Irena Siniarska was commemorated with her parents and siblings on March 10, 2024 in Lutkówka.

Irena Siniarska (born May 6, 1935) lived with her parents (Stanisław and Marianna) and siblings (Edward and Marian) in a house located on the outskirts of the village of Lutkówka. The Siniarskis were not wealthy, cultivating 12 or so acres of land. In addition, they had one cow, a dozen hens and some rabbits. Despite the difficult living conditions, and the risks involved in taking in Jews, they did not refuse to help their fellow men. Wolf and Chana started hiding in the Siniarskis’ home most probably in February 1944. They received one of the rooms. In early March, Chana gave birth to a son. It is known that the birth took place with complications, as Wolf sought help from local women who acted as midwives.

The German Crime of 10 March 1944

In the early morning of Friday, 10 March 1944, German gendarmerie and Schupo officers from Żyrardów came to Lutkówka following a denunciation. The squad numbered a dozen or so men. They were looking for the home of the Siniarski family, who were suspected of hiding Jews. The gendarmes were accompanied by Józef O., who had been taken from the jail in Żyrardów to serve as a guide. However, he was unable to point out exactly where the Siniarskis lived. Thus, the Germans forced one of the local residents to lead them to the farm that they were looking for. When they finally arrived at the location, the gendarmes encountered Stanislaw Siniarski in the yard. One of them asked him if he was hiding anyone. When Siniarski denied, he was punched in the face. Józef O. testified in the case: Then the gendarmes told Siniarski to put his hands up and stand facing the barn door, while I was told to stand behind the barn wall and one of the gendarmes stood next me, whereupon they started shouting for everyone to get out of the house. I saw Siniarski’s wife exit the building, follo[1]wed by three children. They ordered everyone to stand against the wall of the barn and started shooting into the house through the doors and windows, and only after some time did I see a Jew in his underwear being led out of the building, and then they ordered everyone to lie down on the ground, Siniarski with his wife and children lay down one next to other, with their faces to the ground, and the Jew about ten meters away, and after a few minutes I heard a single shot and the gendarme ordered me to go to the other side of the house, whereupon I heard three bursts of machine gun fire (...)(6) . Another of the witnesses remembered: I would like to mention that [Marianna] Siniarska and [Stanislaw] Siniarski were already dressed, whereas their three children were only in their underwear, and so I realized that they must have been taken from their beds(7).

After Stanislaw and Marianna and their children: sixteen-year-old Marian, nine-year-old Irena and eight-year-old Edward, together with Wolf Lipszyc, obeyed the Germans’ order and lay down on the ground, one of the gendarmes killed them with bursts of machine gun fire. The Germans then entered the house, where they found Chana lying in one of the rooms with her newborn baby. The woman and her newborn son were shot dead. After committing the crime, the gendarmes proceeded to two farms in the village of Wygnanka, since Jews were also supposed to be hiding there. However, they found no-one. In view of this, they returned to the Siniarskis’ farm, which they looted, catching the hens and rabbits and putting them into sacks. They also ordered the local residents to prepare wagons for them, and also to summon the village leader. The Germans also commenced a “feast”. Witness Bronisław Zgórzak testified thus: On the Siniarskis’ property, I saw a pan-fed machine gun set up on a bipod with its barrel pointing toward the forest. The Germans fired their rifles in the direction of the forest (...). While shooting, the German gendarmes laughed, took out of their pockets vodka bottles with a capacity of half a liter, the necks of which – and this I remember exactly – were embellished with white lacquer, and from these bottles, one by one, drank vodka (8). Thereafter the gendarmes drove off on the wagons that had been provided previously. Only then could the residents of Lutkówka tend to the burial of those killed. One of the witnesses recalled: After digging the pit, we leveled the bottom, took the corpses of the slain Siniarskis from the garden and placed them in the pit, covered these corpses with rugs, and only then filled the pit with the corpses with earth. (...) Near this makeshift grave of the Siniarski family we dug a second hole, in which we placed the bodies of a man, a woman and a newborn baby who had all been shot. All three were buried in this pit(9) .

The exhumation

After the war ended, the murdered families were exhumed. In June 1945, when Stanisław’s son, Zdzisław Siniarski, returned to Poland from forced labor, the bodies of his parents and siblings were moved to the cemetery in Lutkówka. Whereas Chaim Lipszyc came to Poland in the late 1980s. He was the only member of the Lipszyc family to survive the Second World War. The remains of the murdered Jews were exhumed on his initiative. The event was attended by Tadeusz Małecki: The exhumed remains were placed in small coffins and moved to a grave in the Jewish Cemetery at Okopowa Street in Warsaw. I and my father, Henryk, were both present at the exhumation. My father had been present in 1944 when the bodies of the Lipszyc family had been buried. During the exhumation, the skeletons of a woman and a man were discovered, but the remains of the newborn child were not found(10). The post-war trial In 1948, Józef O., who had led the gendarmes to the farm in Lutkówka, was charged and convicted of denouncing the Siniarski family. However, the evidence in the case was inconclusive. Some witnesses claimed that the Germans were informed that the Lipszyc family was hiding in Lutkówka by Stanisław B., who had previously kept Chana concealed for some time. Ultimately, the case against him was dropped. Furthermore, none of the gendarmes responsible for carrying out the crime on 10 March 1944 were identified.

Irena Siniarska was commemorated on March 10, 2024 in Lutkówka, together with her parents and siblings, click here to read about it.

(1) Icek Aron and Blima Lipszyc had 6 children: a son, Lejzor (born on 18 January 1914, in September 1939 he was to serve in the 1st Light Cavalry Regiment), a daughter, Gitla (born on 24 August 1915), and the sons Izrael-Jakub (born on 18 June 1918), Berek (Hebrew Bejł, born on 13 December 1919), Wolf (Hebrew Zew), and Chaim.
(2) Jan Dołęga Szczepański, Getto w Żyrardowie, “Życie Żyrardowa”, no. 40, 5.10.1989; and the same, Uciekłem przez dziurę na Chłodnej, “Życie Żyrardowa”, no. 44, 2.11.1989.
(3) APW, V 1 Sn 643/48, Protokół przesłuchania podejrzanego Stanisława B. z dn. 25.04.1945 r., p. 139.
(4) Both Stanisław and Marianna had older children from their first marriages. However, during the occupation they did not live in the same house in Lutkówka. In addition, Zdzisław (born in 1925, Stanisław’s son) was deported for forced labor to Germany.
(5) AIPN, Bu 392/1382, Protokół przesłuchania świadka Bronisława Zgórzaka z dn. 23.11.1972, p. 15.
(6) APW, V 1 Sn 643/48, Protokół przesłuchania podejrzanego Józefa O. z dn. 06.06.1945 r., p. 194.
(7) AIPN, Bu 392/1382, Protokół przesłuchania świadka Bronisława Zgórzaka z dn. 23.11.1972 r., p. 16–17.
(8) AIPN, Bu 392/1382, Protokół przesłuchania świadka Bronisława Zgórzaka z dn. 23.11.1972 r., p. 19.
(9) Ibidem, Protokół przesłuchania świadka Zygmunta Zgórzaka z dn. 4.07.1972 r., p. 10–11.
(10) Excerpt from a conversation with Tadeusz Małecki, held on 3 May 2021 in Lutkówka. The materials of Krzysztof Siniarski.