The earliest documents to confirm the presence of Jews in Mszana Dolna date back to the mid-18^th century. They mention Jewish innkeepers living in town, having been granted official permission to hold lease of the businesses from the Mszana Court. However, considering the commercial character of the town in the 16^th and the 17^th century, individual Jews had most probably been settling in Mszana much earlier than the source documents suggest.

An independent Jewish community was established in Mszana in 1870. It boasted its own synagogue and cemetery, as well as a mikveh also used by the local Christians. After the so-called “Imperial” road and railway line were built in Mszana, the town’s population grew significantly, including the Jewish community. At the beginning of the 20^th century, a Jewish school operated in the town. It was also attended by Jewish children from nearby villages. In the years 1891–1912, the post of the local rabbi was held by Josef Hollander. He was succeeded by his son Natan Dawid, and since 1938 by his grandson Aron Arie Hollander. Jews dealt mainly with retail trade and peddling in nearby villages. At the end of World War I, in the first days of November 1918, the Jewish community of Mszana was targeted in a pogrom. Jewish shops and houses were vandalised and plundered. The violence was eventually deescalated by a public address given by judge Stanisław Panaś.[1.1]

The cultural life of the Jewish community was thriving. In 1930, a library was established in the town, available to all local residents. The library’s collection included 535 books. Mszana boasted local units of Zionist youth associations and the Bund. Young people were active in the Akiva and Achdut associations. Political parties were active as well: the Agudath and the Zionists. In the 1927 election of delegates to the 15^th Zionist Congress, General Zionists received 36 votes and Hitachdut – 2. In 1923, the Joint financed the foundation of the Bikur Cholim association in Mszana.

The 1930s saw growing anti-Semitic sentiments in the town. There was even an instance of blood libel, but the accused – a local Jewish woman running a small shop – was acquitted in court. In 1930, a Jewish family was assaulted in a nearby village; a gun was fired. All these incidents stemmed primarily from economic factors. Anti-Semitic slogans fell on particularly fertile ground in the villages, inhabited mostly by impoverished farmers.

The Jewish life of Mszana saw its end with the Nazi occupation. Before the outbreak of World War II, approximately 800 Jews lived in the town. Soon after the Germans captured Mszana, Jews were stripped of their property and targeted with numerous repressions. Some tried to escape to the East in the first days of the war, but the majority eventually returned. In the autumn of 1939, the Germans carried out a mass search of Jewish houses and confiscated most of the valuables. Jews were forbidden to engage in commerce or contact the local Christian residents. In January 1940, an unfenced ghetto was established in Mszana. Some 900–1,000 people from nearby villages were displaced to the district. A Judenrat was established, with Arie Schmid as the chairman.

In July 1940, a group of ca. 50 people was displaced to the ghetto from the countryside. The prisoners were exploited as forced labourers at road construction. A large group of men worked in the nearby quarry. In the spring of 1942, several young Jews were sent to labour camps in Pustków and Płaszów. On 1 May 1942 a group of 22 Jews from Mszana accused of sabotage was murdered in “Aderówka.”

The ghetto in Mszana was liquidated on 19 August 1942. According to the ordinance of 16 August 1942, its residents were to be transferred to the ghetto in Nowy Sącz. Jews were ordered to assemble in the so-called “Pańskie Field” at 5 a.m. Each person was only allowed to carry one suitcase no heavier than 20 kg. Gestapo officers from Nowy Sącz under the command of Heinrich Haman came to Mszana to oversee the operation. They selected a group of ca. 120–130 young men. A group of ca. 80 people was taken to the “Julag” plant in Limanowa, where they worked at road construction and pulled down the camp buildings during its liquidation. They were eventually shot in Zamieście near Tymbark on 5 November 1942. After the war, their remains were exhumed and buried in a mass grave in the Jewish cemetery in Kraków. The other part of the selected group stayed in Mszana Dolna and was sent to work in a quarry. They were later taken to the ghetto in Tarnów. Only a handful managed to survive. All the remaining Jews assembled in the Pańskie Field were escorted to the back of the nearby canned food factory, where they were executed in groups over a pit dug in the ground. A total of ca. 900 people were shot that day. Ten Jews were spared in the massacre and tasked with collecting the property of the victims. They were executed once they completed the work. The few who managed to hide or who worked in the quarry were taken to Nowy Sącz in November 1942 and shot.

After the war, several Jews who had survived the Holocaust came to Mszana and founded a monument to commemorate the murdered.

Bibliography

• Michalewicz Jerzy, Żydowskie okręgi metrykalne i gminy wyznaniowe w Galicji, Kraków 1995, p. 110.
• Encyclopaedia of Jewish Communities. Poland, vol. III, Western Galicia, Silesia, Wein Abraham, Weiss Aharon (eds.), Jerusalem 1984, p. 251.
• Mahler R. (ed.), The book of the Jewish community of Nowy Sacz, New York 1970, pp. 750, 784, 785, 836.