Jewish traces

Dabrowa Tarnowska
Jewish cemetery in Dąbrowa Tarnowska (known for Jewish assemblies that took place here for many years). According to different sources it was set up at the turn of the 17 th and 18 th century. Till present day at the area of more than 2 ha several dozen matzev ot and an ohel rebuilt by rabbi Mendel Reichberg. The ohel is a burial place for Dawid - the first tzadik of Dąbrowa who died in 1843, his son Jozef who died in 1876 and Mojżesz Eliakim who died in 1917. The cemetery was devastated by the Nazis who used gravestones to harden roads. There are mass graves of Jews murdered during the Second World War situated here. There are also two monuments commemorating victims of Holocaust that were founded by Congregation of Moses Confession and Leon Schindler who lives in Israel . Opposite the entrance to the cemetery there is a ruined synagogue built in 1865 according to the project of Abraham Goldstein. Inside beautiful polychromes with floral and animal motifs can be found.
The Jews of Tarnow
Before World War II, about 25,000 Jews lived in Tarnow. Jews, whose recorded presence in the town went back to the mid-fifteenth century, comprised about half of the town's total population. A large portion of Jewish business in Tarnow was devoted to garment and hat manufacturing. The Jewish community was ideologically diverse and included both religious Hasidim and secular Zionists. Immediately following the German occupation of the city on September 8, 1939, the persecution of the Jews began. German units burned down most of the city's synagogues on September 9 and drafted Jews for forced-labor projects. Tarnow was incorporated into the General Government. Many Tarnow Jews fled to the east, while a large influx of refugees from elsewhere in occupied Poland continued to increase the town's Jewish population. In early November, the Germans ordered the establishment of a Jewish council (Judenrat) to transmit orders and regulations to the Jewish community. Among the duties of the Jewish council were enforcement of special taxation on the community and providing workers for forced labor. During 1941, life for the Jews of Tarnow became increasingly precarious. The Germans imposed a large collective fine on the community. Jews were required to hand in their valuables. Roundups for labor became more frequent and killings became more commonplace and arbitrary. Deportations from Tarnow began in June 1942, when about 13,500 Jews were sent to the Belzec extermination camp. The introductory act of this crime was the so-called "first operation" from 11-19 of June 1942. The Germans gathered thousands of Jews on the Rynek (market place) who were then tortured and killed in a cruel manner. In this time period, on th streets of the town and on the Jewish cemetery about 3,000 persons were shot; in the woods of Zbylitowska Gora a few kilometers away from Tarnow a further 7,000 were murdered. A panel of the Batorego Foundation placed at the entry of the Bimah publishes a document from Michal Borawski, born in 1926, witnessing that the stair steps (małe schody or little stairs) from the town center to the Bernardynski street where the Bernardine Monastery is located, had to be cleaned of the blood by the local fire brigade during three days. After the June deportations, the Germans ordered the surviving Jews in Tarnow, along with thousands of Jews from neighboring towns, into a ghetto. The ghetto was surrounded by a high wooden fence. Living conditions in the ghetto were poor, marked by severe food shortages, a lack of sanitary facilities, and a forced-labor regimen in factories and workshops producing goods for the German war industry. In September 1942, the Germans ordered all ghetto residents to report at Targowica Square, where they were subjected to a "Selektion" (selection) in which those deemed "unessential" were selected out for deportation to Belzec. About 8,000 people were deported. Thereafter, deportations from Tarnow to extermination camps continued sporadically; the Germans deported a group of 2,500 in November 1942. In the midst of the 1942 deportations, some Jews in Tarnow organized a Jewish resistance movement. Many of the resistance leaders were young Zionists involved in the Hashomer Hatzair youth movement. Many of those who left the ghetto to join the partisans fighting in the forests later fell in battle with SS units. Other resisters sought to establish escape routes to Hungary, but with limited success. The Germans decided to destroy the Tarnow ghetto in September 1943. The surviving 10,000 Jews were deported, 7,000 of them to Auschwitz and 3,000 to the Plaszow concentration camp in Krakow. In late 1943, Tarnow was declared "free of Jews" (Judenrein). By the end of the war, the overwhelming majority of Tarnow Jews had been murdered by the Germans. Although 700 Jews returned in 1945, some of them soon left the city and headed mostly to Israel.
http://www.muzeum.tarnow.pl/judaica/przewodnik/english.htm

Bobowa
Situated on a hill in a picturesque location is an old Jewish cemetery which contains beautiful and interesting headstones (matzeva), making it one of the most interesting Polish necropolises. At one time, the Jewish residents of Bobowa represented nearly half of the inhabitants living in the village. In 1784, Franciszek Letowski wrote the following: "They (Jews) are allowed to trade and do business in the importing and selling of goods, distilling alcohol, serving and selling beer and wine in barrels imported from Hungary" . Bobowa was also one of the most important centers of an Hassidic Dynasty made up of local tzaddiks started by Solomon Halbersztam, which today has many supporters in Israel, New York City, Montreal, Miami, Torono, Antwerp and London. There are still many Jews who hum "niguns" (characteristic Hassidic musical compositions) that originated in Bobowa. Before the Holocaust in Poland, the village was home to a yeshiva, notable as a historic centre of Hasidism, created and led by the Tsadik of Bobov. In 1900 the Jewish population of Bobowa numbered 749. The Jewish cemetery in Bobowa dates back to the 19th century and is located on a hill in the hamlet of Paulonki. Many of the headstones/matzeva are made from marble, granite or sandstone and still can be seen there. At the cemetery there are buried tzaddik Solomon Halbersztam and Chaim Jakob, Jewish soldiers from the time of the First World War as well as victims of the Holocaust. The cemetery was recently tided up. It is worth seeing the synagogue in Bobowa which was built partly from stone and partly from wood. Located inside, there is a beautiful Aron-Ha-Kodesz along with a collection of Jewish items. Bobowa is also one of two (besides Koniakow) villages in Poland famous for traditional art of lace-making. Since 2000 it houses an annual Bobbin lace Festival
Nowy Sacz
The regional Jewish community numbered about 25,000 before the World War II, and nearly a third of the town's population had been Jewish; ninety percent of them died or did not return. A ghetto of around 20,000 people was established near the castle, and was liquidated to Belzec extermination camp on three days in August 1942. Across the river in the Jewish Cemetery, 300-500 people were executed for their part in sheltering Jews.
The town has many historic features, including:
• One of the largest marketplaces in Europe, after Krakow, the largest rynek in Poland. The late 19th century Ratusz (city hall) is centered in the square.
• The Great Synagogue, dating from 1746, now the Galeria Dawna Synagoga, a gallery with some historical displays. There is a memorial tablet on the front in Polish, Hebrew, and Yiddish. Across the Kamienica River is the Jewish cemetery.