The Project to Commemorate the Victims of the Shoah in Mszana Dolna with a Memorial with the Full Names and Age of All the Murdered

Our most recent project to commemorate the actual full names of all the Shoah victims in Mszana Dolna is taking real shape! The verification of the list of those murdered in the Pańskie area on 19 August 1942 and of all those who died at a different time in various other places (including Rabka, Limanowa, Nowy Sącz, Tymbark, Tarnów, Plaszow) lasted many months. The efforts comprised archival queries, communication with the descendants of the survivors, translating the court proceedings from the trials of war criminals, and otherwise looking for any tiniest trace of survival or confirmed death—so that none of the Victims would be overlooked or forgotten. The stonemasonry company Milbart has recently dug and poured the foundations for the new memorial behind the main monument at the mass grave at Pańskie, and the stone plaque is being engraved in the company’s studio. This is a huge challenge: about 1,000 full names of their victims and their age at death need to be included, requiring endless rounds of proofreading alongside providing the Polish, English, and Hebrew versions of a fragment of a Psalm. This involved a cooperation of an entire team of people performing meticulous designing, cross-checking, editing, and proofreading. Which could not have been even started if the funds had not been there. Funding again included a common effort from a great number of people of good will: the descendants, the participants of our charity auctions, individual donors, and grant providers. The project has been co-funded by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (from the Cultural Promotion Fund), the PZU Foundation, the Forum of Dialoge, the association of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw (grants acquisition: Marek Rekucki). We would like to thank all those who have supported and keep supporting this significant undertaking! At last, 81 years after the horrible crime, the Victims will cease to be nameless! The unveiling of the new memorial will take place during this year’s anniversary of the Shoah in Mszana Dolna, on 21 August 2023