Jews lived in the Kazimierz district of Krakow, Poland, sense the 14th century. The district was home too many synagogues, schools, and community institutions and cultural life.
In 1941, during Nazi occupation, the Jews of the Kazimierz district were forcibly moved across the Vistula river to the Podgorze district. Between 15,000 and 20,000 Jews lived within the Krakow ghetto boundaries. They were were enclosed by barbed-wire fences and, in places, by newly built stone walls, some shaped to resemble tombstones. They were required to wear the Star of David armbands. The conditions in the ghetto were severe. Hunger, exhaustion, beatings, and murder was the daily experience. Jews who could work were sent to nearby Plaszow labor camp, Schindler's factory, Julius Madritsch's sewing factory and various other jobs.
The ghetto served as a staging ground for mass deportation of Jews to extermination camps. In March 1943, a major liquidation operation led to thousands of Jews being rounded up and forced into Zolg square where they were beaten, shot, and deported to extermination centers of Belzec and later Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Today, the site serves as a memorial to the Holocaust, with preserved remnants and a museum that honors the memory of the Jewish community that once thrived in Krakow. The film 'Schindler's List" was about the Krakow ghetto and was filmed in Kazimierz and Plaszow.
Kazimierz / Krakow Ghetto
October ??, 2022
High Synagogue also known as the Tall Synagogue, completed in 1563 in the late Renaissance style, the synagogue served as a house of prayer until World War II when its interior was destroyed by Nazis in 1939. Renovations of the synagogue occurred in 1863; and during 1970 and 1971. Since 2005, the former synagogue has operated as a Jewish museum.
Old Synagogue is the oldest synagogue in Kraków and in all of Poland
Old Synagogue. In 1943, 30 Polish hostages were executed at its wall.
Izaak Synagogue
Memorial for the 65,000 Jews who were murdered from the Jewish Quarter and Ghetto.
Krakow Ghetto
In 1941, during Nazi occupation, the Jews of the Kazimierz district were forcibly moved across the Vistula river to the Podgorze district. Between 15,000 and 20,000 Jews lived within the Krakow ghetto boundaries. They were were enclosed by barbed-wire fences and, in places, by newly built stone walls, some shaped to resemble tombstones. They were required to wear the Star of David armbands. The conditions in the ghetto were severe. Hunger, exhaustion, beatings, and murder was the daily experience. Jews who could work were sent to nearby Plaszow labor camp, Schindler's factory, Julius Madritsch's sewing factory and various other jobs.
Bridge connecting Kazimierz and Podgorze .
Forner Gate area
Ghetto Wall
Julius Madritsch's Textile Factory in the Krakow ghetto, provided employment and protection from deportation for many Jews.
Hospital - During the ghetto's liquidation the hospital became a tragic site as anyone unable to move was shot. Staff members were shot.
Jewish Police Headquarters
Judenrat (Jewish Council) headquarters. They were tasked with implementing Nazi policies within the ghetto including deportation of Jews to extermination centers. Those who didn't comply were imediatly executed.
Plac Bohaterów Getta 6 was the regular meeting point of the Jewish Combat Organisation (ŻOB)
“In this place stood the former school building of the Talmud Torah Association, in which Dr. Aleksander Bieberstein set up in 1940 a Contagious Disease Hospital which remained in the Ghetto after 1941.”
“From 1941 - 1943, this building housed the Jewish Social Self-Help Organization. Nearby building No. 22 housed a Day-Care Center for children aged 6-14. During the ghetto liquidation in March 1943, the Germans murdered all the children staying there.”
“Near this site in the Krakow Ghetto was the Jewish Orphanage, which operated here from September 1942. The building at Józefińska 41 no longer exists. On 28 October 1942, the Nazi Germans brutally removed over 200 Jewish children and their caretakers, who had refused to leave their charges, from here. Children under the age of 3 were shot in an unknown location. The remainder and their caretaker were deported to Bełżec Death camp and murdered there.
In memory of the Jewish children who fought to survive in the Krakow Ghetto and those who tried to save them.”
Zolg square (Hero's Square) were Jews were rounded up, beated, exectured and deported to extermination centers of Belzec and later Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Schindler Factory
Schindler Factory building
Oskar Schindler's desk
Under The Eagle Pharmacy
"Apteka Pod Orlem" a pharmacy located in the heart of the Krakow ghetto. Operated by a Polish pharmacist Tadeusz Parkiewicz and his small staff, who provided vital resources for Jews during the holocaust despite the risks to their own lives.