Józefińska Street and the most important institutions in the ghetto

Józefińska is one of the oldest streets and one of the principal streets in the original plan of Podgórze. It was most probably laid out soon after Podgórze was granted its charter in 1784 replacing a former route leading towards Wieliczka. The most valued buildings are concentrated in the first section of the street, close to ul. Brodzińskiego. These include the classicist houses Nos 2 and 4 (Pod Lwem - the tavern "Under the Sign of the Lion") from the end of the 18th century and a late-classicist house (No. 10-12) from the 1930s. The Art Nouveau building standing at number 18, which housed the City of Podgórze Savings Bank, has retained the lavish decoration of the façade and interiors designed by Antoni Dostal (1909-1910).

In 1941-1943 Józefińska found itself within the ghetto started by the Nazis. It was here that numerous institutions of major importance for the everyday operation of the Jewish district were situated. A handful of them are presented below:

No. 10 - the HQ of The Labour Office (German: Arbeitsamt), which registered people directed to forced labour and composed rolls of people to be transported. Initially, it was operated by a Viennese of the name Scheppessy. Once the Gestapo learned that he had issued fictitious labour assignments, which saved people from transports, he was executed.

No. 14 - The former HQ of the Polish police and the tax office. In 1941, the Jewish hospital was moved here from ul. Skawińska. Despite the general bareness and lack of medications, it was famous for the high quality of services and devotion of the physicians on its staff. The hospital had 120 beds, yet due to overcrowding it frequently put two patients in a bed. During the liquidation of the ghetto, all the patients and medical personnel were executed in the courtyard of the building.

Nos 31 and 41 (the latter no longer extant) - both were parts of the orphanage. The facility suffered a tragic fate towards the end of one of the resettlements. In October 1942 the children were taken to death camps. The column marching to the railway station was then headed by the director of the orphanage Anna Feuerstein and Dawid Kurzmann who - like Janusz Korczak - devoted all his life to the children. Even though Germans offered them the opportunity to stay in the ghetto, they embarked on their last journey together with the children in their care. After the first orphanage was closed, another one was opened at No. 41 for children whose parents worked. Its young residents were executed in Zgody Square during the liquidation of the ghetto.