14. Dagnans’ Mill

At first sight, from where we are standing now, there appears to be nothing special that could catch our attention. We see blocks of flats, a supermarket, and cars slowing down at a roundabout. We have to look more closely to see the signs at the roundabout. They tell us that it was named after the Dagnan family. Before the war, a mill owned by Augustyn Dagnan stood approximately where the supermarket is located. During the Second World War, Dagnan decided to help his Jewish acquaintances, the Unger family, and hid them and a few other people in a specially prepared niche in one of the mill’s rooms. Though the conditions were dire, and there was a great risk of being denounced either by the neighbours or by those still using the mill, the family managed to survive the war years. 

After the war, the story of how the Unger family survived was not widely known. In 2001, the hiding place where the nine members survived was accidentally discovered during a pre-demolition inspection. Witnesses who were old enough to remember the war were questioned. Adam Bartosz,  long-time curator of the Tarnów museum and activist,  thanks to whom the memory of the Jewish and Roma communities and their heritage in the region lives on, wrote an article about the Dagnan family and their heroic deeds. After reading it, one of the rescued Jews, Israel Unger, contacted him. Israel was only a boy during the war, but thanks to his and other witnesses’ testimonies, the story of the rescue of his family and several other people saved by Augustyn Dagnan could be reconstructed quite accurately. In recognition, the City Council decided to name the newly-built roundabout after the Dagnan family. Efforts were also made to honour the Dagnans with the medal of Righteous among the Nations.