1. The Main Square

We are in the very centre of Tarnów. The Main Square, which we see here, played a major role in the life of Jewish communities during the centuries of their existence in the city, and in the tragic events of the Holocaust during the Second World War.

The Renaissance town hall in the centre of the Main Square certainly attracts our attention. It was once the seat of the city authorities. Currently, it is a branch of the Regional Museum in Tarnów. The Museum also includes historical tenement houses at numbers 21 and 22, where you will find a wide range of exhibits related to the Jews of Tarnów. The eastern side of the Main Square comprises historic tenement houses, located in the part of the city inhabited mainly by Jews who, until the 18th century, were confined to this area. But then, the economic crisis forced Tarnów’s authorities to change their policy towards the Jewish community and lift restrictions in order to encourage them to settle in other parts of the city as well.

This is how Gizela Fudem describes inter-war Tarnów, where she grew up:

Another, even more exclusively Jewish neighbourhood was near the market. There was a fish market, where only Jews lived, including my relatives. But not many Jews lived in the area where my business school was — on Matejki Street — and where a friend of mine, who let me stay with her later, lived — on Parkowa Street. Also, Ogrod Strzelecki, where there was a seminary, was a neighbourhood where fewer Jews lived. But the main street that went through that area — Krakowska Street — had some Jewish stores.