The Baran Wilderness near Kąkolewnica is one of several places in the Lublin region that has become a permanent record of brutal crimes committed by the communist apparatus of terror.

After the Soviet army entered the Lublin region in July 1944, a puppet substitute for a government subordinate to Moscow was installed in the form of the Polish Committee of National Liberation (PKWN).  Among other things, the Polish communists took steps to expand the Polish army units created in the Soviet Union.

In September 1944, under an order from Lieutenant General Michał Rola – Żymierski (who had been convicted of financial embezzlement before World War II), troops of the 2nd Polish Army began to be formed on the territory of the Lublin Voivodeship. The headquarters of this formation were based in Kąkolewnica, a village some 80 km north of Lublin.

Together with the formation of the units of the 2nd Army, the creation of the structures of the Military Court of this army began in Kozłówka near Lubartów. It was presided by Lt. Col. Stefan Piekarski, who had been an officer in the Soviet army since 1920. At the beginning of October 1944, the court moved to Kąkolewnica, following the entire staff of the 2nd Army. At the same time, the actions of the repression apparatus against the soldiers of the Home Army and other independence formations intensified. They also affected members of the Polish independence underground who did not recognise the authority of the communists and were incorporated into the units of the 2nd Army.

In these actions, a special role was entrusted to Military Information, which consisted in the vast majority of Soviet functionaries and the military judicial apparatus. Detainees were imprisoned in inhumane conditions and subjected to brutal torture during investigations. It is assumed that some 250-300 people passed through the detention centre in Kąkolewnica. During at least 102 proceedings held in Kąkolewnica, 144 people were sentenced in the 2nd Polish Army Court, 61 of whom were sentenced to death. 43 death sentences were carried out in the Kąkolewnica area.

After the relocation of 2nd Army units in early 1945, they made efforts to erase the traces of this monstrous crime.