Zagłada Żydów z Wawrzeńczyc w czasie II wojny światowej w świetle akt gminnych / The extermination of the Jews from Wawrzeńczyce during the Second World War in the light of community records

The chapter discusses the fate of Jews who lived in Wawrzeńczyce, east of Kraków during the Nazi occupation. It is based mostly on the documentation of the local administration. The fonds were preserved almost intact, which is uncommon for this kind of records from the occupation period. The text explains what kind of information about the situation of Jews can be found in those records, and what was deliberately omitted or conveyed through the use of euphemisms. The information from these records is supplemented by the testimony of survivors and Polish witnesses, submitted after the war. Before the war, only a few Jewish families lived there. In 1940, over 100 Jews from Kraków were relocated to Wawrzeńczyce. One characteristic of the rural area was that no ghettos were established. Therefore, Jews lived among Polish neighbours until the extermination operation of the fall of 1942. The last part of the article discusses the fate of those few Jews who sought shelter among Polish neighbours and the various reactions of Poles to Jews looking for help. The chapter is supplemented by a register of all Jews residing in Wawrzeńczyce in the autumn of 1941. In some cases, it is the last record of those who were killed in the Holocaust.