Belzec death camp

Most of the Jews from Czarny Dunajec and Podhale died in 1942 in the extermination camp in Bełżec, a town that is now in the Lublin Voivodship on the border with Ukraine. The liquidation action carried out by the Germans began on Sunday, August 30, 1942 at the stadium in Nowy Targ near the railway station. The occupation authorities brought to the stadium about 3,000 Jews who were staying in the city at that time, apart from the inhabitants of Nowy Targ, there were also people from the surrounding towns: Zakopane, Szczawnica, Rabka, Czarny Dunajec and others.

The Gestapo divided the Jews into several groups: members of the Judenrat, the elderly, the sick and those who, according to them, had a lower chance of surviving the transport to the extermination camp, were transported in trucks to the Jewish cemetery in Nowy Targ and executed there. A group of about 300 men under 35 who were able to work were sent to camps, including to Hobag in Czarny Dunajec.

The remaining people, about 1,500 people, were loaded into wagons sprinkled with lime at the railway station in Nowy Targ. The train set off towards Chabówka at approx. 14, and finally reached the extermination camp in Bełżec, where most of the Jewish inhabitants of Podhale were killed.