Crime in Paulinowo
During the German occupation, the inhabitants of Paulinowo and employees of the local farmstead supported persecuted Jews, first of all fugitives from the ghetto in Sterdynia. Usually by offering food. Sometimes the watchman Franciszek Kierylak also allowed Jews to spend the night in the farm buildings.
Among the Jews hiding in the vicinity of Paulinów were the brothers Szlojme and Szymel Roskielenke. After some time, a man who claimed to be a French Jew who had escaped from transport to the Treblinka extermination camp joined them. In fact, he was a Warsaw Jew, whom the Gestapo recruited as an agent-provocateur. The local population treated the stranger with distrust, hence he usually went on a spy in the company of Szymel Roskielenke. During these trips, he watched from hiding which Polish families help the boy. It is not known whether Szymel was aware of his companion’s true identity. Wacław Piekarski, however, was convinced that the younger of the Roskielenke brothers was also a German agent. But Szymel’s innocence could be proved by the fact that none of the people who helped him – without the knowledge of the provocateur – were the victims of German repression.
On the night of February 23/24, 1943, the Paulinów and neighboring villages were surrounded by a German punitive expedition, which came from Ostrów Mazowiecki. Witnesses estimated that about 2,000 people took part in the raid; policemen and soldiers with 60 cars. The Germans were going in a dense tiraillere with a length of almost 10 kilometers. Personally, the starosta Sokołowski Ernst Gramss was supposed to participate in the raid.
Germans had the names of those who helped Jews. The agent-provocateur also participated in identifying detainees. At the very beginning of the pacification, the watchman Franciszek Kierylak and three people living in the brickyard (including one woman) were shot. Soon after, Ewa and Józef Kotowski were murdered in their own home. A little earlier, the couple managed to send their three sons out of the house – Kazimierz, Czesław and Stanisław. The first two escaped capture, the third fell into the hands of the Germans. Then, he was joined to a group of detainees, in which Stanisław Piwko from Paulinów and three men from nearby Stare Ratyńca village were located (all five were identified by the German agent). The prisoners were taken to a nearby forest and executed there. Szlojme Roskielenke and two Red Army soldiers who escaped from German captivity were murdered in the forest.
According to the findings of the Institute of National Remembrance, on February 24, 1943, 11 Poles were murdered in Paulinów, including two women. Among the victims there were also three refugees who were helped by the villagers. The list of victims was prepared on the basis of data contained in the Register of Repression Facts on Polish Citizens for the help of the Jewish population during World War II (IPN edition, Warsaw 2014).