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Poręba-Kocęby

Commemorated

Called by name

  • Piotr Leszczyński
  • Antoni Prusiński

Jews who received help

  • a man unknown by name and surname

A cross on a pine tree

At dawn on 15 May 1943, the German gendarmerie and Gestapo set up a cordon around the village of Poręba-Kocęby and began a manhunt for Jews in the nearby forest. One was found hiding in a bunker several hundred meters from the farms belonging to two Polish families: the Leszczyńskis and the Prusińskis. The Poles had been carrying food to the Jew in hiding, and had sheltered him in a basement or a barn in winter.

The Germans lured Antoni Prusiński out of hiding by beating his wife and setting fire to his farm. They also arrested Piotr Leszczyński and the Jew who had been hiding in the bunker in the forest. All three men were taken deep into the forest, viciously beaten with sticks and then shot. Piotr and Antoni left behind a total of seven children.

The men were buried where they had been murdered. Józefa Prusińska, Antoni’s widow, carved a small cross into a nearby pine tree. It was only after the war that the victims’ remains were moved to the local cemetery.

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