Szczurowa
About fifty kilometres east of Krakow lies a village called Szczurowa and there lived at the outbreak of the Second World War about 100 gypsies. They lived mostly by their own but at the same time integrated into the community. When the Germans occupied Szczurowa in September 1939, the gypsies also came to suffer from the german racial policy. Rascially, the gypsies were considered to be just as inferior as the Jews and were treated as such. On the morning of July 3, 1943, the gypsy settlement was surrounded by German police and polish collaborators and all the gypsies were arrested. They were then taken to Szczurowa’s cemetery where they were shot and buried in a mass grave. The settlement was burned down. Five gypsies managed to escape and hide.
Current status: Monument (2023).
Location: 50°06'59.41"N 20°38'13.81"E
Get there: Car.
Follow up in books: Lewy, Guenter: The Nazi Persecution of the Gypsies (2000).
The monument is located in a corner of the cemetery. The monument contain the names of the murdered. It was at my visit well-managed and worthy. This should not be taken for granted, as gypsies/romas continue to have difficulties in integrating and being accepted in eastern European countries.