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Dabrowa Tarnowska
D±browa Tarnowska is a district seat in the Małopolska Voivodship, at the junction of the Karpackie Plateau and the Sandomierz Valley.
Sights of interest:
- wooden church of All Saints (eighteenth century)
- museum of the D±browa Powi¶le (bank of the Vistula River)
- museum of Polish emigration
- Jewish memorial room, ul. Daszyńskiego 8
History
The name of D±browa Tarnowska comes from the oak forests that once grew in the area centuries ago, which were called d±browa (oak forest). The first mention of a settlement here dates back to the fifteenth century. Since no documents survive relating to its original town charter, it is impossible to know the town’s precise history. D±browa was first part of the Ligęza family’s holdings, then the Lubomirski family’s, which reconstructed the already existing castle in the Baroque style. Later, the heirs and owners of the D±browa holdings changed. D±browa was a center for local trade and markets. Before the partitions, there were two schools here – the parish school and a Jewish one, which was under the authority of the kahal. During the partitions, D±browa was under Austria, and suffered significant damage during the First World War.
The synagogue, photo: A.Olej&K. Kobus:
After Poland gained its independence in 1918, it became the seat of the district government, which fostered development. A number of social associations were founded, and two sports clubs existed – the Polish “D±brovia” club, and a Jewish one named “Makabi”.
On 8 September 1939, the Germans entered D±browa Tarnowska. In 1940, they arrested a group of young people from the local gimnazjum (secondary school) and sent them to Auschwitz. Arrests and deportations to forced labor camps in the Reich began. The high schools in D±browska were closed. In July 1942, the Germans created a ghetto. Already in September 1942, that ghetto’s Jews were sent to the camp in Bełżec. In D±browa, only members of the “order service” and the Judenrat remained, who were then shot at the Jewish cemetery in April 1943. Despite the persecutions experienced in D±browa, a group of Jews survived – the last of these, Samuel Roth, died in 1995.
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As one of the last Orthodox Jews living in D±browa, Roth acted as spiritual leader of the shrinking Jewish Community there after the Second World War. Many leading tsaddikim were originally from D±browa, including Dawid Unger – pupil of the Seer of Lublin and founder of a dynasty, and Cwi Hirsz Rymanower – who later became the tsaddik of Rymanów.
Traces
The grandest Jewish building in D±browa is a very large synagogue, located to the north-east of the market square. It was designed by Abraham Goldstein and funded by Ajzyk Stern. During the late 1930’s, the synagogue was renovated, and a three-story gallery was added. Dorota Mertz supervised the work. The synagogue’s architectural beauty has been preserved. It has a rectangular lay-out, and its façade is flanked by two towers, between which is a five-naved portico with the three-story gallery, supported by four columns, which are linked by arcades. The entire building is decorated with inscriptions in Hebrew and reliefs. Its distinctive towers are decorated with symbolic representations of animals and inscriptions in the stucco stating, “Be brave like a leopard and light as an eagle, swift as a deer and strong as a lion”. The interior has one prayer room with a flattened vault, a two-story Western part, a vestibule on the ground floor and a women’s gallery on the first floor. Inside, a wall painting has survived with animal and plant motifs. In 1939, the Germans used the building as a warehouse. After the war, until 1970, the synagogue’s building was also used as warehouse space.
Next to the synagogue there is a cemetery overgrown with trees (including six oaks that are protected by law). In the cemetery, there is a memorial erected by the son of Mojżesz Jassa and reconstructed by the Jewish Congregation in Tarnów, commemorating the day of July 22, 1942 – the day that Germans shot approximately one hundred eighty Jews. There is also a monument in memory of Holocaust victims.
In 1996, at the initiative of Jerzy Rzeszuta and the local government, a memorial room (“Izba Pamięci Żydów”) was created. The exposition is located in the former home of the Roth family, one room of which was transformed by Samuel Roth into a House of Prayer. The room was created on the basis of an agreement between the Community’s Board in D±browa Tarnowska and the heir to the testament of Samuel Roth – Cesia Nesselroth, who lives in Australia. The custodian and patron of the collections is the Cultural Center in D±browa. The collections include Hebrew books, liturgical objects and everyday items.
Important figures from D±browa: Dawid Unger, Cwi Hirsz Rymanower
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