79th Anniversary of the Holocaust in Mszana Dolna

As every year, we prepared a celebration of the anniversary of the most tragic day in the history of Mszana Dolna, when within a few hours Nazis murdered almost the entire Jewish community of our town. At least 881 people of Jewish origin were killed: women, men, old people and children. Also Christians with Jewish roots, such as Eng. Emil Rosenstock, the Beres family, Anitka Sperber, or Mrs. Śliwińska, who was 8 months pregnant. In the ravine on Pańskie Hill, Jews from all over the area were murdered - the neighboring villages, but also Dobra, Skrzydlna, Tymbark, Kraków and Łódź. Whole families. Little children. Adolescents. Old men who had to be transported to the crime scene in carts. Lea Eichner, the eldest of the Victims, was 86 years old. The youngest, Izia Markus, is only 4 months old... We read their names. The reading itself took almost an hour. We honoured them and lit candles on the menorah and candles of memory. We were accompanied by scouts from the Hufiec Gorczański and Mayor Anna Pękała. The City Hall co-organized the ceremony with us, issued commemorative leaflets, for which we are very grateful. The moving mourning songs were performed by Zoriana Grzybowska from Ukraine accompanying herself on the bandura. There were guests from Krakow, Myślenice and Rabka. After the ceremonies at the grave at Pańskie, we went to the Jewish cemetery, where the second part of the ceremony was held at the wooden matzevah from the "Zapomniane" Foundation. We also talked about the plans to erect a permanent stone matzevah for several dozen victims buried there and to renovate the monument at Pańskie. This year, due to the pandemic, the descendants of the survivors from Israel or the USA did not come, but thanks to the direct transmission on our Facebook portal, they could at least be with us this way. We hope that they will come next year for the 80th anniversary.