The Marian Martyrs of Rosica

112 The Marian Martyrs of Rosica taken out of the church and sent to Germany to work in labor camps. The elderly and children were sent to barns and burned alive. Our parishioners from Druja, who were forced to drive the sledges, were losing their minds seeing this bestiality. A lot of time passed before they recovered. Father Laszewski was in Zaszczyryn. The police chief from Latvia, a Pole, came to him and said: “Run away from here, Father, because no one will be left alive here.” Father Laszewski replied: “I will not abandon my parish- ioners and I am not going anywhere!” When the chief saw this attitude, he said: “So, you are under arrest! Please step up on this sledge!” This is how he “saved” Fr. Leszewski as well as a Sister, who was a cook. In one village where I hadn’t made pastoral visits because I had set aside doing so until later, the Germans herded everyone into the middle of the village square under the cross which was still there. Everybody was praying and singing “Holy Lord, Holy and Immortal.” Nobody was running away. They all kept praying. A tanker full of gasoline arrived and the soldiers began to douse the innocent people with it. Then they ignited the sac- rificial pyre under the cross. This was how many of our most holy people perished. They deserve heaven! This “purge” engulfed a belt along the border over 60 kilo- meters long. Two weeks later, two Sisters went back to look around in Rosica. They found one large pile of ashes. In one burned barn, they found a compact mass of standing skeletons and among them they noticed an unburned hand. Curious, they investigated and noted that the hand held a rosary. The Sisters recognized that this hand belonged to Fr. Kaszyra. This is how our two martyrs died. All the Sisters were transported away and later sent to Druja.