ShtetLinks: TARNÓW, POLAND

                              Other Names

Tarna (Yiddish)

Alternate names Tarnów [Pol], Tarnau [Ger], Tarnov [Rus], Tarniv [Ukr], Tarnuv,Torne, Tornen, Torna

                              Region: Krakow

Facts Searchable Databases Contributors History & Research Maps, History, Background, Surrounding Communities,  Libraries & Archives Tracing Your Family Records, Archives, Cemeteries, Holocaust Victims & Survivors, Immigration & Directories Pre-War Community Beginnings, Noted Citizens, Synagogues, Organizations, Photos, Postcards & Memories The Holocaust Tarnow Ghetto, Records, Deportations, Statistics, Maps, Photos,  Documents & Testimonies After the Holocaust Photos, Archives, Memorials Jewish Tarnow Today Travelogues, Photos, City Guides and Jewish Community Additional Links

Welcome to the Shtetlinks site for Tarnów, Poland.   This site aims to commemorate the Jewish community of Tarnów and the thousands that were wiped out in the Shoah, and to facilitate searching for your Tarnów roots.

Old Jewish Cemetery, Tarnow

Facts
First recorded mention of city in 1224
Tarnow gained city rights in 1330
First recorded mention of Jews in Tarnow in mid-1500s.
Jewish population in 1939: approx. 25,000, 50% of the population
Fourth largest Jewish population in Europe in 1939
Warmest city in Poland
First deportations June 1942, to Auschwitz (political prisoners, not Jews)
Tarnow ghetto established sometime after June 1942
Deportations: Belzec, Auschwitz-Birkenau
Ghetto destroyed September 1943. Last 10,000.00 Jewish survivors deported, 7,000 to Auschwitz and 3,000 to Plaszow.  Tarnow then declared “Judenrein” (free of Jews)
After the war, 700 Jews returned to Tarnow but left for Israel when the Polish government offered to transfer them by ship
In 1965, there were 35 Jews in Tarnow
The last Jew in Tarnow died in 1993.
Nearby Bochnia has the longest operating salt mine in Europe – over 700 years
Nickname: "The Banana Belt"

Year	Jewish population	Percentage of Tarnow citizenry
1772	1,200	34%
1890	11,677	42.4%
1921	15,608	44.2%
1939	25,000	Nearly 50%

Searchable Databases

JewishGen Poland Database

The Jewish Records Indexing - Poland and JewishGen "All Poland Database" is a multiple database search facility, which incorporates all of the following databases:
JewishGen Family Finder (JGFF), JRI -Poland , 1891 Galicia Business Directory, Lvov Ghetto      Database, Kraków Ghetto Database, 1890-1891 New York Immigrants from Poland, Austria and Galicia, Yizkor Book Necrologies, JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry (JOWBR), 1929 Polish Business Directory, JG Discussion Group Archives, SIG Mailing List Archives and much more. This database is a work in progress and new entries are being added regularly.

JewishGen Poland Database (for TARNOW)

Click the button to show all entries for TARNOW in the JewishGen Poland Database. (About the JewishGen Poland Database)

SEARCH Yad Vashem Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority

SEARCH Gesher Galicia to learn more about Galicia

NEW!

Link to site on Muzeum Okregowe w Tarnowie for tour of Tarnow cemetery

Link to book "In the footsteps of the Jews of Tarnow "on site Muzeum Okregowe w Tarnowie in Polish, English and Hebrew for a tour of Tarnow

Two people who have been to Tarnow recently have kindly donated some more photos – click here to view

Link to site on Muzeum Okregowe w Tarnowie (with background music) commemorating the Jews of Tarnow, including articles and some photos

Link to site on Muzeum Okregowe w Tarnowie which seems to be a ceremony, held last year, commemorating the Tarnow Jews. If somebody could give me a rough translation to add here, that would be helpful.

Link to site Holocaust Research Project with eyewitness account by Josef Mueller, SS Kommandant of the camps in Krakow regarding the Tarnow ghetto actions.

Compiled by Molly Runds
Updated by MR 14 June 2009
Copyright © 2008-2009 Molly Runds

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