Marek Anna (Przyłucka)

Orłowska (Przyłucka), Anna At the beginning of the war, Anna Orłowska, the wife of a Polish army officer, and her little daughter, came to stay with her sister in Borszczów, in Eastern Galicia. One day in the summer of 1941, Bela Hessing, a Jewish woman who had done some sewing jobs for her, came to Orłowska, asking her to help her family out of the economic hardships that had followed on the German occupation. Orłowska offered to take in Hessing as a seamstress, whereupon Hessing asked if her mother and younger sister, Lea (Lola), could join her. Orłowska agreed, and despite the fact that the refugees had no money with which to pay her, looked after them devotedly and saw to all their needs. In time, the mother returned to the ghetto where she perished in one of the Aktionen. Bela and her sister Lea stayed with Orłowska, but when the danger intensified, Orłowska decided to hide them in a special hiding place she built in her apartment. After the sisters lost contact with their family in the ghetto, they became concerned that they were endangering Orłowska’s life, and decided to return to the ghetto. Orłowska, however, who had been informed of their plan, refused to let them go and, despite the danger, hid them in her house for almost two years. Orłowska also helped other Jews, obtained “Aryan” documents for them, gave them medical assistance, and offered them temporary shelter in her apartment. Orłowska, who radiated human warmth, was guided by humanitarian considerations only, and never expected anything in return. In her subsequent testimony, Hessing described how Orłowska was compassionate toward Jews, and helped everyone who approached her. She particularly remembered how a Jew who lived in the forest with his family, turned up each evening with a sack on his back, which Orłowska filled with bread and tomatoes. Once, Orłowska was shocked to see a Jew dying in the synagogue, and lamented the fact that she was unable to help him. Even after the liberation,Orłowska continued to help Bela and Lea who later immigrated to Israel where, for many years, they kept up ties with Orłowska, and invited her to stay with them. On June 30, 1983, Yad Vashem recognized Anna Orłowska (Przyłucka) as Righteous Among the Nations. File 2627