December 12, 1940
To the orphanage1
To the institution of the Orphanage
Under the purview
of the Elder of the Jews
in Litzmannstadt Ghetto.2
Petition!
Asna Zhurkovska
35 years old. Residence: 15 Aleksander St., Apt. 13
As I begin to dictate my petition to you, dear father of the orphans, I write not with ink but with blood and tears. It is not I who dictates my request but my desolation and poverty. The paper cries with me, and my pen is witness to the poverty in which I find myself, without means to live. I am a widow with 3 orphans, and I find myself in a critical state that my pen is not prepared to describe. And I come to you begging not with entreaties but with blood and tears, and if you could just take my youngest child, a little girl, she is 10 years old, so that she doesn't die of cold and hunger. And I turn specifically to you, and I call you: Father of my orphan, save my child from hunger and cold. I hope that a spark of mercy will arouse your Jewish hearts and you will take my painful petition into consideration.
Respectfully, Asna Zhurkovska, 15 Aleksander St., Apt. 13. Litzmannstadt ghetto. December 9th.