The Marian Martyrs of Rosica

137 Memoir Finally, to console me, he added : “I’ll do what has to be done, and I’ll come back with Fr. Kaszyra the day after tomor- row.” The next day, we each went on our way. He went to Rosica, and I went to Druja. We saw each other one last time. “We’ll, hold on. Pray for us,” he said, as we parted. “Please, Father, come back to Dryssa today. Tomorrow it may be too late,” I pleaded. And so the day of sacrifice and martyrdom of our Fr. Anthony Leszczewicz and George Kaszyra arrived. What should I write about it? Many years have now passed, and the reports about the heroic end of their missionary work were so scanty. All we had were just bits and pieces of information. As for Fr. George, we assume that he was shot and killed and then burned along with other people at the edge of Rosica. Nobody knows how Fr. Anthony died. We only know that he did not come out alive after the punitive action. Was he consumed in Hitler’s living torch when several dozen people were locked up in a barn, doused with gasoline, and burned alive? There’s some evidence for that. Was he shot and killed, or murdered in some other way? Only God knows, and only God knows where his ashes are. Where did he meet the SS men coming back to Rosica? Was he arrested immediately? Suffice to say that when he arrived in Rosica, he landed right in the middle of the expeditionary force. People from all the villages had already been rounded up there. They would be penned up like cattle. The young and able-bod- ied would be taken to Germany, and all the others would be murdered. The church was the assembly site. They led every- body into it. What terrible scenes were played out there? Wails and cries, the whimpering of children and the lamenting of the old people must have filled the church. It was to them that Fr. Anthony came. Fr. George was already in the church.