Camp in Płaszów

The total annihilation of the Jewish nation was a priority policy of the Nazis in the occupied territories. One of the crucial elements of this policy in Kraków was the establishment of the Ghetto on 3rd March 1941, and - after the bloodbath of its liquidation on 13th and 14th March 1943 - of the camp in Płaszów.

The site selected for the camp was situated on the territory of Podgórze and partially in Wola Duchacka: a village that was included in Kraków after its borders were expanded in 1941. Before the war, two Jewish cemeteries were situated in the area (Abrahama and Jerozolimska streets). The construction of the camp began in autumn 1942, and involved the destruction of both the cemeteries, while the matzevahs were used for the construction of internal roads and barracks. The camp was surrounded by a 4-kilometre-long (2.5-mile) line of electrified barbed wire fence, guarded by 12 watchtowers. Even after the necessary infrastructure including roads, plumbing, a train siding, and worksites in the nearby stone quarries had been completed, new developments continued to be added. Altogether, over 200 different buildings were constructed here, which included 20 barracks for prisoners and more than 40 that served a variety of production activities carried out here. Both today's ul. Kamieńskiego and the Płaszów - Bonarka railway line are the effect of the arduous labour of the inmates.

In January 1944, Płaszów became an independent concentration camp. It was at that time that the construction of gas chambers began, yet the approach of the front-line prevented their completion. Within nearly 70 hectares (173 acres), hundreds of mass executions took place in the camp, with the victims being buried in mass graves. Faced with the closing down of the camp in September 1944, the bodies of approximately 6000 victims were exhumed and burned over a period of a few weeks in order to conceal the truth. Parallel to these, mass deportation of inmates to the camps began. The last transport left for Auschwitz on 14th January 1945: just 4 days before the liberation of the town.

In the camp's heyday, it held approximately 20,000 prisoners in absolutely inhumane conditions. The staff of henchmen was 600 strong. Their commander was Amon Goeth, infamous for his cruelty, who after the war was turned over to the Polish government by the Americans, judged and executed. On 18th January 1945, the Red Army took over the camp for, among other purposes, the storage of ammunition.

The total number of prisoners who went through Płaszów camp is hard to assess and is assumed to have exceeded 50,000. Side by side with the Jews, Poles were also held captive here - also on a transitory basis - in the secluded "Educational Labour Camp". Other prisoners included Roma and Jewish women from Hungary. The number of those who survived the camp included approximately 1100 persons on the staff of Oskar Schindler's factory, who the industrialist entered on the evacuation list. The history of their rescue, written down in the novel Schindler's Ark, became the basis for Steven Spielberg's film The Schindler's List (1993) which was heaped with awards. The area of the former camp was used as the backdrop to the film. The number of those saved included Tadeusz Jakubowicz, the current President of the Jewish Religious Congregation in Kraków.

Although part of the former camp is occupied by a housing settlement, its remaining fragments hardly changed. The so-called Szary Dom (literally Grey House, at ul. Jerozolimska 3) is also preserved where Hujar, Zdrojewski, Landsdorfer, Ekert, and Glaser - SS-men infamous for their cruelty - lived. In the basement, they arranged a torture cell, which - according to the memories of those saved from the camp - no one left alive. The Villa of Amon Goeth at ul. Heltmana 22 also stands to this day. Besides a few smallish obelisks that commemorate the victims of the camp, a 7-metre (23 feet) high Monument to the Victims of the Nazis by Kraków architect, Witold Cęckiewicz (1964) stands on the side of ul. Kamieńskiego with its overwhelming symbolism of torn out hearts.