The Gypsies of Blechnarka

Anna Szczur told her son, Emil, where she was born, but little else about her family. On

Emil’s first visit to Blechnarka, he met a lady who knew quite a bit about his family. Several

subsequent visits and a couple of interviews led to the following story.

One night in 1942, a group of Nazi occupiers came into the village of Blechnarka and asked

where the Bartog family lived. There were two houses next to each other that were pointed out,

and the German soldiers went to the homes, rounded up all of the people (22 in all - mostly

children), and took them back to Uscie Ruskie.

Mrs. Jakubiec explained that Carol Siwak, a relative of the Bartogs had also gone with or

followed the family, and returned to report that they were all executed - shot at the top of a

ravine in Czarna. The bodies were covered with dirt, and as far as we know, the bones of the

Gypsy victims still lie in that ravine.

Twenty year old, Anna Bartog, and her teenage brother, Macary, had gone to Germany

earlier to work in the labor camps. One of the mothers was also away that night. When

Alexandra returned, she wandered from village to village asking what became of her family, then

died of a broken heart a couple of months later. Macary ended up in a German concentration

camp. He was “liberated” by Russians, and spent some time in one of their camps (prisons?).

Sometime around 1960, he returned to Blechnarka for a visit, apparently unaware that he no

longer had a family. Presently the Red Cross is trying to locate him for Emil.

The Bartogs, a Roma clan, had assimilated into Lemko culture during the 19th century. They

were well liked, industrious, belonged to the Greek Catholic Church, and contributed to the

community. Apparently, their only “sin” was having a name that was identified as being of

Gypsy heritage. The German

Einsatzgruppen was a military unit that covered the rear of the

advancing army front, looking for spies and other impediments to the German advance. I believe

that this organization might have been responsible for the massacre. Documents from the