The abandoned brick building on ul. Staszica is one of the few traces of the Jewish community that perished in August 1942.
Jews settled late in the town of the Poor Clares. As late as 1799 not one lived here. In 1876 a wooden prayer house was built, and at the beginning of the 20th century a brick synagogue designed by Józef Kostański and funded by Baruch Holländer. The building is oriented, and above the vestibule it has a women’s gallery.
During the occupation the Germans devastated the synagogue. The community that prayed in it perished in August 1942. Some were shot at Piaski by the Poprad; the rest were deported to the Bełżec extermination camp. The building has been on the register of monuments since 1993 and has stood empty since 2000. The mikveh, or ritual bath, was nearby, at ul. Jagiellońska 16. The community had no cemetery of its own, and the dead were buried in Nowy Sącz.
The synagogue can be seen only from the outside. Stop by it for a moment. There is no need to go in to understand how much is missing here.
photo Henryk Bielamowicz · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source
