Biecz (Baych, Baytsh, Beitsch) | Lesser Poland Voivodeship

“In our town, we lived in relative peace at the beginning of the occupation. But everything changed on January 3, 1942. That day, the Germans entered several Jewish homes and shot eight people they encountered at random. Their names were: the two Heller brothers; Bornstein from Łódź; Gilowa, also from Łódź; the wife of a shoemaker; the mother of three children; Chaim Itzinger with his daughter Regina; and Izak Czesniower. This group came to be known as the "municipal contingent."

Similar murders were taking place in neighboring towns, including Gorlice. A Polish woman from Jasło reported that Dr. Zucker, who had served as a commissioner during Soviet times, was shot on the spot along with his wife. Their daughters were brought to Biecz. On the way, the Germans made them get out and executed them near my house. One of the girls was still alive. My son ran to find a doctor, but her condition was critical. She died half an hour later.

Following this, the commander of the Polish police went to the authorities to report that Jews had attempted to help a girl who had been condemned to death. On February 16, 1942, Polish police officers arrested those involved, including the boys and their families. My son and I were among them. They blackmailed us for money and received a significant sum. Spielman was released immediately. I was let go that evening. The boys were freed later that night.

But then Gestapo officers arrived and ordered the re-arrest of Spielman and his entire family, Hinda Schanaps and her two sons, and my family—seven people in total. We were handcuffed in pairs, and around 7 p.m., all of us were shot. I was the last in line and watched my loved ones die. Spielman, who was handcuffed to me, was shot and fell to the ground, dragging me with him. I fell into a pool of blood. The Germans thought I was dead, but to be sure, they shot me in the shoulder. Then they ordered the Polish police to remove the bodies. The police unlocked the handcuffs from the corpses. Once they were gone, I seized the moment. Though seriously wounded and losing blood, I managed to escape. I walked 20 kilometers to the village of Moszczenica, where a kind-hearted peasant woman, Adela Jędrzejowska, took me in and hid me.

Eyewitnesses later told me that on February 18, 100 Jews were arrested in Biecz. They were held for four days in prison, and their money was confiscated. After four days, 69 of them were shot, including members of the Schützer, Gewürz, Kleinman, and Wagschaller families. The Polish police had carried out the operation themselves. By the time the Gestapo from Jasło arrived, 31 people had already been murdered. The police used the threat of further executions to extort 250,000 złotys from the Jewish population.

A few months later, the Germans arrested and shot 14 more Jews, allegedly because their relatives were communists. Among the victims were Schneider and his family of five, Kurz, Jakobowicz, and Mr. and Mrs. Sagschal.

The liquidation of the Jewish community took place in August. 170 people were shot and buried in the Jewish cemetery. Another 700 were loaded into trains and deported to Bełżec. Those in hiding were found by the police and handed over to the Gestapo.

My brother and I, along with two other Jews, were hiding with Adela Jędrzejowska. About 70 Jews in total were hiding in the village. The commander of the Polish police in that area, Bednarz, received orders to carry out a roundup. He warned us in advance, and we fled Moszczenica. The next day, he gathered 70 peasants armed with pitchforks and instructed them to search the village attics, knowing full well we would be gone. They found no one. Bednarz saved Jewish lives on multiple occasions, even at great personal risk. Eventually, he was blackmailed by the commissioner of the Polish police, Kazmierczak, and removed from his post in the village of Łużna. He was transferred to Jasło. Today, Bednarz is serving as the mayor of Balsdorf, near Kamienna Góra.” [Deposition of Abraham Peller, born in 1894, Jewish survivor, concerning the shootings of Jews perpetrated by the Nazis in 1942 in the village of Biecz; ZIH Warsaw 301_1649]

Biecz is a town and municipality in southeastern Poland, located in Gorlice County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship. It lies within the Carpathian Mountains, in the Doły Jasielsko-Sanockie region, along the Ropa River.

Although historically restricted by the 1569 de non tolerandis Judaeis privilege—which forbade Jewish settlement—Biecz’s Jewish community gradually established itself and flourished, particularly during the interwar period. After a long struggle for the right to reside and engage in trade, the Jewish population steadily grew, reaching approximately 1,300 individuals by the outbreak of World War II (in 1890, Jews made up 14.5% of the town’s population).

