Jewish Heritage Trail in Żarki

A town heritage route of six stops runs from Koziegłowska Street to the Old Market Square in Żarki, telling the story of the town’s Jewish community, which for centuries helped shape this town in the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland. A walk while reading the boards — described in Polish and English — takes about 1.5 hours; the route is accessible around the clock.

The synagogue and cemeteries

The key site is the synagogue on Moniuszki Street — a masonry prayer house from around 1870, the third in the town’s history and the only free-standing one to survive. Built in a Neo-Romanesque-Moorish style, after a thorough restoration in 2009–2011 it serves as a community centre. The second stop is the Kierków cemetery, founded in 1821 — one of the largest Jewish cemeteries in the Upland, with about 700 matzevot preserved. Of the older cemetery on Górki Street only an empty plot remains.

The Righteous of Żarki

At 49 Częstochowska Street the Płaczek family hid the Jewish Zborowski family during the occupation — among those sheltered was Eli Zborowski, later chairman of the American and International Societies for Yad Vashem. The Płaczeks were awarded the title of Righteous Among the Nations.

The final chapter

The closing boards tell of the Shoah: on 4 September 1939 the Germans shot 102 people in Żarki, mostly Jews; in February 1941 they created a ghetto by the Old Market Square, imprisoning more than 3,000 people. On 6 October 1942 about 300 of them were shot and the rest deported to Treblinka.