Tarnów: Jewish Heritage of Galicia

Zaplanuj wizytę Heritage Journeys

Jewish presence in Tarnów reaches back to the late fifteenth century, when Hetman Jan Tarnowski granted the first settlement privileges. Across the following centuries the community grew into one of the most significant in Lesser Poland, with life organised around the Jewish quarter between Żydowska, Wekslarska and Wałowa streets. The Old Synagogue, built in the early seventeenth century in the Mannerist style, was the heart of this quarter — with a freestanding bimah resting on four columns, characteristic of Galician synagogues. Under Habsburg rule from 1772, Tarnów became an important rabbinic centre. In the first half of the nineteenth century Rabbi Aryeh Leib Lipschitz led a house of study here that drew students from across Galicia. The community was divided between traditional Orthodoxy, Hasidic movements (notably Dzikov and Sanz) and, from the late nineteenth century, the emerging maskilim — Jewish Enlightenment. A network of institutions took shape over the same period: a hospital, orphanage, a co-operative credit union, and more than a dozen cheders and yeshivot. The interwar years brought a flowering of secular Jewish culture. The Tarbut Hebrew gymnasium operated alongside the Maccabi sports club, two Jewish daily papers, and Zionist movements of every orientation — from the religious Mizrachi to the left-wing Poalei Zion. In the 1931 census, Jews accounted for forty-five per cent of the town's 55,000 residents. The community ran its own shops, workshops, law practices and clinics. Jewish craftsmanship — tailoring, furriery, watchmaking, leather trade — supplied the market of Tarnów and the surrounding towns of central Galicia. German occupation began on 8 September 1939. By November the Old Synagogue had been burned, leaving only the masonry bimah. In the summer of 1940 the Germans imposed forced labour and the Star of David armband. The ghetto was established in March 1941 within the historic Jewish quarter, eventually confining up to forty thousand Jews from Tarnów and its surrounding towns. The first mass execution, on 11 June 1942, lasted six days of shootings at the cemetery and in the Krzyż forest, claiming more than twelve thousand lives. Further deportations to Bełżec continued from June to September 1942. The ghetto was finally liquidated in September 1943, with the last residents deported to Auschwitz and Płaszów. After the war about two hundred survivors returned to Tarnów — mostly from the Soviet Union and the camps. The majority emigrated to Israel and the United States between 1946 and 1957. Today there is no active Jewish community in Tarnów. Memory is sustained by the Committee for the Care of Jewish Cultural Monuments and the Regional Museum, which since 2003 has carried out systematic documentation of the cemetery and memorial sites. The bimah of the Old Synagogue, standing alone in the open air on Żydowska Street, remains one of the most affecting monuments to absence in Poland.

The Tarnów ghetto was established in March 1941 within the historic Jewish quarter, between Lwowska, Folwarczna and Wałowa streets. The Germans initially confined about twenty-five thousand residents of Tarnów, and in the following months added Jews from the surrounding towns — Brzesko, Dąbrowa Tarnowska, Ryglice, Tuchów — raising the population to around forty thousand. The first mass killing operation began on 11 June 1942. Over six days the Germans carried out shootings at the New Jewish Cemetery and in the Krzyż forest on the outskirts of the town, murdering more than twelve thousand people — chiefly the sick, the elderly and children. The remainder were deported the same week to the death camp at Bełżec. Further deportations followed in September and November 1942. Final liquidation of the ghetto took place on 2-3 September 1943. The remaining seven thousand or so residents were divided: those fit for work were sent to Płaszów, the rest to Auschwitz-Birkenau. The Square of the Ghetto Heroes, the former assembly point before deportations, today commemorates these events. Of the twenty-five thousand Tarnów Jews, about two hundred survived the war.

A visit to Tarnów asks for preparation and quiet. All memorial sites remain open to visitors, but the Old Jewish Cemetery and the New Jewish Cemetery require advance contact with the Committee for the Care of Jewish Cultural Monuments in Tarnów to arrange opening. Admission is free, with a voluntary donation toward cemetery upkeep being customary. Etiquette: men cover their heads when entering a cemetery (kippah, cap or hat — available on site). One does not walk on graves. One does not photograph people at prayer. On Shabbat (Friday evening to Saturday evening) some sites may be closed. A visit to the bimah of the Old Synagogue requires no kippah or particular formality. Recommended day plan: depart Kraków at eight in the morning, one hour and twenty minutes by Mercedes V-Class on the A4 motorway. The first hour — the Square of the Ghetto Heroes and the bimah of the Old Synagogue in the town centre. Then a walk through the former Jewish quarter (Żydowska, Wekslarska and Wałowa streets). Lunch at one of the restaurants on the Market Square — Bristol or Restauracja Pasaż. In the afternoon, the New Jewish Cemetery (an hour and a half) and the Old Cemetery (forty minutes). Return to Kraków by about six in the evening. For those tracing family roots, the Regional Museum in Tarnów holds an archive of pre-war Jewish documents, accessible by prior appointment. The Karta Centre in Warsaw and the YIVO Institute in New York hold complementary collections relating to the Tarnów community.

Mercedes V-Class from Kraków to Tarnów is one hour and twenty minutes on the A4 motorway, heading east. The 86-kilometre route runs through Wieliczka, Bochnia and Brzesko. Rush-hour traffic around Kraków (07:00-09:00 and 15:30-17:30) can extend the journey by fifteen to twenty-five minutes — we recommend departure at eight in the morning or after nine-thirty. Parking in central Tarnów: the largest free car park is on Bernardyńska Street (two hundred metres from the Market Square). Paid spaces are available at Plac Sobieskiego and on Wałowa Street. The Mercedes V-Class fits in all standard bays — it does not require oversized SUV spaces. Recommended transfer duration: nine to ten hours door-to-door. Departure at eight from your hotel in Kraków, return between five and six in the evening. The driver waits in Tarnów throughout the day — he does not return to Kraków between sites. For visitors who need more time at the cemeteries or in the Regional Museum archive, a two-day transfer with overnight stay in Tarnów is available (Hotel Bristol Tradition in the centre or Hotel Tarnovia outside the Old Town).