d not return. A
ghetto of around 20,000 people was established near the castle, and its
inhabitants were murdered at Belzec extermination camp over three days in
August 1942. Across the river in the Jewish Cemetery, 300-500 people were
executed for their part in sheltering Jews. The Red Army fought its way into
the city on 20 January 1945, and at war’s end, about 60% of the city had been
destroyed. Nowy Sącz was honored for its heroism with the Cross of Grunwald,
third class in 1946. In 1947 much of the Lemko population, living in villages
southeast of the town, was deported in Action Vistula (mostly to land recently
annexed from Germany) in reaction to the nationalist Ukrainian activity in the
region
