The Kraków Ghetto

Ghetto, noun.

1. An area in a city, especially in Europe, in which Jewish people live, often under restrictions imposed by non-Jewish authorities. Now historical.

Originally applied to the Jewish Quarter in Venice, and later to those in Italian cities. The last remaining ghetto in Italy (that of Rome) was abolished in 1870. During the Second World War (1939-45) German occupiers in central and eastern Europe revived them as a means of repressing and confining Jewish people.⸻Oxford English Dictionary

Limanowskiego Street in the Kraków ghetto.

The first Jews to come to Poland likely arrived in the 10th century from countries like Spain, France and Germany. They were travelers and merchants who sought refuge from persecution such as that during the Crusades.

By the 13th century waves of Jews came to Kraków. They were especially welcomed by King Casimir (Ⅲ) the Great and settled in a suburb of Kraków named after him. Kazimierz was located south of the old town of Kraków, across a now non-existent branch of the Vistula River.

The Kazimierz District has now been annexed into the city of Kraków and is known as the Jewish Quarter. For centuries the Jews lived and worked there, becoming the bedrock of the community.

Detail of door and graffiti in the Kraków ghetto.

Nowadays, of course, most of the Jews are gone from Kazimierz, but remnants of their existence still remain. Among many other notable places are the Old Synagogue and the Remuh Cemetery.

After World War Ⅰ and the Treaty of Versailles, Poland regained its independence after years of being partitioned and dominated by other rulers. But during the years between 1918 and 1939 the Jews of Kraków had their rights usurped little by little. Norman Jacobs, a writer on the Holocaust, puts it this way:

“Having caught the attention of the popular (that is non-Jewish) vote, a number of large Jewish-owned businesses were nationalized in the late 1930's and other restrictions―including the prohibition of ritual slaughter of animals, and working on Sundays―were made against Poland's Jewish population. Unassimilated Jews were forbidden to work in the civil service and in the army. In the previous decade, quotas had been enforced for a while, restricting many prospective Jewish students from entering some Polish universities since, according to the government, too high a proportion of students were Jewish; in the previous decade, 25 percent of Kraków's college students had a Jewish background.

“Separate benches for Jews and non-Jews existed from 1937 in some Polish universities. These were called 'bench ghettos'. The anti-Semitic atmosphere of 1930's Europe was a major contributing factor to the genocidal social policy that the Third Reich planned and carried out.”

Kraków ghetto, 1941. German officer checks papers of Jews.     

In September of 1939 Nazi Germany invaded Poland and World War Ⅱ began. The rights of Jews continued to erode at a much quicker pace, although not all at once. The following chronology of the pre-ghetto period of Kraków is given in Bernard Offen's book, My Hometown Concentration Camp:

6 September 1939, First detachment of German Army in Kraków, 9 am. Bread lines and rationing. First beatings and forced labor for all ages 16 to 60.

8 September 1939, Order made for all Jewish businesses, shops and stalls to be marked with the Star of David the following day.

20 November 1939, Jewish deposits and bank accounts frozen.

8 – 24 November 1939, Registration by Nazis of all Jews from Kraków and the surrounding areas.

1 December 1939, Creation of the Judenrat (Jewish Council). List for forced labor drawn up. All Jews 11 years old and above obliged to wear white armband showing the blue Jewish star.

4 December 1939, Confiscation of automobiles and motorcycles.

5 – 6 December 1939, All homes in Jewish Quarter of Kazimierz searched.

26 January 1940, Jews without special permission forbidden to travel outside Kraków under penalty of death. Jews forbidden to travel by public means of transportation.

April 1940, Hans Frank orders displacement of Jews in Kraków (approximately 16,000).

1 May 1940, Jews prohibited from walking on the Planty greenbelt around Rynek Glówny.

May 1940, Jewish homeowners in central Kraków evacuated. Property confiscated by Nazis. Exclusion of Jews from schools.

15 August 1940, Jews forbidden from entering Kraków city center.

25 November 1940, Edict on permanent residence made resulting in the expulsion of many Jews from Kraków.

3 March 1941, Order made forcing relocation of remaining Jews in Kraków to the ghetto. Initial population: 15,000 to 17,000 people.

