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Year	General Population	Jews
1880	2,849	84
1890	3,068	124
1900	5,298	198
1910	7,600	361
1921	8,808	533

Zakopane also turned into a center for plastic crafts, regional music, wood carving, and Zakopane style textiles. Zakopane was granted the status of a city in 1933.

The first Jewish settlement in this area at the foothills of the Tatar mountains took place at the end of the 18^th century. Jews were forbidden to settle there permanently until that time. In 1796, the authorities permitted owners of monopolies, such as for liquor, tobacco, salt, and other such products, to settle in the villages of the district. The first Jewish settlers come to Zakopane from Jewish settlements in the vicinity of Nowy Sącz and Myślenice. They found favorable conditions to earn their livelihoods and even to become wealthy. However the harsh climactic conditions, and especially the unstable security situation (it was the area where various smugglers ran through, and there were also gangs of thieves from the mountain people who knew how to evade law and justice in this place that was almost cut off from other parts of the country), as well as the disconnection from Jewish communities – all impeded the rapid development of Jewish settlement in this region until the latter half of the 19^th century. When the town of Zakopane became a center of tourism and convalescence, conditions were also formed for the growth of the Jewish settlement. Many of the livelihood earners found sources of livelihood in commerce and services for convalescents and tourists. Among them were Jews who were needed for kosher meat, public prayer, and other communal public services.

Even at that time, the communal life of the Jews of Zakopane was not very different from the lives of those who settled in settlements [yishuvniks] throughout Galicia. Teachers of children would come to Zakopane from communities for each term. The children studied secular subjects from private teachers. Rabbi Eliyahu the son of Rabbi Shlomo Eichenstein settled in Zakopane in 1885, and was appointed as the rabbi of Zakopane in 1904 by the community of Nowy Targ, to which Zakopane was dependent. He continued his tenure even after the First World War, and died in 1930. However, the Jews of Zakopane did not have an independent community until close to the outbreak of the Second World War. In 1928, the Jews of Zakopane tried to establish a community

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independent of the community of Nowy Targ, with a local council operating in Zakopane. In 1938, the Wojewoda appointed a provisional council of an independent community in Zakopane. A communal council was elected only in 1939. It was headed by Dr. Schildkraut, a member of the General Zionist party. His deputy was M. Szarfo, a member of Poalei Tzion.

During the interwar period, the Jewish community of Zakopane grew in comparison to its size before the First World War. In addition to merchants, owners of convalescent homes, and those who worked in tourism services, there were members of the professional intelligentsia, especially Jewish doctors. A Jewish merchants union was set up during the early 1920s, and a Jewish credit cooperative was set up in 1920 with the support of the JOINT. The cooperative tripled its loans to its members in 1931, and the loan cycle to Jewish merchants and tradespeople grew annually. The charitable fund, which was established in Zakopane already before the First World War, supported the small-scale merchants, peddlers, tradespeople, and those of modest means in the Jewish community. In 1929, needy people were given loans to a sum of 3,825 zloty. From among the communal organizations established by the Jews of Zakopane, the Bikur Cholim society stands out. Not only did it provide assistance for the local poor regarding medical services, but it also provided the initiative in 1928 for the founding of a convalescent home for Jews from all over Poland who were suffering from tuberculosis. In 1938, Bikur Cholim opened an infirmary for impoverished sick people. During that period, Zakopane excelled in the wide branch, vibrant work of the chapters of the Zionist organization, and especially of the Zionist youth organizations. From them came the initiative to establish communal organization for credit and aid, as well as cultural institutions. They were the first to demand that the connection to the community of Nowy Targ be severed, and an independent communal structure be created.

We learn about the existence of Zionist groups in Zakopane already in 1905, when a delegate who lived in Zakopane was elected to the regional council of Zionist organization in western Galicia in Kraków. At the end of the First World War, chapters of General Zionists, Mizrachi, and Poalei Tzion were set up in Zakopane. The decisive power was in the hands of the General Zionists. They had the majority in the provisional council of the Jewish community. Their delegate sat on the village communal council (gmeina), and in 1929, they had two delegates, and the town council (in 1939, Dr. Statle, who had also served as chairman of the provisional council of the community, was re-elected). A chapter of Hanoar HaIvri, the sole Zionist youth group in Zakopane at that time, existed there since 1925. During the early 1930s, a chapter of Hanoar HaTzioni and Akiba took its place. During those years, approximately ten members belonged to Hashomer Hatzair, which conducted vibrant activities in the years of 1933-1934. That organization maintained a Hachshara kibbutz in Zakopane, with nineteen male and female members.

