Bobowa | Lesser Poland Voivodeship

"Question: What do you know about the activities of the Gestapo officers from Gorlice—Paul Baran, Otto Fridrich, Ernst Piech, and Paul Klope—during the German occupation?

Answer: During the German occupation, in the summer of 1942, in the village of Bobowa, I witnessed the above-mentioned Gestapo officers, accompanied by Polish police, escorting 22 people to be shot. They executed them next to Dzikiewicz’s barn, on the outskirts of the village.

Among those shot were the following acquaintances of mine: Baldinger Aba, Bauman Gudek, Volkman, and Holender. I knew the others only by sight and do not recall their names. They were from Bobowa." [Deposition dated 17.02.1947 by Jakub Peller, born in 1906 in Mszanka, a Jewish survivor, concerning the shootings of Jews perpetrated by the Nazis in 1942 in Biecz and Gorlice, as part of the trial against Edward Kuchke; IPN Krakow 502_4151, p. 6-7 of the PDF]

Bobowa is a small town in Gorlice County, southern Poland. Administratively part of the Lesser Poland Voivodeship, it lies 18 km (11 miles) west of Gorlice and 83 km (52 miles) southeast of the regional capital, Kraków.

Jews first arrived in Bobowa in 1732, brought by Michał Jaworski, the town’s owner, to help revitalize local trade. By 1765, the Jewish population had grown to 44 families. They were granted numerous trade privileges and came to dominate local commerce, in return for paying high fees to the town’s heirs.

That same year, the community built its first synagogue, marking the beginning of a well-organized and active Jewish presence.

By 1880, Jews made up over 40% of Bobowa’s population and played a central role in the town’s economy, owning 90% of shops and 18% of craft workshops. Bobowa also became a prominent center of Hasidism in Poland, with its first tzadik (spiritual leader) being Shlomo ben Meir Natan Halberstam.

During the interwar period, Jewish influence remained strong—70% of the town councilors were Jewish. By the 1930s, the economic landscape showed a clear divide: Jews owned roughly 90% of the shops, while Poles owned around 10%. Among artisans, Jewish craftsmen accounted for about 34%, and Polish craftsmen for about 66%.

On the eve of the Second World War, in 1939, Bobowa’s Jewish population numbered around 700.

German troops entered Bobowa on September 7, 1939, launching a wave of persecution, violence, and the looting of Jewish property. In early 1940, a Jewish Council (Judenrat) was established to collect imposed payments, supply Jewish forced laborers, and assist incoming refugees—mainly from nearby towns, including Gorlice (160), Krynica (40), and Oświęcim (60). As a result, Bobowa’s Jewish population rose from 710 in May 1940 to 1,270 by August 1941.

In October 1941, the Germans established a ghetto in Bobowa. The entire town center was included within its boundaries, with Poles allowed passage only to the parish church. A few Polish families living on the market square were granted special passes. The ghetto was initially open but was likely fenced by the summer of 1942. The synagogue was repurposed into a workshop producing straw overshoes.

Between January and March 1942, several executions took place, mainly at the Jewish cemetery and the market square. The first occurred on January 5, when the Gorlice Gestapo killed 17 people, whose bodies were buried in a mass grave at the Jewish cemetery. On March 4, 1942, Gestapo officers shot 30 people, including women and children; their bodies were also buried in a mass grave at the cemetery. On the same day, five individuals from the close circle of the Bobov Tzadik were executed behind the barn of Kazimierz Długoszewski, the head of the Bobowa commune, and later buried in the cemetery. Another shooting, on March 14, 1942, claimed the lives of 18 Jews.

During the winter of 1941–1942 and the summer of 1942, Jews from smaller towns and villages—such as Brzana, Mszanka, Bielanka, Gładyszów, and Stróża—were relocated to the Bobowa ghetto, creating severe overcrowding. In the spring and summer of 1942, many were deported to labor camps in Bieżanów, Prokocim, and likely Bochnia, while 150 Jews were forced to work in the Bobowa workshop.

The Bobowa ghetto was liquidated on August 14, 1942. That day, 25 Jews were executed by firing squad in the market square and at the Jewish cemetery, where they were buried in a mass grave. The remaining Jews were deported to other killing sites. Around 700 Jews from Bobowa and Gorlice were murdered in the Garbacz Forest near Stróżówka, close to Gorlice. After August 14, another 80 people were shot in the Dąbry Forest near Rzepiennik Strzyżewski.

According to Yahad witness Maria K., born in 1934, a shooting also took place in Bobowa during the liquidation. She recalled that at a farm owned by a man named Gajewski, Jews were forced to dig a pit into which several were then shot. The pit was later covered with lime and is now untraceable.

All remaining Jews were sent to labor camps in Szebnie and to ghettos in Gorlice and Biecz, from where they were ultimately deported to the German Nazi extermination camp at Bełżec.

Maria K. also testified that several Jews found shelter with Christian neighbors in Bobowa. Her own aunt harbored a Jewish man for several months, until the end of the war. Tragically, he was killed shortly after the liberation.

No Jews returned to Bobowa after the war. Today, descendants of Bobowa’s Jewish community live in countries such as England, the United States, Israel, Argentina, and Belgium.

The site of the mass graves at the Jewish cemetery in Bobowa is today marked by a monument funded by the Nissenbaum family.

For more information about the destruction of Jews in Stróżówka, see the corresponding profile.