The Jews of Biecz made their living primarily through small-scale trade and crafts. Many worked as glaziers, bakers, tailors, and shoemakers, while others leased local mills, tanneries, and weaving facilities. They were also active in the wholesale trade of cattle, hides, timber, tobacco, iron goods, and grain. Following the discovery of oil in the Gorlice region, Jews became involved in the petroleum industry as investors, refinery owners, and laborers.

Biecz was home to several Jewish institutions, including synagogues—among them a wooden synagogue that burned down in 1903 (or 1905) and was later rebuilt with financial support from the Biecz Jewish diaspora in the United States. A second synagogue, known as the House of Prayer and Learning, was constructed in the 1920s. The Jewish cemetery, established in 1879, served as the community’s primary burial ground and was later used to bury victims of wartime executions.

Education was central to the life of Biecz’s Jewish community. Religious schools such as the Talmud-Torah and cheder were active, and a Hebrew school was founded in 1920. A public library followed in 1922. Despite their engagement in the town’s civic and economic life, Jews in Biecz faced growing antisemitism—particularly in the aftermath of the First World War—fueled in part by the Catholic Church. Pogroms occurred, the most severe in 1898, accompanied by acts of vandalism and economic boycotts.

Throughout the interwar period, the Jews of Biecz maintained a distinct cultural identity, visible in their language, clothing, and religious traditions. They formed a vibrant, organized, and resilient community—one whose development and very existence were brutally extinguished during the Holocaust.

After German troops occupied Biecz on September 7, 1939, the persecution of the town’s Jewish population began almost immediately. Some residents who had attempted to flee were forced to return by the advancing German army. That same month, Jewish property was confiscated, and Jews were conscripted for forced labor. The synagogue was seized and later repurposed as a warehouse and cinema. In the winter of 1939/1940, approximately 500 Jews from Łódź were deported to Biecz, raising the town’s Jewish population to about 1,300.

In early 1940, the Germans established a Judenrat in Biecz, tasked primarily with organizing forced labor. Jews were sent to work at the Ulrich-Becker sand and gravel plant and on local water regulation projects. Beginning in October 1941, Jews were no longer allowed to leave the Jewish quarter—an open ghetto centered around the market square. Between March and April 1942, the area was sealed off, transforming it into a closed ghetto confining approximately 1,700 people, including Jews brought in from surrounding towns and villages.

During the first years of the war, relatively few Jews were killed in Biecz. But in 1942, the situation deteriorated rapidly. Between January 3 and February 21, more than 70 Jews were murdered by Gestapo units from Jasło and Gorlice, aided by the local Polish auxiliary police. The victims were buried in the Jewish cemetery.

On July 22, 1942, all Jewish men between the ages of 18 and 35 were rounded up in the market square. About 170 of them were deported to the Płaszów labor camp near Kraków.

The liquidation of the Biecz ghetto began on August 14, 1942, when German and Ukrainian police forces surrounded the town and assembled the Jewish population in the market square. Roughly 150 elderly and sick individuals were shot on the spot or in other parts of town. Their bodies were buried in the Jewish cemetery by local residents who had been requisitioned for the task. The remaining 1,000 Jews were held without food or water for four days in storage sheds near the town hall. Local Polish police assisted in searching for Jews in hiding. On August 17, the surviving Jews were deported to the Bełżec extermination camp.

In the following weeks and months, Jews who had escaped and gone into hiding were gradually discovered and executed. A few managed to survive with the help of locals in nearby villages. According to Bolesław K., a witness interviewed by Yahad, one such survivor was Holberger, a Jewish merchant who survived a mass shooting at the Jewish cemetery by pretending to be dead despite being wounded. He later escaped and ultimately survived the war.

In January 1945, a small group of Jewish survivors returned to Biecz and made efforts to rebuild the community. However, these attempts failed due to persistent antisemitism and obstacles in reclaiming Jewish communal property. Shortly after the town’s liberation, three returning Jews were murdered. By the late 1940s, the remaining survivors had emigrated, primarily to the United States and Israel.