Jewish cemetery on Rybacka Str.

The execution site of Polish and Jewish people. It is estimated that even 2000 people could have been killed here during the German occupation. The victims are commemorated with a monument, which was erected thanks to the efforts of the Society of Fighters for Freedom and Democracy. The plaque contains the names of the identified Poles who were killed in the cemetery. The cemetery was a witness of mass murders, especially of the Jewish population. The largest of them took place on 29 April 1942, when 300 inhabitants of the Nowy Sącz ghetto were murdered. Numerous sources prove that executions took place there several times a week, almost every day. Some were mass, others – single executions. The cemetery is also where the victims of the bestial operations of the Gestapo in the Nowy Sącz ghetto were buried. And so, in one marked mass grave – the so-called “grave of the 300” (next to the monument commemorating the victims) – 100 people killed on the night from 29 to 30 April 1942 were buried. During the German occupation, there were orders given for the cemetery to be completely devastated. The ohel (the tomb of the tzaddik) was blown up, while the matzevot (headstones) were used by the Germans as construction material. After the war, the efforts of handful of Holocaust survivors allowed for the recovery of matzevot from pavements and other places. They were made into a wall (a sort of an epitaph), some were set back up. The ohel of the tzaddik Halberstam family has also been rebuilt, and today continues to serve thousands of pilgrims coming to Nowy Sącz.

Monument to the Victims of Fascism on Krańcowa Str.

Erected on the execution site of Poles in January 1944. Among the killed there was Mieczyslaw Szurmiak’s son, Wiesław. 9 other people were murdered with him. After the war, the bodies were exhumed and moved to the Old Cemetery. In 1978, on the site of the execution a monument, designed by E. Miśkowiec was built.

Municipal cemetery on Rejtana Str.

Some sources mention the cemetery as an execution site of the Polish and Jewish population. However, most of the testimonies have not been critically verified. Undeniably, a great number of people who died during the German occupation, in result of the policies of Nazi Germany, were buried and commemorated in this cemetery. Among these commemorations worth mentioning is the tomb of the independence underground soldiers, as well as the symbolic grave of the Victims of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp. At the cemetery there also is a tomb of Soviet soldiers, which is connected with the events of January 1945, when many of them died in the fights for the city of Nowy Sącz.

Bank of the Kamienica River

According to testimonies of several witnesses it was also a site of executions of the Jewish and Polish people. This information requires verification and further research. The place is not yet commemorated.

Monument in Biegonice, Zakładników Str.

The execution site of the elites of Nowy Sącz – mainly Poles, although there were also some Jewish people among the victims. Executions took place here between 1939 and 1941. Most of them were preceded by a quick trail and torture, which the prisoners held in Nowy Sącz prison on Pijarska Str. were subjected to. The head of the Gestapo in Nowy Sącz, Heinrich Hamann turned out to be a remarkable tormentor of the victims. The biggest execution in Biegonice took place on 21 August 1941. In it a lot of famous citizens of Nowy Sącz were killed, such as priests of the parish (Deszcz and Kaczmarczyk), painter and social activist Bolesław Barbacki, photographer Bolesław Furmanek and many others. The bodies were buried in mass graves right next to the brick factory. After the war, the corpses were exhumed, and the victims were buried in the Old Cemetery. At the execution site there is a monument commemorating the tragic events of the German occupation period.

Monument in Młodów

Execution site of the people from the Nowy Sącz region, including many inhabitants of tits capital. The Germans carried out brutal murders here in 1943. At that time, many of the people associated with the Home Army in Nawojowa were killed, along with others arrested. On the Independence Day – 11 November 1943 – the people of Nowy Sącz connected with Pennar’s conspired photographic studio at Jagiellońska 4 Str. Were murdered. After the war, the bodies of the victims were exhumed. Apart from the monument in Młodów, the victims’ are commemorated by a grave in the Nawojowa cemetery.

The execution site in Trzetrzewina

On 27 June 27 1940, 93 people were shot in the Trzetrzewina forests – all of them Polish. The crime was carried out exactly on the name day of Władysław Sikorski, as a German’s revenge for his courageous speech. The operation was even given the code name “Generalnamenstag” (“General’s name day”). Among the killed, 15 victims were officers and non-comissioned officers of the Polish Armed Forces, 11 were university or school students, probably members of the “White Eagle” scouting organization. There were also doctors, lawyers, mechanics and engineers among the victims. Citizens of many Polish cities. Several people from the village witnessed the crime from different hiding spots, and for many years it was vividly remembered byt he people living nearby. After the war, exhumations took place in Trzetrzewina – the corpses were moved to the Old Cemetery, to the mausoleum commemorating the Victims of the war from Nowy Sącz. Today there is a monument on the execution site in commemorating the 1940 events in Trzetrzewina.

