Origin of the name Tarnovsky

The name Tarnovsky comes from the name of a Galician town Tarnov.
Tarnov or Tarnuv is an ancient town which is located today on the territory of Poland. The surrounding places are well-known in the Jewish history. This is the same Galicia about whose Jews so many literary works were written and so many legends were composed. These are the same Galician Jews that were always considered as a base of the eastern European Jewry. The wonderful writer and Nobel prize laureate, by himself a person coming from Galicia, Shmuel Joseph Agnon dedicated to Galicean Jews his works.

As documentary resources inform, first Jews appeared in Tarnov in the middle of the 15-th century. At least the first written mentioning of Jews belongs to 1455. It is not excluded that Jewish merchants visited the town before that time. However Jews settled in Tarnov in large numbers in the second half of the 16-th century, when the town owners Polish aristocrats Saguiskiis offered to Jews not only the permission to settle in the town but also certain privileges. In particular, Jews in Tarnov got the official right not only to open shops and make and sell alcoholic beverages but also to buy and build houses. In 1582 Jews of Tarnov built a synagogue which guarding was provided by the municipality. Jews had to pay taxes directly to the town owners while they did not obey the power of municipality.

This story repeated itself many times in the Jewish history of the European Galut (diaspora). In order to improve their financial situation feudals who owned some populated place or a town often invited energetic Jews, first giving to them certain privileges and making them to pay taxes directly to the feudal's treasury and not to the town needs. This fact and also that Jews by their high activity created serious competition for the local traders, as a rule, caused strong discontent of the local population that always saw in Jews strange and suspicious aliens that in addition were getting richer just in front of their eyes.
Thus the town owner, usually a local prince or count, was in a rather ambiguous situation. On the one hand, he indisputably got better financially thanks to the money paid by Jews. On the other hand the discontent of the citizens increased and there was a threat of mutiny. Usually the situation ended badly for Jews who settled in the town. Either the local count took no measures to defend them and pogroms started, or the city owner, having improved his financial status, simply banished the Jews which was often accompanied by pogroms again. In rare cases he just canceled the privileges Jews had. Naturally the last possibility was the most lucky one for the Jewish community. Unfortunately this did not happen as often as our ancestors would like to.

However just for the Jews of Tarnov there was luck: this time the situation ended with just a number of anti-Jewish restrictions and also Jews who lived in Tarnov started to obey the local municipality starting from 1640. Fifteen years later after the introduction of these new laws, Tarnov was attacked by the Swedish army who destroyed the town. Those familiar with the history of medieval Europe remember about the numerous big and small wars happening on its territory. Local feudal towns were robbed, they passed from one owner to another, while towns population were mercilessly killed. After the Swedish invasion major part of Tarnov was burnt down and a significant portion of residents, both Christian and Jewish ones, were killed.

The situation of the Jews of Tarnov worsened sharply. Finally in 1670 the community representatives reached certain agreement with the town rulers according to which Jews had a right to reside in the town permanently. And the main thing - they could use water from public wells. As you probably know during that time there practically was no aqueduct in Europe and the right to use water equaled the right to live. For that the Tarnov Jews had to pay 30% of taxes instead of Christians, not to buy anything out of Tarnov (that is essentially to stop trade) and not to accept to their community Jews from other places. These laws guaranteed to Jews more or less safe living but they did not guarantee the flow of their money to the town owner's pocket. Having recognized the absence of the Jewish money and badly needing financial help, the local prince canceled all agreements with Jews by a new law and gave Jews all their previous privileges back. According to census of that time, about 900 Jews lived in Tarnov then while the surrounding villages that will later become Jewish shtetls contained a thousand and a half more.

