The Marian Martyrs of Rosica

37 Blessed George Kaszyra ple for death. They were allowed to go in and out of the church freely. Soldiers were separating younger and healthy persons for labor and driving them away to the train station, while the chil- dren and the older and frailer people were taken by sledges to nearby wooden buildings. There, they were locked in and shot or killed with grenades. The bodies of the dead were doused with gasoline and burned. Many people were burned alive. Those who tried to run away were shot. Children were thrown into the fire on bayonets. It was in such circumstances that Fr. Anthony Leszczewicz died in the afternoon on Wednesday, February 17. As he was taken away, he bid goodbye to the Sisters, telling them to be brave and to pray. Later in the evening, Fr. George Kaszyra, who had been removed a few hours earlier, came back and said: “Father Leszczewicz is already dead and tomorrow I won’t be alive either.” All night he stayed awake in a prayer vigil. He was prostrat- ing himself, kneeling, and praying, according to Sr. Wirszuto who was present. She testified: “On Thursday, February 18, Fr. Kaszyra brought the Blessed Sacrament to the church and dis- tributed it among us. At 10 o’clock he was taken away. He was ordered to get up on a sledge and that is how he was driven away, among other horse carts. He said farewell to us, then turned toward Druja and said: ‘Pray and beg God’s pardon for my sins, because I will be standing before God in judgment in a few minutes.’ Father Kaszyra was in the first cart. They went uphill and turned right. A brief moment later fire erupted, and one of the shacks stood in flames.” Father Kaszyra, along with a group of approximately 30 people, was locked in a wooden house belonging to the Hadzuk family, on the right side of a side street, close to the main road. Some people were shot and killed by soldiers or died when a grenade was thrown inside. The building, doused with gasoline and then ignited, burned completely. The charred bodies were stacked in the backyard of the burned house. Lidia, whose mother owned the house and perished there, saw them as she