On the night of 23-24 February 1943, the Germans organised a manhunt and surrounded the village of Paulinów in the Sterdyń commune. They called about 2 thousand soldiers and policemen from Ostrów Mazowiecka in order to catch the Jews who had escaped from the ghetto and pass a sentence on all those who helped them. This is how Wacław Piekarski writes about the manhunt in the book Obwód Armii Krajowej Sokołów Podlaski „Sęp”, „Proso” 1939-1944:
“On Wednesday, 24.II.1943, a blockade of Paulinów was carried out.

For helping Jews in hiding, the Germans shot 11 people from Paulinów and nearby localities.

The German action, on a large scale, was well prepared and exemplary. A provocation was used here. The reconnaissance was carried out by provocateurs. They were Jews, one from Warsaw, the other from Sterdyń – Szymel Helman. The provocateur from Warsaw joined the hiding Jews, claiming to be a French Jew who escaped from a transport of “displaced people” transported to Treblinka.
The Jews, mostly from the Sterdyń ghetto, found shelter in Paulinów and the nearby forest. At night they came to the manor buildings. They stayed overnight in the stable where Franciszek Kierylak, the groom, let them in.

The provocateur from Warsaw and Szymel from Sterdyń, with whom Czesław Kotowski attended the Primary School in Sterdyń, came to Paulinów for food. They were looking for shelter and obtained information about the situation in Poland and the world. The provocateurs watched and carefully collected information on who was helping Jews. There were many of them. The Kotowskis found themselves among the “guilty” because their mother gave them bread. In other situation, the careless young man talked about fighting on the eastern front, and the groom allowed them to enter the stable for the night.

A large number of soldiers and policemen of all kinds were brought to carry out the action. It is estimated that there were about 2 thousand of them. They arrived in the morning in 60 cars from Ostrów Mazowiecka.

The farm and the village were surrounded from all sides. A line of manhunt, about 10 km long, ran from the Sterdyń-Sokołów road through the Zembrów forest, to Wymysły, then Ratyniec, through Dąbrówka and again to the road. Soldiers were placed densely, every several steps from each other.
Such a picture of manhunt remained in the memory of the inhabitants of Paulinów.

After Paulinów and the nearby villages were closed this way, the provocateur, with the help of the Gestapo and the military police, chose the “guilty” people. First groom Kierylak was shot dead. Then Józef Kotowski – he had one half of his body paralysed – and his wife Ewa were led out of the house and shot on the stairs. They brought their son Stanisław to the square in front of the distillery. Six of the gathered people were put in pairs, led to the forest and shot dead.

Czesław Kotowski survived because he escaped from Paulinów in a cart given to him by Pytel, the Sterdyń estate administrator. He ordered him to go and not to look back. On the way from Paulinów to Zembrów he managed to count 24 cars.

The Germans shot the following 11 people dead:

1. Jan Siwiński, aged 50,
2. Franciszek Augustyniak – Siwiński’s son-in-law, aged 25,
3. Franciszek Kierylak, aged 50, the groom,
4. Józef Kotowski, aged 56,
5. Ewa Kotowska, aged 54,
6. Stanisław Kotowski, aged 25,
7. Marian Nowicki, aged 36, from Kolonia Ratyniec Stary,
8. Ludwik Uziębło, aged 45, from Kolonia Ratyniec Stary,
9. Zygmunt Drgas, aged 25, displaced from the Poznań Province, lived at Uziębło’s,
10. Stanisław Piwko, aged 31,
11. Aleksandra Wiktorzak, aged 50.

During the manhunt the shooting broke out. The Germans fired at each other by mistake. Going from opposite sides – from Zembrów and from Ratyniec – they opened fire to each other. Two German soldiers died, one was wounded. The victims of a fatal mistake were taken to Sokołów.
The executed people were buried in the forest. After the front line passed, the families took the bodies of their loved ones to the cemetery in Sterdyń”.

A brief mention of these tragic events can also be found in Marek Chodkiewicz’s book entitled Jews and Poles 1918-1955, in which the author writes: A disgraceful innovation of the German national socialists was the release of individual provocateurs, usually Soviets, Jews and Poles, who pretended to be refugees from camps or ghettos, asked for help from Polish peasants, and then denounced them. The extent of this phenomenon is not yet known, but we know, for example, that Augustyniak Franciszek, aged 30, a worker living in Paulinów near Sokołów Podlaski [was] shot dead by the SS unit on 24 February 1943 together with a group of 14 people who were victims of provocation: a few weeks before they had helped a Nazi agent who pretended to be a Jewish fugitive.

To commemorate the deaths of those murdered in Paulinów, the inhabitants of the Sterdyń commune – Franciszek and Józef Pytel from Kolonia Dzięcioły – built a chapel with a statue of the Pensive Jesus in the place where the Kotowski couple died. The memorial plaque was made by Włodzimierz Grużewski from Sokołów Podlaski. The following inscription appears on the plaque:

During the manhunt the shooting broke out. The Germans fired at each other by mistake. Going from opposite sides – from Zembrów and from Ratyniec – they opened fire to each other. Two German soldiers died, one was wounded. The victims of a fatal mistake were taken to Sokołów.
The executed people were buried in the forest. After the front line passed, the families took the bodies of their loved ones to the cemetery in Sterdyń”.

