Wiktoria Franciszka Stawarska was commemorated on 24 March 2026 in Sieniawa (Podkarpackie region).

Wiktoria Franciszka Stawarska, née Ordon (she is 10 years old in the photograph above), lived with her husband Mateusz and their three children: Stanisław Bohdan, Jerzy, and Krystyna Wanda. In 1942, the Singer family, a married couple with three children known to Wiktoria from before the war, approached the Stawarskis for help.

A hiding place behind the wall

Mateusz Stawarski created a hiding place for the Singers in his own home by partitioning off part of a room with a wall. The entrance was located in the attic, concealed beneath a trunk. The house containing the hiding place stood right on the boundary of the ghetto, in an area patrolled by gendarmes and Ukrainian police. To reduce the risk, the Stawarskis moved to a rented house across the street, and only their eldest son, Stanisław, maintained contact with the hiding place by delivering food prepared by Wiktoria. Mateusz, fearing the danger associated with helping Jews, spent nights away from the hiding place, at his mother’s home.

Growing danger

In the autumn of 1942, the German occupiers murdered between 600 and 1,500 people from the Sieniawa ghetto and nearby towns. Individuals were also captured in the town and surrounding villages and killed by members of the occupying police formations. Hiding the Singer family turned into a prolonged struggle against the fear of discovery. Concerned for his family’s safety, Mateusz sought to find a hiding place for the Singers outside the town. Ultimately, the Jews, likely in agreement with the Stawarskis, arranged a new hiding place near the villages of Dobra and Wylewa, where they had earlier moved part of their property.

The tragic fate of the Singer family

After leaving the Stawarskis’ hiding place, Singer and two of the children disappeared under unknown circumstances. Some time later, Singer’s wife appeared at the Stawarskis’ home with one child. They were captured by German gendarmes and shot. A rumor spread through the town that the woman had confessed that the Stawarskis had been hiding her family.

Arrest

Around 23 December 1942, Karl Seidel, a sergeant of the German gendarmerie in Sieniawa, arrested Mateusz Stawarski. Wiktoria, who was then staying in the rented house, saw German gendarmes leading her husband out of their family home. She went to the station in an attempt to rescue him and was also arrested. The officers then returned with Wiktoria to the site and carried out a search.

On 26 December, Mateusz Bronisław Stawarski was shot in the Głażyna forest for having aided Jews.

Imprisonment and death sentence

Wiktoria was not executed immediately, likely due to the dual citizenship she invoked (she had lived with her parents in the United States for about a dozen years). She was initially held in the buildings of the former Benedictine convent in Jarosław, and later in the castle in Rzeszów. During the first months of her imprisonment, she was unaware of her husband’s death. In April 1943, she began searching for a lawyer to undertake her defense before a German court. Ultimately, Janusz Pattek took on the case. In June 1943, a German special court in Rzeszów sentenced her to death for having aided Jews.

Farewell letter

After the sentence, she drew up her will and wrote a farewell letter to her children.

“To my most beloved and dearest children. By the time you read this letter, your mother will be standing before the Judgment of God. My soul is as pure as the tears that flow abundantly from my eyes as I write this letter, and my conscience is burdened by nothing,” Wiktoria Stawarska wrote to her children [Letter of Wiktoria Franciszka, Sieniawa, 17 June 1943. Private archive of the Stawarski family].

Execution

Approximately one month after the sentence, the punishment was carried out and Wiktoria Franciszka Stawarska was shot. She was buried on 22 July 1943, in a mass grave by the wall of Pobitno Cemetery in Rzeszów. The orphaned Stawarski children – Stanisław Bohdan, Jerzy, and Krystyna Wanda – were taken in by relatives.

Commemoration

Wiktoria Franciszka Stawarska and her husband Mateusz were commemorated on 24 March 2026 in Sieniawa (Podkarpackie region). A report from the ceremony is available at the link below.

Portrait of Wiktoria Stawarska above: Hartford (USA), 1919, Wiktoria Franciszka Ordon with her father, Jan. Private archive of the Stawarski family.