Mikołajki

Barefoot

In the spring of 1942, three Jews – Całka, a merchant from Łomża, and two teenagers – found shelter at the farm of Antoni, Czesława and their daughter Genowefa Kenigsman in Mikołajki near Łomża.

One early morning in May 1942, two German trucks arrived at the premises. Antoni was not home at the time. Czesława and Genowefa managed to escape through a window. The Germans searched the farmstead, firing their pistols and rifles. They found the three Jews in the pigsty. Całka was shot on the spot, while the boy and the girl were severely beaten. When Antoni came back home, the Germans tortured him, and then pulled off his shoes and marched him to one of the trucks. They murdered him on the way and threw his body out in the forest. At night, Antoni’s brothers took his corpse, while Czesława – although the Germans had forbidden it – buried her husband at the cemetery in Łomża.

The Germans transported the body of Całka to the nearby forest. They also took the two teenage Jews there and shot them on the spot. The victims were buried in a pit, where they remain to this day.