Franciszek Antczak was sent to KL Stutthof – Aussenlager Poelitz for helping Jews. He never returned.

Franciszek Antczak lived with his family in Nowy Boguszyn in the Płońsk District (Landkreis Plöhnen). On the evening of 3 November 1942, he was asked for help by Moszek Kuperman (an acquaintance of his) and Josek Lewin, two Jews who had escaped from the Czerwińsk ghetto.

Antczak agreed to hide them in the barn. He also provided them with food. The hiding place was not safe, however, as gendarmerie patrols regularly appeared in the area. Faced with the increasing likelihood that the fugitives would be discovered, Antczak decided that it would be better to move the Jews hiding with him to the farm of his sister Zofia Szkop, who lived in Kolonia Nacpolsk.

At the beginning of March 1944, the hiding place in the Szkops’ house was discovered. Gestapo officers arrested Zofia Szkop and Josek Lewin, who was hiding in the bunker. Less than a month later, they also captured Kazimierz Szkop. In the course of the investigation, the German secret police also established that Franciszek Antczak had been involved in hiding Jews. He was arrested on 27 March 1944. His daughter, Anna Antczak-Żaczek, testified after the war: I don’t remember the date, it was in the winter of 1944 – a Gestapo car pulled up in front of our house. I don’t know where these Germans had come from. Later, there were rumors in the village that it was the Gestapo from Płock. I don’t know those Germans from the Gestapo. When my father saw them through the window, he ran away into the fields. I was only in the house for a while. I saw one of the Germans approach my mother. Mother fell over. I escaped from the house and – as I was running away, I got caught on the fence and hung there by my dress until my brother found me. One of those Jews was with the Gestapo at the time. I think it was Kuperman, he was in handcuffs. On that day, the Germans took only my mother. They held her in custody in Czerwińsk. The next day, my father himself reported to the Gestapo in Czerwińsk, hoping they would release our mother in exchange for him. As he left, he said that he would not be able to bring us up himself. That evening, my mother returned and my father was arrested (1).

Initially, Franciszek Antczak was placed under preventive arrest for an indefinite period. A Gestapo report stated: “Antczak has proved that although he is a Pole, he is in favor of Jewishness and the strengthening of its role. Furthermore, he has presented himself as a person who does not wish to participate in the peaceful reconstruction of the incorporated eastern territories. Should he be released, it is to be expected that he will continue his practice (sheltering people from outside the village or bandits). Referring him to a concentration camp – level II – is therefore both urgent and necessary” (2). On 26 April 1944, Franciszek Antczak was transported from Płock prison to the Stutthof concentration camp. He stayed there until at least the end of July 1944. He was then sent to a branch of the camp located in Police near Szczecin (Außenlager Pölitz), where prisoners worked in a synthetic petrol plant. There was a high mortality rate due to the terrible sanitary conditions and the devastating work. Franciszek’s last letter to his family is dated 5 January 1945. It has not been possible to establish the exact date of his death.

Franciszek Antczak was commemorated by the Pilecki Institute on 26 September 2024 in Nacpolsk (click here for coverage of the ceremony).