The Plaszow camp was established in 1942 under the authority of the SS and police leaders in Krakow (Cracow). It was initially a forced-labor camp for Jews. The original site of the camp included two Jewish cemeteries. From time to time the SS enlarged the camp. It reached its maximum size in 1944, the same year that it became a concentration camp. Until that time, most of the camp guards were Ukrainian police auxiliaries chosen from among Soviet soldiers in German prisoner-of-war camps and trained at the Trawniki training camp in Lublin. 

Płaszów Arbeitslager (labour camp) was constructed by several hundred Jews from the ghetto. Rather sadistically, the SS chose to build the camp partly on top of two Jewish cemeteries. It initially occupied an area of about ten hectares, but within a year it had greatly expanded to over 80. The camp’s design included a section for German personnel, another for work facilities and others for the male and female prisoners. At first, existing buildings were utilised for the camp’s administration but in 1943 over 100 new barracks and other buildings were built. 

Płaszów was a Nazi concentration camp operated by the SS in Płaszów, a southern suburb of Kraków, in the General Governorate of German-occupied Poland. Most of the prisoners were Polish Jews who were targeted for destruction by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust. Many prisoners died because of executions, forced labor, and the poor conditions in the camp. The camp was evacuated in January 1945, before the Red Army's liberation of the area on 20 January.