The Gestapo considered him a "dangerous bandit" because he made it easier for a Jewish friend to escape from the ghetto. A manhunt began, during which the Germans brutally beat up Franciszek Pyrek's parents and tortured his wife. The woman was seven months pregnant. Finally she got two shots to the head and two to the chest ...
When Stanisław Pyrek returned home as a released sailor, he immediately found himself under the special supervision of gendarmes and Gestapo officers from Zakliczyn, so he had nothing to think about actively joining the conspiracy. Anyway, the whole Pyrka family was already targeted by the occupiers.
His brother Franciszek, who was thirteen years older (born on December 6, 1906), was wanted by the Gestapo as a dangerous "bandit" who committed a particularly serious "crime" - he smuggled a gun into the ghetto for a Jewish friend. The Zakliczyn ghetto was a gathering point for the Jewish population from this part of Małopolska. Those imprisoned here were then transported to Tarnów or directly to Auschwitz.
Franciszek's friend from the army was in one of the next transports to Zakliczyn. A former gunsmith of the 2nd Air Regiment decided to help him and smuggled a gun into the ghetto, which he was hiding under the roof of his father's forge. Pyrek's friend, an athletic military man, was a man determined to do everything. So he decided to take a risk and escape from the ghetto.
In Zakliczyn there was one street closed on both sides. Behind the buildings facing it, an empty space stretched five hundred meters in length, and the Dunajec River, densely overgrown with willows on both sides, ran further. When a truck with SS men arrived on the street to take another group of Jews to Auschwitz, suddenly a man with a gun jumped out of one of the gates. Before the Germans shook off the shock and started shooting, he had already managed to run to the river and jump into its swift current.
The Gestapo officers in the following days bent over backwards to find out who ridiculed their comrades with dead heads on their hats by smuggling weapons into the ghetto. And they found out, so the family of a blacksmith from Lusławice was under special “protection”. Everyone then believed that the Jewish fugitive had been captured and had handed over his accomplice under torture. The truth, however, was to be completely different.
Wanted dead or alive
Franciszek Pyrek was not officially sworn in to the Home Army during the action with a pistol, and when he became its soldier as corporal "Jóźko", he was also the most hunted by the Germans in the vicinity of Zakliczyn.
The fact that he was not arrested immediately by the Gestapo was due to the commander of the blue police from Zakliczyn-Jeliczka, who at the same time collaborated with the Home Army. He warned Aleksander Pyrek not to let his son show up at home under any circumstances, because he was being followed by the Gestapo. The son obeyed and started to hide, but not entirely, because he would visit his family house from time to time.
The Zakliczyn ghetto was a gathering point for the Jewish population from this part of Małopolska. Those imprisoned here were then transported to Tarnów or directly to Auschwitz.
Luckily, it was on the day of such a visit that Gestapo cars arrived in front of the forge in Lusławice. Franciszek did not manage to escape, but fortunately for him, commandant Jeliczko came along with the Gestapo men. There were always four or five blacksmith's helpers or apprentices working in the forge and Franciszek impersonated one of them. Jeliczko immediately approached him and, pretending that he did not know who he was, asked:"Where is Franek?" "Jóźko" caught a trick on the flight and replied:"He went to Łuk with the cow to the bull".
Franciszek had actually visited the farmer with the cow an hour earlier. The Gestapo officers immediately got into the cars and drove to the address indicated. Łuka confirmed to them that young Pyrek was with him, but he had already left about half an hour ago. Before the Germans returned to the forge, Franciszek managed to hide in the thickets by the Dunajec River. Thanks to the commander, Jeliczka saved his life for the first time. The Gestapo, however, took a parole on him and began to visit the Pyrek's house and forge regularly. It also got more and more dangerous with each subsequent visit.
The filthy son
During one of the raids, the Germans beat Aleksander and Katarzyna to blood. Maybe they would even be beaten to death if Stanisław, who had learned a little German in captivity, had not entered the house. and begged the torturers to spare his parents. When the Germans heard that he had served in the navy, they gave up, but announced that if his brother did not voluntarily report to the Gestapo in Zakliczyn, they would not hesitate to finish the work next time.
The Pyreks did not know how to get out of this tragic situation. Then Stanisław had an idea. He went to the Gestapo and said that his brother showed up at home yesterday. He took all his father's money and cheated on him. He was also supposed to say goodbye that he didn't care about his family at all, that they might be dying! In short, he introduced Franciszek to the Gestapo officers as a degenerate son, and he did it so evocatively that not only did they believe it, but also his older brother later held a grudge against him. Stanisław, however, achieved the intended goal - the Gestapo officers continued to invade the house, but they did not scare the household members with death.
The hunt, however, continued, but "Jóźko" had an amazing instinct, fortitude and luck. All attempts to capture him, both in 1942 and in 1943, failed. Sometimes the manhunts were really close to success.