As a result of the next European war, in 1772 the famous first separation of Poland occurred and the town of Tarnov started to belong to Austro-Hungary. Now the local Jewish population naturally started to obey a special Austrian law on Jews. It is hard to say if this was lucky. At the same time the law was better and worse than the Polish count laws. On the one hand the Jewish population of the town started to grow fast, even a Jewish school was opened where the teaching was in German and secular sciences were also studied. In 1846 already almost eight thousand Jews lived in Tarnov. On the other hand, Jews were ordered to build a Jewish district outside the town and move to this new ghetto. Jews in all ways tried not to follow this ruling and settled outside the borders of the district. This in turn caused strong resistance and discontent from Christians.

In the end the community was subject to false accusations which almost brought total destruction of all Jews of Tarnov. Anyways, despite all restrictions and withstanding, the Jews of Tarnov managed to survive and in a sense even prosper in this town. In the end of the 19-th century in Tarnov there already were six synagogues, a school and a Jewish hospital. By the beginning of the 20-th century Jews totally dominated the town's trade and also started to develop textile production. They organized production of cloth and head covers. This is while both the contractors and hired workers in this new and perspective field were exclusively Jews themselves. In 1910 a Jew even became a vice burgomeister of Tarnov.

After the World War I, the Russian revolution and the unsuccessful attempt by reds to conquer Poland and, in particular Galicia, Tarnov again started to belong to Poland. By that time there were already about 16 thousand Jews living in Tarnov. They owned six hundred different enterprises, shops and workshops. One can hardly expect that the Polish governors liked such state of affairs. Poles tried to do everything to change the situation. Polish administration introduced discriminating economic laws that involved only Jews. As a result, in twenties, majority of Jewish businesses in Tarnov went bankrupt. By thirties the community expenditures for helping poor Jews exceeded the income. Polish administration used this and changed the electing heads of the community substituting them with especially chosen people. In 1939 Poland was invaded by Germans. With the help of Polish activists Germans immediately found in Tarnov the most well-known community representatives. These people were among the first town Jews who were murdered. In May 1941 Germans created a ghetto in Tarnov where they brought also all Jews from the surrounding shtetls. In 1942 twelve thousand people were sent to Belzhetz death camp. In two months eight thousand more were sent, in a month - three thousand more.

After that the Jews who remained in the ghetto were separated. All Jews who still could work were put in ghetto "A", while the rest were put in ghetto "B". In half a year all people residing in ghetto B died from hunger. Half a year later all remaining Jews were deported to Osventsim. Five hundred Jews were shot to death when still in Tarnov, seven hundred were shot on the way to the camp. Almost all Jews sent to the death camps of Osventsim, Plashov and Belzhetz perished.
In 1945 after the victory part of Jews who miraculously survived tried to get back to Tarnov. Overall they were but seven hundred men, seven hundred out of twenty five thousand who inhabited Tarnov before the war. Poles, the same Poles who lived with these Jews for five centuries, did not let them into the town. They did not allow Jews to settle in Tarnov again. Tarnov finally became "Juden frei"...

It only remains to add that during the time of socialist Poland nothing changed in this town. As we saw already peoples do not change their views depending on the social situation. In 1965 thirty five Jews who miraculously remained there still lived in the town. With this the Jewish life of the town stopped to exist. The history of life of Tarnov Jews is one of the countless histories of our life in the Galut. Our life among other peoples with its humiliations and attempt to put roots in the environment alien to us. Our attempt to survive and build our life among anti-semitism and suspicions, envy and mistrust, with a sword constantly above our heads. And it does not matter who this sword belonged to - Poles or Austrians, Ukrainians or Germans.

The recognition of one's defenselessness and permanent dependence on the benevolence of those having the power, humiliation of existence in the environment where you are not only considered not equal but also it is doubted if you have a right to live, where you always have to prove that you did not kill Christian babies, you did not give drinks to the local population, finally that you are not an enemy to those surrounding you and you don't desire their death - this is the existence our great grandfathers had. They survived despite everything. Only very few of these Jews converted to the faith of surrounding peoples and by this granted themselves existence without troubles and the right for privileges of which their tribesmen were deprived. We all are descendants of Jews who survived all the terror of the Galut.