Objects

The drawing depicts a nighttime view of a fragment of the market square and the Three Crosses Hill in Kazimierz Dolny on the Vistula River. Jews had been settling in the town as early as the Middle Ages, and until the outbreak of World War II, this community was steadily growing, particularly during the interwar period. There was a bathhouse and a kosher slaughterhouse as well as Jewish library, Maccabi and Sztern sports clubs, Gemilut Chesed welfare fund and private Jewish schools. In the early 20th century, local branches of political parties were established, with Zionist movements being the strongest. In the 1930s, two Yiddish-language films, popular among Jewish communities worldwide, were shot in Kazimierz Dolny and its surroundings: Der Dibuk (The Dybbuk) directed by Michał Waszyński and Jidl mitn fidl (Yiddle with His Fiddle) by Jan Nowina-Przybylski and Joseph Green. In 1939, among the 4,641 inhabitants, there were approximately 2,500 Jews, constituting about 64% of the town's population. During the Nazi occupation, the majority of the Jewish population was killed, either in the Kazimierz ghetto or through deportation to the Belzec extermination camp. Only a few managed to escape and find shelter outside the town. MBK