Map of Kraków, Poland.

Gate leading into the ghetto.

That brings us to the Ghetto Period of Kraków from 1941 to 1943. Using Bernard Offen's book, My Hometown Concentration Camp, as a guide, my wife and I set out to explore the old Jewish ghetto. Bernard was just a young boy during the Holocaust.

Whereas the old Jewish Quarter (Kazimierz) was located just south of the historical center of Kraków, the new Jewish ghetto (in Podgórze) was located just south of Kazimierz, across the Vistula River. Bernard Offen describes the forced moved this way:

“Jews were forced to leave the old Jewish District of Kazimierz – 'for your protection from the anti-Semitic Poles', according to the Germans. The entire Jewish Quarter of Kraków was taken over by the Germans and 'Aryanized,' something that included putting a brothel on Miodowa Street . . . On the day before the ghetto was sealed, much activity took place, people moving and carrying their possessions to the ghetto . . . The Nazis spared themselves no amount of shame or callousness in choosing the holiest day in the Jewish calendar Yom Kippur, (the Day of Atonement) as the last day for entering the ghetto.”

Jozef Pilsudski Bridge across the Vistula River. 

Jews cross the Vistula River in a forced relocation to the ghetto.

Jews brought their personal belongings.  Unknown to them, everything they owned would eventually be confiscated. 

The ghetto, at that time, was completely surrounded by a wall, confining them to an outdoor prison. The Germans thought it humerus to make the wall resemble Jewish headstones. Nowadays there are only two fragments remaining: one off Limanowskiego Street and the other on Lwowska Street.

When we visited the fragment off Limanowskiego I was surprised to see it next to playground equipment. The small grassy area served as a little park. I watched the children on the equipment, seemingly indifferent or unphased that they were playing next to a wall that once imprisoned and eventually aided the murder of thousands of kids their same age.

Fragment of the wall off Limanowskiego Street.

Wall fragment on Lwowska Street.

Old photo of the ghetto wall. 

It is interesting that Streetcar Number 3 went right through the ghetto. Bernard Offen explains: “. . . the streetcars kept running through the ghetto for almost the whole time of its existence. Everyday, lots of people rode through the ghetto, looking with curiosity at the conditions under which we had to live.”

As Germans and Poles on the streetcars passed through the ghetto and saw the conditions of those poor Jews, I wonder what went through their mind, or were they past feeling?  

Two tram lines still run through the boundaries of the former ghetto, both of them running along Limanowskiego Street, perhaps using the same rails as those of old.

Modern-day tram running through the ghetto.

In the days of the ghetto, no Jews could ride the streetcars, even though it ran through their neighborhood. 

On Józefińska Street #5 was the Mikveh, or ritual Jewish bathhouse. Bernard recalls going there with his father on Fridays before the Sabbath. The building there now looks modern and I doubt it is the same building.

Across the street on the corner of Józefińska and Węgierska was the Central Hospital. On 28 October 1942 all the patients and staff were murdered. Bernard describes what happened during this horrific event:

“Afterwards, my brother Nathan and others had the task of throwing the bodies out of the windows into the courtyard. There were little babies in the hospital. Some were just a few days old and still crying. Nathan saw German SS men pick babies up by their feet and throw them through the window. Outside they were hitting them against the sidewalk again and again until there was silence. They were doing this with all the little babies.”

His brother was forced to load the corpses into a wagon, then follow it to a mass grave where they would unload them. Some were still alive. As they did this they were accompanied by German and Ukrainian soldiers.

“On one of the last transport of corpses, of which there were a number, the SS started shooting at the people in the commando working on moving the bodies, since they wanted to wipe out all witnesses of their crime. My brother, seeing what was happening, jumped into the pit. Covered in blood, and acting as if dead himself, Nathan stayed in the mound of bodies to avoid being spotted. Anyone who moved was shot straight in the head by the couple of men who stayed around looking for any possible escapees. Nathan survived that night. After everything had calmed down, he crawled out from under a heap of bodies, under the cover of night.”

