Commemorated on June 21, 2023 for her steadfast attitude, which probably saved the lives of three Polish women who helped her.

After the defeat in the defensive war of 1939, the majority of Polish lands were placed under German occupation. The village of Somianka found itself in the Ostrów county (Kreis Ostrow) in the Warsaw District of the General Government. Following the policy of economic exploitation of the occupied territories, the Germans took over administration of the huge estate of Władysław Müller. The owner had to move to the steward’s house, while his manor was to serve the purposes of the German administration of the Somianka estate. A German, Karol Rubach, was appointed a new administrator. He was to be assisted in his work by the Polish steward, Mieczysław Żemojtel.

In the autumn of 1940, the Germans established a ghetto in the capital – approx. 450,000 Jews from Warsaw and the vicinity were crowded into a small area. Prevalent hunger and disease prompted many people to attempt escape from the ghetto. Perhaps such fugitives were the two young Jews remembered as siblings: Anna (Hania) and Marian (Moniek) Kowalski. They came to Somianka probably in the spring of 1941. According to the witnesses, Anna was about 18–20 years old at the time, and Marian was a few years younger. Żemojtel gave them employment, thus allowing them to stay legally at the estate. Many employees knew that Anna and Marian were Jews. Both of them worked at the manor and lived either in the attic or in the basement.

The testimony of Marianna Stępkowska:
Sometime in the summer of 1941, a young Jewish woman, about 18 years old, came to the estate with her brother, who was about two years younger. She would clean the yard and sweep corridors, for which the siblings received food. Maria Krawczyk and I gave her clothes and often food. I don’t know her name. She said her name was Anna Nizińska, but others said her name was Kowalska. I called her by her name – Andzia. We called her brother Marian.

When news of various extermination operations aimed against the Jews started reaching Somianka, Anna and Marian went into hiding.

Since October 1941, helping Jews was punished by death in the General Government. Despite the threat, however, Żemojtel continued to help the siblings. He was assisted in this by other people employed at the manor: two young women, Marianna Krawczyk and Marianna Stępkowska, as well as the housekeeper, Maria Kroczewska. They provided the hiding siblings with food and clothing.

In the last days of October 1942, several gendarmes from the station in Wyszków arrived at the manor in Somianka. They knew about the Jews, because someone had probably denounced them. The Germans searched the building and found Anna; Marian managed to escape. They tortured the girl to make her name those who provided her with help. Despite their cruelty, the victim remained tight-lipped and didn’t betray anybody. The gendarmes realized that they wouldn’t learn anything from Anna, and then they decided to kill her. A twenty-something gendarme Henrich Sichau, a man notorious for his brutality, and his colleague led Anna out by a side exit. She was shot a few meters away from the manor.

The testimony of Władysław Staniszewski:
When I went out, I saw a German gendarme standing on the stairs by the entrance to the manor; another gendarme was leading the Jewish girl Ania down the path leading into the park. When she was a few steps ahead of him, he pulled out his gun and shot at the back of her head; the girl then fell to the ground.

The testimony of Marianna Krawczyk:
[…] I went to the manor. As we were passing by the well, I noticed the Jewish girl laying face down close to the side entrance to the manor. I didn’t know that the gendarmes were nearby, so I approached her and called her by her name. Then the gendarme, Heniek, hit me with his rubber baton and chased me away from the corpse.

Anna’s steadfast attitude during the interrogation meant that the Germans had no grounds to carry out an immediate execution of her Polish helpers. They thus ordered Żemojtel to gather all people working in the building, assuming that they must have known about the hiding Jews. Mieczysław brought Marianna Krawczyk and Marianna Stępkowska, warning them that Anna hadn’t betrayed them despite torture. After another interrogation of the entire group, the gendarmes left Somianka, having arrested Rubach and Żemojtel. The German administrator was soon released, while Żemojtel was kept in custody in Wyszków. On or around 10 November 1942, the three women who were helping the Jewish siblings were also arrested, but thanks to Anna Kowalska’s steadfast attitude the Germans had no proof of their assistance, which probably saved their lives.

The stories of those “Called by Name” are always extraordinary, and such is the story from Somianka: Mieczysław Żemojtel, a recipient of the Medal of Independence, the father of the family, who provided Jewish siblings with shelter at the manor; members of his family – the son who died as a Home Army soldier, the daughter who participated in clandestine teaching. A young Jewish girl, known as Anna Kowalska, whose steadfast attitude during brutal ‘interrogation’ by German gendarmes saved the lives of three women employed at the estate who took part in helping the siblings; two of these women were roughly the same age as Anna, says Kamila Sachnowska, head of the “Called by Name” Department.

Heinrich Sichau, the gendarme who was responsible for the murder of Anna Kowalska and other people in the Wyszków area, was brought before a German court in the 1970s. In 1979, the proceedings were discontinued due to his ill health. Sichau died in 2003 at the age of 85.

The proceedings […] of the Prosecutor’s Office in Düsseldorf against the suspect Sichau were discontinued pursuant to Art. 205 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, because the suspect is unfit to be interviewed or appear in court. He suffers from […] angina pectoris, arterial hypertension and mild diabetes. According to the medical opinions issued on 2 September 1975 by the Grevenbroich district physician, on 8 December 1976 by Prof. L. Seipel, and on 5 July 1978 by Dr. Schnelbacher, the suspect Sichau cannot be interviewed without direct threat to life and health. The stress of an interrogation could at any moment cause an imminent danger of a heart attack or a stroke. For this reason, the proceedings have to be discontinued.

Decision of the Prosecutor’s Office in Düsseldorf on the discontinuation of proceedings against Heinrich Sichau

The quoted testimonies were given in the 1970s. The excerpts come from the materials gathered for the purposes of investigation “into the murder of a Polish citizen of a Jewish origin, Anna Kowalska, committed in Somianka by a German gendarme from the station in Wyszków, Heinrich Sichau” (IPN, OKŚZpNP Wa, S. 66/10/Zn).

The body of Anna Kowalska (according to one account) was buried near the execution site. In 1958, her remains were exhumed and moved to the Warsaw Insurgents Cemetery.

The steadfast attitude of Anna Kowalska saved the lives of three helping Polish women - one of them was Marianna Stępkowska. Her daughter, Marianna Wacława Wojtkun, relates the tragic events of 1942.

Anna Kowalska was commemorated on June 21, 2023 in Somianka.