Back in 2014, Mr. Barmore first introduced us to three amazing teachers in Dabrowa Tarnowska, Jurek and Yola Stelmach and Pawel Chojnowski. He had met these teachers on a visit to the region and thought that we would be interested in the educational work they were doing. Jurek and Yola continue to teach at Dabrowa Tarnowska High School and Pawel is now the Director of the Cultural Center which was the Dabrowa Tarnowska Synagogue. They were all influential in the renovations of the synagogue which opened in 2012. The synagogue had stood as a ruin in the center of town until these teachers worked with the local municipality to restore this place.
Only 150 Jews from Dąbrowa Tarnowska and surrounding towns survived the Holocaust, most saved by locals, including Catholic priests who would issue false baptismal certificates and neighbors who would offer hiding places. This assistance offered to Jews came at a great cost. In 1942 there were 62 residents of the town who were executed for hiding Jews. Eight residents of Dąbrowa County have received the title of Righteous Among the Nations from Yad Vashem for their rescue efforts. In 1945 less than 100 Jews returned to Dąbrowa Tarnowka. Today, there are no Jews in the town.
We began the day at the local theatre in which Yola was the master of ceremonies for the 20th Annual Yom Ha Shoah program she has created and implemented. In an effort to have her students understand and appreciate the rich cultural heritage of the Jews, Yola Stelmech had initiated a competition in which students in each school in the county select a Yiddish or Hebrew song, poem or excerpt from a story written by a Polish Jew, or learn a dance. Students not only learned the song or passage, but had to write essays to explain why they had chosen the piece and what it meant. The teachers then chose the finalists from each school and today they were all in this final competition.
At the beginning of the program we had each been given a yellow daffodil to wear as we had entered the theater. Jurek explained that this Daffodils Campaign had been begun by the POLIN Museum in Warsaw several years ago to commemorate the Warsaw ghetto uprising. Every year hundreds of volunteers hand out paper daffodils to raise awareness of the ghetto uprising and its significance. Why the daffodil? One of the leaders of the Warsaw ghetto uprising was Marek Edelman who survived and remained in Poland. Every year on April 19th, the anniversary of the beginning of the uprising, he would receive a bouquet of yellow daffodils from an anonymous donor. Edelman would leave the flowers at the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes each year. The Daffodils Campaign was inspired by this practice.
There was a special presentation this year to honor a dear friend of Mr. Barmore’s and the entire community of Dabrowa Tarnowska – Alex Danzig who was taken hostage in Israel on October 7, 2023. Alex, whose parents were Holocaust survivors, was kidnapped near his home, Nir Oz, Israel. He was the founder of trips to Poland and taught generations of teachers and students about the history of the Holocaust. He developed many friends and partnerships over the years which includes the teachers and community of Dabrowa Tarnowska. Mr. Barmore was asked to speak about Alex and he talked about how they both came from a generation of Israelis who have been activists for peace and how horrible it has been that Alex has been caught in this tragic situation when all he ever advocated for was peace in the Middle East. The link below is a video of Mr. Barmore’s speech which is well worth your time.
After the ceremony, we made our way to the synagogue where Pawel took the students on a tour and explained the rich history that existed before the Holocaust period and how they utilize the space to teach their local community and visitors from all over the world about this lost community.
We walked across the street to the Jewish cemetery where Jurek explained the Nazis had removed all the tombstones and had used them to build roads and a pool in the area. After the war, the locals found all the tombstones they could and brought them back to the cemetery, but without records they had no way of knowing which gravestone belonged with which grave, so they are randomly placed in the cemetery. The locals did know, however that the tombstones should face east, towards Jerusalem, so they did place them all facing east. He told us there had been two mass murders of Jews in the area. In 1942 180 Jews had been forced to dig their grave and then were executed. In 1943 36 members of the Judenrat [Jewish Council] in charge of the ghetto were executed. There was also a memorial to the victims of the Holocaust built by the Samuel Roth Foundation in 1993, using the fragments of tombstones which had been too damaged to be placed as a grave marker. Samuel Roth was the last practicing Jew in Dąbrowa Tarnowska. He died in 2005 and is buried in the Jewish cemetery.
The last monument we visited in Dabrowa Tarnowska was erected to remember the rescue efforts of the Medala family who help hide a Jewish family. Sadly, all of the members of the Mendela family and a neighbor were murdered by the Gestapo who were alerted by a neighbor. This monument is on the property of the house that once stood there and is maintained by the municipality. A lesson for the students in the dangers of rescue efforts and the complexity of this history. Jurek had arranged for a local educator who has done the research on the family story and published a book to speak with us about this event.
We ended our day in Dabrowa Tarnowska by hosting a dinner for our dear Polish friends at a lovely local restaurant, Imbirowa. We enjoyed our time socializing over fantastic Polish food!
After dinner, Jurek mentioned that our friend, Mayor Krzysztof Kaczmarski, was hosting a rally to support his upcoming election. We went to the center of town to support him and truly hope he continues to be the mayor of Dabrowa Tarnowska!
