During World War II nearly 90% of all Bakałarzewo buildings were destroyed by 1945. During the German occupation, the Germans arrested the local parish priest in late 1939, then imprisoned him in Stary Folwark and Suwałki until January 1940 and murdered him in the forest near the village of Krzywe nearby. Young Polish priest was arrested in April 1940, and then imprisoned in the Soldau, Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps, however, he survived and eventually returned to Poland. Bakałarzewo was an important center of the Home Army, and on May 25, 1944, German soldiers killed 12 Home Army members (see "Nazi crimes against the Polish nation").