Don't run far
Once during the harvest, Franciszek helped one of the farmers in threshing and after work he was allowed to spend the night in the barn. Unfortunately, someone reported to the Gestapo where the "bandit" is wanted. "Jóźko" slept under the roof itself, on a high pile of sheaves of grain. He prudently ripped off two boards from the side of the barn, so that he would have an easier escape route if necessary. In the morning he was awakened by a murmur. The barn was surrounded by German gendarmerie and blue police. The gendarmes were already stabbing the straw with bayonets.
The text is an excerpt from the book by Piotr Korczyński "I survived the war ... The last soldiers of fighting Poland", which has just been published by the Znak Horyzont publishing house.
He was then saved by the fog that enveloped the entire area. Franciszek had a pistol and two grenades with him, but chose not to use them. He jumped from the haystack, straight onto the back of the navy blue policeman. He stunned him and on all fours got out through the hole in the boards made earlier . Bullets whistled next to his head, but the fog did not allow the Germans to aim well.
A hundred meters from the barn a river was flowing and "Jóźko" hid in one of the pits carved in its steep bank. The Germans searched the river along and across the whole day, but they did not detect the fugitive. Do not run far - it was a proven method that "Jóźko" stuck to with success. Another time, during a chase, he climbed a tree and the gendarmes were circling him, thankfully not looking up.
After several more unsuccessful attempts to capture "Jóźek", the Gestapo changed tactics. They arrested his young wife, eighteen-year-old Irena nee Szczerba, who was seven months pregnant. The young people met during the war, in 1940, and they got married on August 15, 1942. When Franciszek began to be wanted by the Gestapo, Irena lived all the time with his parents in Lusławice. The Gestapo arrested her a few days before her first wedding anniversary, on August 12. Even though she was heavily pregnant, she was beaten and thrown into the arrest of the Grodzki Court in Zakliczyn.
"Jóźko" was literally several hours late, as he had planned to take his wife out of Lusławice on that day. He was even prepared for a possible fight with the Gestapo, as he came home with a few armed friends. Unfortunately, after taking Irena to Zakliczyn, there was little he could do.
Private war with Germany
In prison, the woman was still subjected to heavy investigation. During the visits, the family urged her to renounce her husband and thus save herself and her unborn child . Irena, however, refused to agree, saying that she would have turned out to be an unfaithful wife. Anyway, she did not know where her husband was hiding, but during one of the next brutal interrogations, unable to withstand the beating, she shouted that he was with his brother Leopold in Brzesko.
The Gestapo officers immediately dragged her to the car and drove to Brzesko. They found Leopold Pork and his wife in the apartment, but there was no trace of Franciszek. They started torturing the household members, but they did not know anything about the relatives they were looking for. They testified that he did visit them about two months ago, but since then they have not seen him at all.
Then the Gestapo stated that Irena had to bring them to Brzesko on purpose in order to confuse the trail. One of them flew up to her and shouted, "Shit, you won't lead us by the nose!" He grabbed her arm and led her behind the farm building. There, drew a pistol and shot her twice in the head and then twice in the chest.
Stanisław Pyrek's brother, "Jóźko" had an amazing instinct, fortitude and happiness. All attempts to capture him, both in 1942 and in 1943, failed.
Leopold's neighbor Pyrek, who had watched the scene from hiding, later said that for another fifteen minutes the child was jiggling in the womb of the already dead mother, and finally suffocated. The Germans forbade to clean up Irena's body at once, only after a few hours the Gestapo from Tarnów agreed.
The name of the one who murdered Irena Pyrek was Wilhelm Heinrich Rommelmann. A pre-war German policeman in the Gestapo in Zakliczyn was responsible for the so-called special actions - including the liquidation of the Tarnów Roma and the ghetto in Zakliczyn. After the war he was captured and it was proved during the trial that he had personally killed fifty Poles, Roma and Jews. In 1947 he was sentenced to death. The sentence was carried out by hanging in Tarnów. Rommelmann also handled the Franciszek Pork case.
“Jóźko”, when he heard about the death of his wife and child, despaired terribly that he had not managed to save them from the persecutors. He cursed his luck, which allowed him to wait for this terrible moment, but after the first moment of the collapse, it was time for retaliation - Corporal Pyrek went on the path of revenge.
He no longer had to flee from the Gestapo, he became a soldier of the 1st Battalion of the 16th Home Army Infantry Regiment "Barbara" of captain Eugeniusz Borowski "Leliwa". Private war with Germany made him one of the best soldiers in the unit. As a reward, the commander entrusted him with driving a truck, which they had captured on the Germans in one of the ambushes. "Jóźko" used her to get supplies from various hiding places in Brzesko, Tarnów, and sometimes as far as Gorlice or Jasło, each time avoiding German controls and traps.
Source:
The text is an excerpt from the book by Piotr Korczyński I survived the war ... The last soldiers of fighting Poland , which has just been released by the Znak Horyzont publishing house.