A history of my mother’s paternal uncle Paweł Łojko

Unfortunately, as of today, we do not have much information about my mother’s uncle, Paweł Łojko.

He was likely born in 1920 or 1921.

He was the younger brother of my grandfather, Michał Łojko (I wrote about him in a post regarding the history of my grandparents, who were displaced from Hutków and held in German captivity).

As a young man, he joined the *Junacy*—the *Junackie Hufce Pracy* (JHP)—a Polish paramilitary youth organization active between 1936 and 1939.

From the stories told by my late uncles, I know that just before the outbreak of World War II, their uncle Paweł would say almost nothing at home about what they did in the *Junacy*, claiming the information was classified. In 1939, he was 18, or at most 19, years old.

He was killed near Antoniówka in September 1939, shot by the Nazis.

The bodies of many of the fallen lay in deep pits. Risking his life, my grandfather Michał—Paweł’s older brother—drove a horse-drawn cart there at night; he spent a long time moving the bodies of the fallen aside until he found his brother Paweł’s body at the very bottom.

He quietly transported his brother’s body to the cemetery in Krasnobród and, with a priest present, laid him to rest—naturally, doing so secretly under the cover of darkness.

To this day, whenever we visit the Krasnobród cemetery, we always light a memorial candle on his grave.