Ghetto in Nowy Sącz

The Nowy Sącz ghetto was created on 12 August 1940. It was divided into a part for the non-working in the “Hell” (Piekło) District a part for the others in the city center. At the peak moment the Jewish quarter would house over 15 thousand people. The area of the ghetto was the site of many executions and crimes commited on the Jewish population by the Germans. The real terror of the people of the ghetto were the so-called operations, when the Germans would carry out executions, in a more or less organized manner. One of these operations took place on 29 April and it resulted in almost 400 dead. During the trial of the German Nazis who were stationed in Nowy Sącz, a lot of crimes committed against individual Jewish people were proven. The prison warden, Johann Bronholdt and the head of the Gestapo Heinrich Hamann really stood out among others in that respect. Most often the crimes were committed under influence of alcohol, which increased the terror felt in the ghetto. The tragic events are commemorated by a plaque on Franciszkańska Str. (on the house, in which all of the inhabitants were murdered), a plaque on the synagogue (dedicated to the memory of the Jewish Victims of the Holocaust) and a pedestal on the Trzeciego Maja Square.

Meadow over the Dunajec River

The site of the last selection before the liquidation of the ghetto on 23 August 1942 After the Germans ordered all of the Jewish people of Nowy Sącz to gather here (almost 16 000 people), they carried out many acts of terror. During the victims’ march toward the railway station, the weakest were shot, and bestial crimes were committed on children. The witnesses also mention that some people wanted to quench their thirsy by drinking from the river – they were shot on the meadow. All of the people gathered here (except those selected for labor) were gassed in the Bełżec death camp. The place where the liquidation of the Nowy Sącz ghetto began is not yet commemorated.

Prison, Pijarska 1 Str.

In September 1939, the German occupying forces organized an autonomous prison in Nowy Sącz, which operated under their management until 17 January 1945. The prison would hold people from Nowy Sacz, Limanowa, Mszana Dolna, Stary Sącz, Grybów, Muszyna, Krynica and many other cities in the region. The arrested were subjected to brutal torture, which they often did not survive. The most fervent abuser of the prison was its warden, the notorious criminal, Johann Bronholdt. People of all professions would be imprisoned here, from priests and city presidents to beggars and thieves. From Pijarska Street the Germans would transport the people of Nowy Sącz towards execution sites. For many prisoners the address was just a stop on their way to the prison in Kraków or Tarnów, and then to KL Auschwitz and other concentration camps.

Gestapo Headquarters, Czarneckiego 13 Str.

During the German occupation, the place gained grim notoriety, particularly thanks to the head of the Gestapo, Heinrich Hamann. This was where he would brutally torture the interrogated, many of whom did not survive. There were rumors that he and his fellow officers owned a whole set of torture tools. Hamann killed judge Wilhelm Miklaszewski with his own hands, by hitting him with a chair. In 1943, the “executioner of Sądecki region” was replaced by the crime commissioner Hauptsturmfuhrer Wilhelm Raschwitz, who also conducted brutal interrogations here. Today there is a plaque on the building, that commemorates the Victims of the Germans and of the communist security services (after the war the building was also the headquarters of the NKVD).

Monument – mausoleum Pietà of Sącz, Wolności Alley (Old Cemetery)

The monument was unveiled in 1954. It was designed by sculptors, Janina Reichert-Toth and her husband, Fryderyk. This place is a symbolic commemoration of over 20 thousand people of Nowy Sącz of all nationalities and creeds, killed in many places all over the world. They are symbolized by 28 urns, which were built into the base of the monument. They contain soil from the concentration and extermination camps among other places. Along the alley leading to the Pietà there are graves with the bodies exhumed from other execution sites (including Trzetrzewina, Rdziostów and Biegonice).

Monument at the Railway Bank

The first execution site chosen by the Germans. From September 1939, Jewish and Polish people would be killed here. Executions took place under the prison, so that the inmates could hear the gunshots – and think of them as a warning. Due to the increasing number of executions, the occupying forces decided to move them to other parts of the city (Biegonice, Jewish cemetery, Rdziostów).

Monument in Kłodne near Męcina

The Germans carried out a brutal execution here on 12 January 1944. Earlier, the Polish underground movement tried to blow up a German train at the exact same spot. Among the victims there were many citizens of Nowy Sącz. Among others Stanisław Pennar, owner of a photographic studio on Jagiellośka Street, associated with the Polish resistance, was killed. People connected to the fire department and its underground structures have also been murdered here. A total of 31 people were killed – 3 of them were hanged. After the war, the bodies were exhumed and moved to cemeteries (most of them to the Old Cemetery). At present, the place is commemorated by a monument.

The execution site in Rdziostów

The largest mass grave of the people of the Sądecczyzna region from the second World War. Some estimate the number of victims here as up to 2000 people. The Germans executed Polish and Jewish people here between 1940 and 1945, until literally the last day of the war. A particular intensification of the murdering happened in the summer of 1942, when the ghettos were being liquidated in the region. Rdziostów became a collective grave of the Jewish people of Nowy Sącz and Limanowa who were unable to work. In following years the terrorization of the Polish population, who would be executed here, was on the rise. Many members of the intelligentsia were killed here, but not only them. The victims included many residents of Limanowa, of Kamienica and, above all, of Nowy Sącz. In the forests around Rdziostów a mother and daughter from the Stobiecki family were killed. The hroic women did not give up any names during the interrogations. The villagers witnessed the murders, that is why there are many testimonies about the events. After the war, some of the bodies were exhumed, but many still lie in mass graves. There is now a monument at the execution site and a place of remembrance was marked here.