Rozwadów () is a suburb of

Stalowa Wola Stalowa Wola () is the largest city and capital of Stalowa Wola County with a population of 58,545 inhabitants, as at 31 December 2021. It is located in southeastern Poland in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship. The city lies in historic Lesser Poland ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. Founded as a town in 1690, it was incorporated into Stalowa Wola in 1973. The Rozwadów suburb of Stalowa Wola included a thriving Jewish

shtetl or ( ; , ; Grammatical number#Overview, pl. ''shtetelekh'') is a Yiddish term for small towns with predominantly Ashkenazi Jews, Ashkenazi Jewish populations which Eastern European Jewry, existed in Eastern Europe before the Holocaust. The t ...

prior to

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, closely associated with the Jewish communities of

Tarnobrzeg Tarnobrzeg is a city in south-eastern Poland (historic Lesser Poland), on the east bank of the river Vistula, with 49,419 inhabitants, as of 31 December 2009. Situated in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship (Polish: ''Województwo podkarpackie'') since ...

and other nearby shtetls including

Ulanów Ulanów is a town in Nisko County, Subcarpathian Voivodeship, Poland, with 1,491 inhabitants (02.06.2009). History The town of Ulanów was founded in 1616 by nobleman Stanisław Ulina. Due to its location at the confluence of the San River and ...

Mielec Mielec () is the largest city and County seat, seat of Mielec County. Mielec is located in south-eastern Poland (Lesser Poland), in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship (Województwo Podkarpackie). The population of Mielec in December 2021 was 59,509. ...

, and Dzików. These communities, infused with vitality before 1939, were utterly destroyed by the Germans during the

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

. During the German occupation of Poland (1939-1945) two Polish doctors,

Eugene Lazowski Eugene Lazowski born Eugeniusz Sławomir Łazowski (1913 in Częstochowa, Poland – December 16, 2006 in Eugene, Oregon, United States) was a Polish medical doctor who saved thousands of people during World War II by creating a fake epidemic ...

and Stanisław Matulewicz created a fake typhoid fever epidemic in Rozwadów: "the quarantined area that Lazowski and Matulewicz created became a haven for Polish Jews, who could hide in Rozwadów under the cover of the fake epidemic without fear of the Nazis discovering them. All told, the doctors saved an estimated 8,000 people from being killed or imprisoned during their three-year campaign with the help of a UTI-causing bacterium." Rozwadów - Ratusz.jpg, Town hall, 1910 Rozwadow - Rynek - Ringplatz. 1915 (70630758) (cropped).jpg, Market square, 1915 Rozwadow, Klasztor O.O. Kapucynow. 1933 (70630767) (cropped).jpg, Capuchin Monastery, 1933 Rozwadów is a major rail junction, see Stalowa Wola-Rozwadów (PKP station). The

Rozwadów Parish Cemetery Rozwadów Parish Cemetery () is a historic cemetery established in 1785 in the southern part of the town of Rozwadów, by the then parish priest, Father Bernard Birkenmajer, on a section of the hill known as Góra Kokosza (now the northern distr ...

is also located in this area There exists a

Memorial Book A book of remembrance is a book commemorating those who have died, usually listing their names in date or alphabetical order. They are often compiled to commemorate war dead and others who have died on military operations. Another use is to com ...

( Yizkor Book) for Rozwadow. In Rozwadów,

Josef Schwammberger Josef Franz Leo Schwammberger (14 February 1912 – 3 December 2004) was a German SS (''Schutzstaffel'') Non-Commissioned Officer, Oberscharführer, war criminal, and commandant of the camps in Rozwadów, Przemyśl, and Mielec. Biography During t ...

murdered a

rabbi A rabbi (; ) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as ''semikha''—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of t ...

Yom Kippur Yom Kippur ( ; , ) is the holiest day of the year in Judaism. It occurs annually on the 10th of Tishrei, corresponding to a date in late September or early October. For traditional Jewish people, it is primarily centered on atonement and ...

1942. This was a terrible

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...

which was a reason for his

trial In law, a trial is a coming together of parties to a dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to adjudicate claims or disputes. One form of tribunal is a court. The tribunal, w ...

in 1991.

References

Stalowa Wola Holocaust locations in Poland {{StalowaWola-geo-stub