Chochołów | Lesser Poland

"June 25, 1943

The Nazis executed 4 people, likely of Jewish nationality, who had been transported by Gestapo officials from the ’Palace’ prison in Zakopane. " [AGK, Ankieta GK "Egzekucje," pow. Nowy Targ, woj. krakowskie]

Chochołów is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Czarny Dunajec, within Nowy Targ County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, in southern Poland.

Little is known about the pre-war Jewish community of Chochołów. However, according to local residents interviewed by Yahad, the community, though small, played an important role in the village’s economic and social life before the war.

According to Yahad witness Aniela K., born in 1934, there were six Jewish families living in Chochołów, most of whom were engaged in local commerce. She recalled a Jewish man named Jakub, who ran a shop where “besides selling products, people could go and drink some soda or a beer.” Another witness, Stanisław L., born in 1931, remembered the Horowitz and Klapol families, who both operated local inns; the Kuntz family, who ran the village store; and other traders such as Herszlik, who bought chickens, and Korgut, who owned a large bakery.

Relations between Jewish and non-Jewish residents appear to have been close. Witnesses recalled having Jewish friends of their own age and attending school together. Religious life was centered around a distinctive wooden synagogue, built in the traditional mountain style and located in the Krzemieniec area. For major religious holidays, Jewish families would travel to larger towns such as Czarny Dunajec or Nowy Targ, where the nearest Jewish cemetery was also located.

Little is known about the precise course of the German occupation in Chochołów itself. In the early phase of the occupation, only Wehrmacht soldiers passed through the area. Later, SS units arrived and began seizing residents’ property. The German authorities established their local headquarters in the village school building, where approximately fifteen personnel were stationed. The administration was supported by the Polish Police.

It is likely that the Jewish community of Chochołów shared the fate of neighboring communities in Czarny Dunajec and Nowy Targ, where, from the onset of the occupation, the German authorities systematically implemented a range of repressive measures against Jews. Witness testimonies make it possible to reconstruct several key aspects of the persecution of the local Jewish population.

The Jewish residents of Chochołów remained in their homes until their deportation, which appears to have taken place over a period of time rather than on a single day—suggesting that the operation was carried out in several stages. According to the testimony of Stanisław L., born in 1931, local farmers were instructed by the sołtys (village head), acting on German orders, to transport the Jewish inhabitants by cart to Czarny Dunajec, approximately 10 km from Chochołów. From there, they were subsequently taken to the ghetto in Nowy Targ, established around May–June 1941. All of them were later murdered in the Bełżec extermination camp.

During the occupation, Chochołów also became a site of executions of detainees brought from the notorious “Palace” prison in Zakopane. Known as a center of Gestapo brutality, the “Palace” was the point of origin for many prisoners—most of them unidentified—who were executed in or near the village.

According to available sources and witness accounts, there were at least two execution sites in Chochołów: one in the nearby area of Sucha Dolina, and another near the Catholic cemetery. Stanisław L., who lived barely one hundred meters from the cemetery, was a direct witness to one of these shootings. He recalled a specific winter day when two trucks arrived from Zakopane, followed shortly by the sound of single gunshots indicating the executions. The victims were buried at the site, near the cemetery wall.

Today, at least two mass graves of individuals murdered during the German occupation are commemorated within the cemetery, including one grave containing the remains of four people of Jewish origin, killed on June 25, 1943.