A brief mention of these tragic events can also be found in Marek Chodkiewicz’s book entitled Jews and Poles 1918-1955, in which the author writes:
A disgraceful innovation of the German national socialists was the release of individual provocateurs, usually Soviets, Jews and Poles, who pretended to be refugees from camps or ghettos, asked for help from Polish peasants, and then denounced them. The extent of this phenomenon is not yet known, but we know, for example, that Augustyniak Franciszek, aged 30, a worker living in Paulinów near Sokołów Podlaski [was] shot dead by the SS unit on 24 February 1943 together with a group of 14 people who were victims of provocation: a few weeks before they had helped a Nazi agent who pretended to be a Jewish fugitive.

To commemorate the deaths of those murdered in Paulinów, the inhabitants of the Sterdyń commune – Franciszek and Józef Pytel from Kolonia Dzięcioły – built a chapel with a statue of the Pensive Jesus in the place where the Kotowski couple died. The memorial plaque was made by Włodzimierz Grużewski from Sokołów Podlaski. The following inscription appears on the plaque:

In memory of residents of the villages of Paulinów and Ratyniec murdered by the Nazis on 23-24 February 1943

Augustyniak Franciszek, aged 40
Drgas Zygmunt, aged 23
Kierylak Franciszek, aged 53
Kotowska Ewa, aged 54
Kotowski Józef, aged 56
Kotowski Stanisław, aged 25
Nowicki Marian, aged 29
Piwko Stanisław, aged 40
Pogorzelski Wacław, aged 24
Siwiński Jan, aged 53
Uziębło Ludwik, aged 19
Wiktorzak Aleksandra, aged 58

2003, Local community

However, it is worth correcting this information and supplementing it with certain facts from the death certificates of those murdered, according to which:

• Drgas Zygmunt, aged 23, Poznań inhabitant residing in Ratyniec Stary
• Nowicki Marian, aged 29, Poznań inhabitant residing in Ratyniec Stary
• Uziębło Zygmunt, aged 19, residing in Ratyniec Stary
• Kotowski Józef, aged 56, residing in Kolonia Paulinów
• Kotowska Ewa, aged 56, residing in Kolonia Paulinów
• Kotowski Stanisław, aged 25, residing in Kolonia Paulinów
• Kierylak Francis, aged 59, residing in Kolonia Paulinów
• Siwiński Jan, aged 46, residing in Kolonia Paulinów
• Piwko Stanisław, aged 30, residing in Kolonia Paulinów
• Augustyniak Franciszek, aged 29, residing in Kolonia Paulinów
• Wiktorzak Aleksandra, aged 50, residing in Kolonia Paulinów.

All these people died because, despite the threat of repression, they helped Jews who had escaped from the Sterdyń ghetto (its liquidation began on 23 September 1942). About 1,000 people stayed there, 359 Jews were murdered in Sterdyń (apart from that several Poles and Soviet prisoners). The rest were transported to the death camp in Treblinka. This is how Franciszek Mosiej, a resident of the village of Dzięcioły Dalsze, recalls these events:
In Sterdyń 2/3 of all people were Jews. They lived in Targowica on both sides, by the main road, by the stream and in Lebiedzie. By the stream there was a bakery and they baked bread there. They also helped people in the field, they scythed the crops in exchange of food, one made shoes, and people gave him food. The Jewish women were selling herrings and people were eager to take them, because they were good, and in return they were given eggs and other things. They also had a synagogue and prayed there. Even Jews went to school with me – 4 boys and 3 girls. One teacher was also Jewish. And later, when the Germans entered Sterdyń, they killed the children, while the older ones were transported on carts to Treblinka. Those who escaped and somehow rescued themselves, walked around the villages and sought help. They also came to our house. We gave them bread because they asked for it and sometimes they were hiding here. Then some of them went towards the Bug river, because there was a border there and when they crossed the river some of them were killed. The rest escaped somewhere in the direction of Paulinów where they were hiding in the forest.

In fact, some Jews managed to escape during the liquidation of the ghetto. They found shelter in Paulinów and in a nearby forest. They came to nearby farms to get food, and in return one of them repaired shoes. Kazimierz Kusiak from Paulinów recalls: There was a shoemaker that made shoes for his life. They also came to our house followed by an informer. Then the Germans organised the manhunt at night. I didn’t see if they have taken away someone, because I wasn’t a witness to it, but there were a few shot dead. They spent the nights in manor house buildings and stables, into which Franciszek Kierylak, the groom and guardian of the estate, let them in. He was the first to die at the hands of the Germans for helping Jews. He was followed by the Kotowski couple (Ewa and Józef) who were shot at the doorstep of their own house in front of their daughter Stanisława. Their son, Stanisław, was also killed. The Germans stopped him and led him to a nearby forest to be shot dead. Together with him they shot Stanisław Piwko, Zygmunt Drgas, Marian Nowicki and Zygmunt Uziębło. The following people were killed in the brickyard: Aleksandra Wiktorzak, Jan Siwiński and Franciszek Augustyniak – Siwiński’s son-in-law. After the front line passed, the families took the bodies of their loved ones to the cemeteries in Sterdyń and Kosów Lacki.Stanisław Piwko, who also died at the hands of the Germans for helping Jews, distinguished himself with great courage and heart. Here is an excerpt from the account by Janina Stalewska, S. Piwko’s daughter: My father was eating breakfast when the Jews came. I remember it, although I was a little girl. And that spy came too. He didn’t want to eat, but this Jew said to give him bread. ‘Don’t give them bread. You heard that the Germans said that whoever gave the Jews bread will get a bullet in the head. They would kill us’, said my grandmother Kusiaczka. And he heard it – that spy, and he only had my father written down. If my grandmother supported giving this bread, they would kill everyone. Give the bread to the children!, said my father. And he gave the whole piece of bread and said: Take it and go away! Grandma, you’ll bake the bread. We will be fine, we will survive somehow. And he was killed for that slice of bread…