The statue of Major “Baca” is situated in Chodenice district in the street named after him. It commemorates the major’s death which took place on 5th August 1944. The hero died at the hands of German police.
JAN KACZMARCZYK “Baca” (1912 – 1944) was an officer of the Polish Army and soldier of the Home Army. He was born on 3rd June 1912 in Chodenice. He was a son of Jan and Katarzyna Pałkowski. and had to take care of the family household at an early age as his father died during World War I. He attended a common school and a lower secondary school in Bochnia where he passed his matura exam in 1931. An enthusiast of football, he built a football pitch and set up the “Chodenice” sports club together with a group of friends. In 1933 he started training in the school of Infantry Cadets Reserves in Zambrów and in 1934 in the vocational school of Infantry Cadets in Ostrów Mazowiecka. After finishing the school he became the commander of the platoon of cavalry scouts in the 45th infantry regiment in Równe (Wołyń). In this formation, as a lieutenant, he fought in the Polish-German war of 1939. After his unit was destroyed, he made a successful escape from a transport of prisoners taken into German captivity. He was unable to get to Hungary, so as a result he came back to his hometown and to Chodenice. “Baca” married Paulina from the Polak’s family, the couple met in Równe. Later they had a daughter Janina (married, Smith). He worked in the family household but quickly joined the conspiracy actions of ZWZ-AK. In 1943 he was promoted to captain and used the pseudonym “Baca”. He was the headmaster of Bochnia’s school of Infantry Cadets and the commander of the III battalion “Motyl” 12th infantry regiment of the Home Army.
Kaczmarczyk died on 5th August 1944 as a result of an accident. Several dozen SS soldiers from the battalion “Galizien” stationed in Damienice (Ukrainians and Azerbaijani called Kalmuks) were bathing in the Raba river as it was a hot day. A 6-person combat-subversive troop of KOS (Kierownictwo Oporu Społecznego) was crossing the river on a ferryboat under the leadership of Alojzy Świerkot, nicknamed “Ryś”. When the leader of Kalmuks demanded documents someone fired a shot at him. A gun fight started, and as a result, a few Kalmuks were killed and wounded. In retaliation, they started an aggresive pursuit of the runaways. As it was harvest time Jan Kaczmarczyk was harvesting the grain. When he heard the shooting he tried to hide in a cellar of a nearby house. The pursuers assumed him to be one of the partisans from the ferryboat, probably because Jan Kaczmarczyk was wearing shoes, shirt and a hat similar to the ones that the running partisans were wearing. He was beaten and then shot. The place is marked by a granite obelisk unveiled on 8th November 1959. Jan Kaczmarczyk is buried in XX quarter of the municipal cemetery in Oracka street.
He was awarded the Virtuti Militari and the Golden Cross of Merit with Swords, and posthumously promoted to major. Apart from the obelisk and street names his person is also commemorated by a sports memorial organised from 1994 by sports enthusiasts from Chodenice and Bochnia’s local authorities.
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