Dąbrowa Tarnowska | Lesser Poland Voivodeship

"Before the war, there were about 3,000 Jews in Dąbrowa [translator’s note: not Tarnów, as mistakenly recorded in some archives]. At the end of 1940 and the beginning of 1941, Jewish refugees from Kraków and the surrounding towns and villages began to arrive in large numbers. The overcrowding in apartments led to outbreaks of disease, particularly typhus. Landkommissar Strahler and his deputy Kleinwachter then issued a decree forbidding Jews from leaving their homes. Jewish intermediaries were appointed to supply food, but survival often depended on smuggling and on preparing meals according to ritual. The town was sealed for two months, with all vehicle access prohibited. At the end of this period, a train equipped with a disinfection car arrived at the station. All Jews were ordered to present themselves, where they were shorn and disinfected.

In May 1942, the first mass Aktion took place, during which 26 people—allegedly communists—were arrested. Among the victims were women and children. The Germans entered their homes and killed everyone whose names, provided by an informer, appeared on a list.

In June 1942, contributions were imposed on the Jewish population: 50 dining sets, 50 beds, 50 kitchens, and 1,000 zlotys. Everything was delivered on time, but in vain. Later that month, the town was surrounded, and trucks arrived. Germans entered Jewish homes and expelled the residents. The elderly were taken directly to the cemetery, where more than 50 were shot. About 450 Jews were transported away by truck. Some were taken to fields or forests, while others hid in bunkers. My wife and I hid in the forest. We returned the next day to scenes of tragedy—people returning to find their families gone. Life resumed in a fragile way, sustained only by selling belongings left behind in abandoned houses.

Less than three weeks later, a ghetto was created, concentrating Jews from the surrounding area. The second Aktion took place on July 17, 1942. Twenty-six wagons arrived at the train station, and 1,800 people were loaded onto them. More than 100 people were shot on the spot or along the way to the station. The convoy was sent to Bełżec. It was Gudzek, a German gendarme and known criminal, who told my wife. He was killed later. Most of the deported were Jews from outside the town, who had neither the means to hide nor the local connections that might have saved them.

The third deportation, on September 18, 1942, was intended as the liquidation of the ghetto. However, many Jews had fled into the forests. The Germans managed to capture only about 500 people, and many wagons left half empty. Ten people were shot on the spot, including the chairman of the Judenrat, Dr. Neuberger, because, supposedly, there were not enough Jews, and many had hidden in the Judenrat building. After this Aktion, some Jews emerged from hiding, and a small ghetto was created.

On October 1, 1942, 900 people were suddenly rounded up and taken away in carts. A few days later, on October 6, another 600 were deported, most of them captured in hiding. About 20 were shot that day. The victims were escorted to the cemetery, where they sang the Hallel and held hands. German gendarmes, led by master Bower, stood on the victims’ bellies and shot them in the mouth. Afterward, 20 Jews were left behind to clean up the ghetto; they were later transferred to the Tarnów ghetto, and some survived.

The names of the victims include: Rebazykl Rubin and his son Abraham, Chaim Muri Knobel, Leizer Mendelson, Tejba Werker, Chaim Nusen Grunozow, Benjamin Frank, Chaim Jassy, Goldberg (a refugee from Germany), Wolfgang (from Kraków), Chaim and Dobra Drelich, Mira Streim, Dawid Ehrlich, and Chaim Kornbluet.

About 30 Jews remained in the town afterward—the OD (Jewish police) with their wives and children. On December 20, 1942, they too were stripped naked and shot one by one at the cemetery, along with their children.

The worst perpetrators were Kalman Fenichel, Hersz Majer Flaum, and Uscher Ofen. By the end of the war, about 50 Jews were still alive in Dąbrowa. In the preceding months, however, hundreds of Jews hiding in the forests around Dąbrowa were killed—either denounced by Poles or discovered in bunkers by German gendarmes.

I fled with my wife, my mother, and my two sisters during the third wave of expulsions. We were caught by the German gendarmerie in Stopnica but bought our freedom. At that time, admissions to the Skarżysko camp were underway. My wife, my younger sister, and I registered there. My mother and other sister stayed behind. We were taken to Skarżysko, where we worked in Werk C. We arrived in early October 1943.

