Tarłów (Tarlow) | Swietokrzyskie Voivodeship

/ The place where the Jewish bathing house was located before the war. The building does not exist today. ©Pawel Szupiluk/Yahad - In Unum The synagogue in Tarłów, located on Ostrowiecka Street, was built around 1786 on the site of an earlier one from the early 17th century. Today the building lies in ruins. ©Pawel Szupiluk/Yahad - In Unum The school building where the Gestapo station was located during the war. ©Pawel Szupiluk/Yahad - In Unum The market square in Tarłów, the site of a gathering of Jews on the day of deportation. ©Pawel Szupiluk/Yahad - In Unum Helena D., born in 1929: “The Germans created a ghetto in Tarłów. The Jews had to wear distinctive signs. Later, they were all brought to Jasice train station and deported somewhere.” ©Pawel Szupiluk/Yahad - In Unum Helena D., born in 1929: “A Jewish woman was caught by a German. He shot her. My father was the soltys, so he had to requisition someone to take her body to the Jewish cemetery, when she was buried later that day.”©Pawel Szupiluk/Yahad - In Unum Jan W., born in 1933: “In 1940, things became tough for the Jews. They were beaten, had their property destroyed. They wore a Star of David on a white armband. Their houses were also marked with a star painted in blue paint.” ©Pawel Szupiluk/Yahad - Unum Jan W., born in 1933 “The ghetto was not fenced in, but was guarded by Jewish policemen. 3 weeks before the deportation, Jews from nearby villages, from Lipsko and the villages around the Vistula River were brought to the ghetto.” ©Pawel Szupiluk/Yahad - Anna K., born in 1929: “In October, the Jews were gathered on the square market. Women, children and the elderly had to ride on carts, while men had to walk to Jasice train station. German soldiers were watching them."©Pawel Szupiluk/Yahad - In Unum Anna K., born in 1929: “Once the column had passed through Sandomierska Street, I saw a pool of blood and a man on the ground, it was his blood. The bodies of Jews were cleaned up afterwards and buried in the Jewish cemetery." ©Pawel Szupiluk/Yahad - In U Anna K., born in 1929: “A friend of mine drove the Jews with his cart to Jasice. He told me that a Jew named Rychtenberg saw that the floor of the wagon was covered with lime, he didn’t want to get into it. He was shot."©Pawel Szupiluk/Yahad - In Unum The road that led the column of Jews to the station in Jasice. Along the way, Jews who could go no further were shot by the Germans. Later, requisitioned carts collected the bodies and took them to the Jewish cemetery."©Pawel Szupiluk/Yahad - In Unum Execution site of a Jewish man whose body Anna K. saw after the column of Jews left Tarłów. ©Pawel Szupiluk/Yahad - In Unum Jewish cemetery in Tarłów, the burial place of about 100 Jews killed during the German occupation and during the deportation of Jews that took place in October 1942. ©Pawel Szupiluk/Yahad - In Unum

Execution of Jews in Tarłów

1 Killing site(s)

Kind of place before:
Jewish cemetery
Memorials:
No
Period of occupation:
1939-1944
Number of victims:
Around 100 Jews

Witness interview

Helena D., born in 1929: “Before the war, there were Christians and Jews living in Tarłów. The whole market square was occupied by Jews. They had shops, they were dressmakers, tailors, shoemakers... The Jews were quite wealthy. Jewish and non-Jewish children wet to the same school. There was a Jewish cemetery, which still exists today. The Jews were quite religious. Men went to the cemetery, but women were not allowed into the cemetery during burials. When the war started, the Germans created a ghetto in Tarłów, many Jews were brought to the ghetto from other villages. They all had to wear signs of recognition: women wore them on their shoulders and men on their arms. The ghetto was not fenced in, but the Jews knew they couldn’t go out. Before the deportation, an announcement was made: the Jews were to gather at the marketplace with their valuable possessions. Then they were to put all their possessions in a pile. Some gave their possessions away, others did not. They had hidden them well. Those who didn’t move fast enough were flogged. They then had to walk to the carriage waiting for them at Jasice train station. The elderly were transported there on the carts and the others walked. Two Germans killed people who couldn’t walk, and then carts came to collect the bodies. Anyone who had difficulty moving forward in the column was executed. There were maybe two carts to carry all the bodies. The requisitioned Poles would go back and forth with their carts from one distance to another, picking up any bodies along the road (…)” (Witness N°1344P, interviewed in Tarłów, on August 20, 2022)

Historical note

Tarłów is a village in Opatów County, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, in historic province of Lesser Poland. It lies approximately 30 km (19 mi) north-east of Opatów, 79 km (49 mi) east of the regional capital Kielce and approximately 13 km (8 mi) north of the town of Ożarów. Jews started to settle in Tarłów in the 16th century. In 1787, there was a community of 547 Jews, making up 49% of the total population. After World War I, circa. 1,000 Jews lived in Tarłów, roughly half of the small town’s population. According to Yahad witnesses, the Jews worked in crafts and small-time trade - some farmed small plots of land near their homes. Anna K., born in 1929 recalls a Jew called Rychtenberg who owned a brewery, and Rubinstein who was in the wheat business. Jewish and non-Jewish children went to the same local school. There was a mikveh in town, as well as a Jewish cemetery and a synagogue, the ruins of which can still be seen today. The Jews were very pious. Before the war, there was a middle-aged rabbi who lived near the market square.

Holocaust by bullets in figures

The Germans occupied Tarłów in September 1939. They established a Judenrat (Jewish Council) and forced them to collect large sums of money in ransoms, and also gathered Jewish residents for forced labor. According to one testimony, the German authorities executed a number of Jews after entering town. The plunder of Jewish property started immediately. Their belongings and valuable possessions were taken away in trucks and the Jewish businesses were confiscated. The first deportees from Lodz were transferred to Tarłów in March 1940. In the spring of 1941, a large number of escapees from the Warsaw ghetto settled in Tarłów. On May 12, 1941, the Germans established an open ghetto. According to the Judenrat, by April 1942, 2.200 Jews were confined into the ghetto, including 700 refugees. Besides Warsaw and Lodz, they also came from smaller towns including Józefów nad Wisłą and Zwolen. Leaving the ghetto area by the Jews or entering it by the Poles was forbidden under pain of death. In June 1942, German forces rounded up and sent around 70 people, mostly young men and women, to work at the HASAG ammunition factory in Skarżysko-Kamienna. Tarłów was designated as a concentration point for Jews from the Starachowice district. Residents of Solec nad Wisłą (800 persons), Kazanów (800 persons), Ciepielów(600 persons), Lipsko (3.000 persons) others were taken there. On October 29, 1942, the Germans proceeded with the liquidation of the ghetto, transporting all the Jews, probably around 8,000 people, to the Jasice train station, from where they were deported to the Treblinka extermination camp. Around one hundred people, mainly the elderly and children, were shot dead on their way to Jasice station by SS men and Ukrainian militiamen.

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