the list of barristers of the Chamber of Barristers in Warsaw – Judge Rybiński)