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Tarnow
[Yiddish: Tarnov, Tornev, Torne, Tarna] - A
town in the Malopolska voivodship. Tarnow was granted its
town charter
around the year 1330; remaining in private hands until 1787,
it was the
property of the Tarnowski, Ostrogski and Sanguszko families.
Situated along the route to Rus' and Hungary, Tarnow
began
developing as a center for the grain and wine trades in the
fourteenth
century. It also functioned as an economic center for the
magnates'
holdings. Jewish settlement was noted as early as 1443. The
Tarnow
Community was probably an affiliate (przykahalek) of the one
in Krakow,
with which it jointly paid the coronation tax in 1507.
In 1581, Konstanty Ostrogski granted the Jews a
privilege that later
owners confirmed several times, for example in the years
1637, 1670 and
1684. On the basis of these documents, they could sell all
manner of
goods from their homes and stalls, as well as at the market.
They were
also allowed to distill alcohol and have liquor licenses.
The Jewish community in Tarnow grew quickly, as the
demands of the
clergy to limit the influx of Jews into the city
demonstrate. By the
early seventeenth century, the gmina already had a cemetery
and
synagogue. The city was seriously damaged during the wars of
the
mid-seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, which led to
economic
stagnation.
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After the first partition of Poland, Tarnow was
part of the Austrian partition, and in 1787 became part of
government
land holdings. Towards the end of the eighteenth century,
Chasidim and
the Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment) had a strong following
in Tarnow. In
the nineteenth century, the city became one of Galicia's
fastest-growing economic centers. In the mid-nineteenth
century, it
gained rail links to Krakow and Lwow. Factories producing
agricultural
implements and glass were founded. In 1910, an electrical
energy plant
was opened.
The population grew rapidly, including the Jewish
population. In
1830, there were approximately 1,200 Jews living in Tarnow
(34% of the
total population); by 1890, this number had grown to 11,400
(46%).
From the late nineteenth century, political groups were
active in
Tarnow-primarily Zionist organizations that were preparing
their members
for emigration to Palestine. During the interwar period,
Tarnow was
still the district (powiat) seat and remained an important
economic
center. The machine, chemical, food and clothing industries
grew. In
1939, the city had a population of 52,000, of which 25,000
were Jews
(48% of the total population).
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When the Second World War broke out, Germans
occupied the city and concentrated the Jewish population in
designated
parts of the city in March 1941. In February 1942, the
Germans created a
ghetto in those areas. A total of 40,000 people were moved
there,
including Jews from nearby towns, as well as Jews from the
Czech lands
and the Reich. The residents of the ghetto were deported
gradually
during the summer and autumn of 1942 to the death camp in
Belzec. The
ghetto was liquidated completely in September 1943, when
approximately
2,000 people who were fit to work were deported to the labor
camp in
Plaszow; the remaining 8,000 residents were killed in
Auschwitz. Several
hundred Jews remained in Tarnow as workers until early 1944.
A small group of Jews settled in Tarnow after the Second
World War.
Jews from Tarnow maintain organizations in Israel, the USA,
Canada and
France. A fragment of the bima (pulpit) of the Old Synagogue
has
survived in Tarnow, as well as a mikva (ritual bath house)
built in the
Moresque style, a cemetery with gravestones from the
seventeenth
century, and the Jewish hospital.
(H.W./CM)
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