On a Sunday, a roll call was held. They stripped us of everything and led us to the train tracks, where wagons were waiting. We were lined up in rows of five. Suddenly, we heard screams in the distance. Meanwhile, the Werkschutz [factory police] searched people, demanding, “Does anyone have valuables? Dollars? You don’t need them, they’ll take them anyway.” Near the tracks stood a barrack. Prisoners were led inside. Outside, a line of Ukrainian SS and gendarmes waited, forcing people to undress. They beat them so severely that belongings were abandoned near the barrack. The screams and violence were unimaginable. The perpetrators deliberately provoked panic in order to loot the victims. It was one of the most brutal searches."

[ZIH Warsaw 301_2348; Deposition of 4.02.1947 by Alter Milet, born in 1907 in Dąbrowa Tarnowska, a Jewish survivor, concerning the shootings of Jews perpetrated by the Nazis in 1942 in the town of Dąbrowa Tarnowska]

Dąbrowa Tarnowska is a town in Poland, located in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship, about 16 km (10 mi) north of Tarnów. It serves as the capital of Dąbrowa County.

The first Jews likely settled in Dąbrowa Tarnowska in the late 16th century, and by the early 18th century, a fully functioning Jewish community had been established. A wooden synagogue was built in 1697, and soon after, the town gained an independent Jewish community. By the mid-18th century, historical sources record 147 Jewish families living there, a number that continued to grow in the following decades. The majority of the Jewish population was poor, earning their livelihood mainly from small-scale trade and craftsmanship.

By 1931, Dąbrowa Tarnowska County had a population of 66,000, of which about 8%—approximately 4,800 people—were Jewish. Most of this community lived in the towns of Dąbrowa Tarnowska and Żabno, with the remainder scattered across surrounding villages. On the eve of the Second World War, about 2,400 Jews resided in Dąbrowa Tarnowska itself. While some Jews in nearby villages worked in agriculture, most of the town’s Jewish residents made their living from trade and craftsmanship.

Dąbrowa Tarnowska was occupied by German forces on September 8, 1939. In October 1939, the town was incorporated into Kreis Tarnow in Distrikt Krakau. From the earliest months of the occupation, anti-Jewish measures were introduced. Between December 1939 and March 1940, Jewish refugees began arriving in Dąbrowa Tarnowska from Kraków and other parts of Poland annexed to the Third Reich, including Łódź and Skierniewice. By June 1941, the number of Jews in the town had risen to about 3,200, as a result of expulsions and deportations from western Poland.

Throughout the war, the Jewish community was systematically destroyed through a series of deportations (Aktions) and numerous shootings. These were carried out by a Security Police unit from Tarnów, assisted by the German gendarmerie and the Polish auxiliary police. On April 28, 1942, more than 20 Jews accused of communist activities were executed. Beginning in June 1942, the German authorities launched the organized destruction of Jews across the Tarnów district, which included prewar Dąbrowa Tarnowska County.

The first deportation Aktion, in June 1942, saw about 450 Jews sent to the Bełżec killing center, while some 50 elderly Jews were shot in town. At the end of the same month, a ghetto was created in Dąbrowa Tarnowska, confining both local Jews and displaced persons from the surrounding area. The second deportation Aktion took place on July 17, 1942, when about 1,800 people were sent to Bełżec and around 100 were murdered in town.

Faced with growing danger, Jews tried to survive by creating hiding places in the ghetto or fleeing. On July 22, 1942, the Germans carried out another mass killing at the Jewish cemetery, murdering about 180 ghetto residents. A postwar monument at the cemetery commemorates this crime. The flat landscape of the county, with few forests, made it difficult for escapees to hide. Many wandered near villages, seeking refuge in small groves or turning to local farmers for help.

The third deportation Aktion, on September 18, 1942, resulted in at least 500 Jews being deported and 10 shot. Afterwards, a smaller ghetto was established for those who had returned from hiding. The final liquidation of the ghetto took place in early October 1942. During Aktions on October 1 and 6, about 900 and 600 Jews were deported to Bełżec, while another 20 were shot in the town. The last group of Jews, including members of the Jewish police, was murdered on December 20, 1942, at the Jewish cemetery.

In the second half of 1943, the Gestapo and SS systematically hunted down and executed Jews in and around Dąbrowa Tarnowska. Between July and August, they murdered more than 250 people, and between October and December another 228 Jews were shot. Isolated killings continued until the end of the occupation.

Many of those murdered in and around the town were buried in the Jewish cemetery. Today, memorials there commemorate approximately 800 Jewish victims killed in Dąbrowa Tarnowska during the Holocaust.

After the war, only between 50 and 150 survivors returned to Dąbrowa Tarnowska. Most emigrated in the years that followed.

https://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/pinkas_poland/pol3_00107.html