On 21st August we lit candles at the monument commemorating a horrible execution from the time of World War II. On August 21st, 1941, in Biegonice near Nowy Sącz Nazis shot more than 40 people. BOLESŁAW BARBACKI was one of those people.

With this execution Germans wanted to punish, terrorize and devastate the Poles. On August 20th, 1941, at 5 PM unexpecting Poles kept in Nowy Sącz prison were informed, that they will be shot the next day. The prisoners were locked in the second floor cells and denied their last meal. Through the night Poles prayed, sang religious songs and confessed to the priests kept with them – doctor Kazimierz Gomółka noted.

Father Bernacki from Grybów, who was also imprisoned in Nowy Sącz, left a report concerning those tragic events. “… the day of August 20th came. The door opened and 20 names of prisoners from our cells were called. All of them hostages from Nowy Sącz. 24 from other cells, 44 people in total. They were left in those two cells and we, the rest, including all of the hostages from Grybów were taken to the second floor to number 9. We assumed different scenarios, we didn’t know what happened to them, maybe they were taken to the camp… The next day they brought us back to those cells. On our way we saw clothes, the cells were in a great disorder. Lots of personal items, we were very surprised they didn’t take them with. On a wall we saw a little cross drawn with one prisoner’s name. We though that he tried to escape and was shot, as we heard a shot in the morning… Two days later when setting out the plates, on one of them we saw 20 names or so scratched in the aluminum on the plate’s back by each person’s own hand and signed: shot on day 21st, inform our families. Despite hunger we couldn’t eat, the mystery was solved. They were shot, so have they written, as hostages, despite the perpetrator being caught. It was one Zatorski from Warsaw… So they shot 44, three priests and our great painter Barbacki, who made our portraits even in prison.”
cited after: A. Totoń, Chryzantym Uhacz i Roman Uhacz – przyjaciele Bolesława Barbackiego, Stary Sącz 2014, p. 18

In the Biegonice execution more than 40 people were shot. Bolesław Barbacki, photographer Furmanek and doctor Teodor Słowikowski were killed then. This barbaric execution was a terrible blow to the citizens of Nowy Sącz. After the war, in 1945 bodies from the mass grave in Biegonice were exhumed and moved to the Nowy Sącz old cemetery.