Stare Miasto | Subcarpathian Voivodeship

“Stare Miasto, gm. Lezajak, 15/07/1942

The SS, the Gestapo and the gendarmes rounded up Jews. 16 people were arrested and killed.  The victims were buried on the execution place in a mass grave. “[Source: AGK, Ankieta GK, woj. Rzeszowskie, “Egzekucje” Stare Miasto, pow. Lezajsk; AGK, Ankieta OK Rzeszow, “Egzekucje” Stare Miasto, pow. Lezakask; AGK, ASG, sygn. 35, k. 339; AGK, zespol GK, sygn. 412, k. 38.]

Stare Miasto is located 51km north-east of Rzeszow. Little is known from historical sources about the Jewish community in Stare Miasto, as there were not many Jews living there. However, according to Jan M., a local resident interviewed by Yahad, there were several families. The local Jews had their prayer house. The Jewish cemetery was located only in Lezajsk, located 6km away, where actually a bigger Jewish community lived. For instance in 1921, 1,575 Jews lived in the town comprising 31% of the total population. In the late 18^th century Lezajsk became an important Hasidic center of Poland. The majority of Stare Maisto and Lezajsk Jews lived off trade. They owned shops or were craftsmen. The Jews and the non-Jews went to the same school.

Stare Misato was occupied by Germans in September, 1939. Shortly after, the majority of the Jews from Lezajsk, including some from Stare Misato, were displaced into the Soviet occupied territories. Yahad’s witness confirmed it as he saw the column marching towards the San River.  There was no ghetto in Stare Miasto, but there was one in Lezajsk, created in 1941.  During 1942 the Jews from Stare Miasto were displaced to Lezajsk ghetto, with the exception for 16 Jews who were shot in the village. According to local eyewitnesses they were shot in a pit dug by requisitioned Poles in the middle of the field. The execution was conducted by one German, who fired with a pistol. All the Jews, men, two women and two children among them, were lined up at the edge of the pit all together and shot one by one. Today, there is no memorial at that place. Those Jews who were displaced in Lezajsk ghetto were sent in September 1942 to Tranogrod, and then eventually to Belzec, where they were murdered.