The Wizo women's organization was active in Zakopane throughout that entire period. The Zionist organizations throughout Poland conducted summer camps and camps during the tourist season in Zakopane, especially during the winter, for the season of winter sports. These camps added greatly to the spectrum of Zionist activity there: There were lectures from central activists, as well as cultural activities and sports competitions with the participation of the Jewish sporting veterans of Poland. Prominent people from the theaters of Warsaw and Vilna also appeared locally.

Approximately two hundred shekels [tokens of membership in the Zionist organization] were soled in Zakopane during the elections for the Zionist congresses. 122 shekel payers voted for the General Zionists, eighteen for Mizrachi, and fifty-eight for the List of the Working Land of Israel. In 1937, 318 shekels were sold. Several of the Jewish youths of Zakopane belonged to Communist organizations, or were clandestine Communists. In 1939, it should be noted that most of the members of the Communist youth cells in Zakopane were Jewish. The reading hall, which was established in 1927 was an important center of Jewish culture, as was the library that opened next to it after some time. Lectures, cultural performances, and Hebrew language courses took place in the reading hall. During the 1920s and 1930s, two Jewish sports halls operated periodically: Hakoach and HaGibor. They had sections for several types of sports, the most prominent of which was for winter sports.

The Jews of Zakopane were often afflicted by anti-Semitic displays, both local, and brought in by the thousands of anti-Semitic tourists who visited the place. The number of Jewish convalescents and tourists decreased during the latter years prior to the Second World War because of those displays. This even affected an important source of livelihood of the local Jews.

In 1932, the commander of the border guard unit ordered his officials to break the windowpanes of the building of “The Jewish Organization for Knowledge of the Land.” Six of those who fulfilled the order were brought to justice. In 1939, incidents of breaking of windows of Jewish businesses increased. In April of that year, the hooligans broke into the meeting place of the Akiba organization, destroyed the halls, ruined the furniture and library books, and tossed them into the nearby river. In April 1936, more serious anti-Semitic disturbances took place: Jewish shops were ruined, and passers-by were beaten. The Jewish newspapers that reported on those incidents were confiscated by the authorities. During those years, cases of Jews being fired from their jobs in the entertainment institutions of the city, such as musicians, actors, and dancers, increased.

Since it was close to the border, Zakopane was already conquered on the first day of the war. The Wehrmacht soldiers immediately attacked the Jews and snatched them for forced labor. In October 1939, all the Jewish pension hotel owners had their properties expropriated. Some were imprisoned, and freed after the expropriation. The anti-Jewish decrees grew harsher during the first half of 1940. Heavy contributions were imposed on them, and their movement was restricted. They were even forbidden from passing by the summer homes, in which captions and German directors were housed.

The city and surrounding area were declared to be a closed district in the middle of 1940. All the Jews of 1940 were deported. Most moved to Nowy Targ, and some families dispersed to other communities.

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Nevertheless, the period of torment of the Jews of Zakopane did not end. Several labor camps were set up in the area of the city. A labor camp was already set up in the summer of 1940. Its residents were brought in from the entire district, and worked in quarrying. The camp was liquidated in September 1942, and its prisoners were transferred to other camps. Several prisoners were killed during the liquidation of the camp.

At that time, two additional labor camps were opened in Zakopane. One camp was in the area of the quarry owned by the German Schtwag Company. Approximately two hundred Jewish prisoners from various settlements in the district of Kraków, as well as groups of Jews from the area of the German Reich were found in that camp. Approximately one thousand Jews passed through that camp during the period of its existence. The camp was liquidated in the autumn of 1943. Approximately ten prisoners were killed during the liquidation. The rest were transferred to labor camps near Nowy Targ. Another camp was set up in September 1942 in the area of the sawmill owned by the German Habag Company. It housed several tens of Jews. The prisoners of that camp worked at the building of wooden huts for the needs of the Germans in the city and the area. That camp was liquidated in August 1943. Jews were also held at the Gestapo station of the city. It is known that in 1943, Jews who were brought from Czechoslovakia were tortured in the cellar of that building. Some of them were taken out to be killed in the area of the station.

Bibliography:

Yad Vashem Archives: M-1/E 1210/1172, M-1/E 1317-1285, M-1/E 2329/2374.
YIVO: Adar' p 20.
Central Zionist Archives Z-4/2997, Z-4/224-26, Z-4/222-23.
A'ShTz: (3)83.
AJDC Archives: Countries – Poland, Organization 338a, Reconstruction 399.
“Zaglember Zeitung”: Feb 8, 1929; “Hamagid”: July 19, 1894, August 9, 1894, November 3, 1898; “Hamitzpeh”: August 25, 1911.
“Diwrej Akiba” November 17, 1933; “Hanoar grudzień” 1931; “Jüdisches Volksblatt” March 1-3, 1929; “Nasza Walka” July 14, 1935; “Nowy Dziennik” 1927-1939; “Tygodnik Żydowski” June 10, 1934

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