Jan Jakub Semik lived in Limanowa (Małopolskie Province), where he worked as a postman. In the early days of the war, on 6 September 1939. The Germans arrested nine Jews. They brutally dealt with them in deed and in word while loading them onto a car. Jan Semik acted upon seeing the behaviour of the Germans. He stood up for the Jews, for which he was taken with them to the forest near the village of Mordarka and shot there.