Central Hospital where all staff and patients were murdered in 1942.

Cruelty of the Nazis.

Located aside the Plac Bohaterów is the Apteka Pod Orlem, or The Pharmacy Under the Eagle. This pharmacy was operated by a Catholic man, Tadeusz Pankiewicz. He was the only non-Jewish Pole to maintain a business inside the ghetto. It was of interest to the Nazis to keep out disease by dispensing medicine and basic aid to the Jews.

The pharmacy became a place for clandestine operations, sheltering people and aiding the Jewish resistance group. Mr. Pankiewicz provided hair dyes to make the sickly Jews appear healthier to avoid deportations to the extermination camps. He also provided parents with drugs to help their kids sleep during hiding. He did many other things to help the Jews.

Today the old pharmacy has been restored and it is one of the few (and perhaps the only) museum within the walls of the old ghetto. The museum is simple, but gives the visitor a feel of what it may have been like during the ghetto period.

Apteka Pod Orlem, or The Pharmacy Under the Eagle.

Tadeusz Pankiewicz.

There are three points of interest located just outside the ghetto walls. The first is Oskar Schindler's enamel factory, made famous from Stephen Spielberg's movie Schindler's List. It has now been renovated and turned into a museum that not only teaches about the factory, but the entire Holocaust experience in Kraków.

Schindler, a German, took over the factory from a Jew, as they were no longer allowed to own businesses. At the peak, it is estimated he employed 1,750 workers, most of them being Jews. By employing them and deeming them “necessary” for the cause of the war, he was able to save them from deportation to the extermination camps. It is estimated that Schindler saved 1,200 Jews.

Oskar Schindler's factory, now a museum.

Enamel pots made in the factory.

Portraits of people saved by Oskar Schindler. 

Another similar, but less famous operation, was the Madritsch Clothing Factory. This was also located just outside the fence, but on the other side of the ghetto on Podgórski Market Square.

In this factory they sewed German army uniforms. Although he belonged to the Nazi party, Julius Madritsch helped over 4,000 people during the war, Jew and non-Jew alike. In 1944 he was arrested for assisting the Polish Underground, but was later released through connections he had.

Location of the Madritsch Clothing Factory.

Inside the clothing factory sewing German uniforms. 

Adjacent to the factory was St. Joseph's Church, a place of worship for Catholic Poles. Bernard Offen describes his experience in the market square and with the church in the period before the war:

“In the years before the Nazi invasion, I used to accompany my mother or father to the Rynek―the market―to purchase milk, butter, eggs, cheeses, fresh vegetables, or an occasional chicken. I liked the excitement of lots of people shouting and selling their goods, and the special aroma of the market.

“The main building on Rynek Podgórski is the Saint Joseph Church. Although it's a beautiful church, I rarely looked up at the church when I walked by because as a child, I was afraid. Being a Jew, I was the butt of verbal taunts or was pushed down and spat upon. After all, to many Catholic children, I was a Christ-killer.”

St. Joseph church in Rynek Square.

Back inside the ghetto, our final destination would be Plac Bohaterów, the plaza in front of The Pharmacy Under the Eagle. Before the war it was known as Plac Zgody, or Concord Square. It served as a center of commerce, as well as the site of a bus station.

All this changed as the war began and it became a part of the ghetto. The square became most noted as a staging place for deportations, usually to extermination camps such as Auschwitz.

One such roundup or “aktion” happened on June 4, 1942. Hundreds of Jews were murdered in the streets, while thousands were put on trains and sent to Belzec extermination camp. This massacre and act of violence became known as Bloody Thursday.

Nazi soldiers in Plac Zgody.

Another massacre came in March of 1943 when the entire ghetto was liquidated.

Prior to this the Germans created a Kinderheim (children's home), a place where children under 14 could live while their parents worked. The parents were told they would be taught to weave baskets and other skills that would help them when they got older.

By this time a new concentration camp, Plaszów, had been built. Depending on their ability to work, Jews of the ghetto were either sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau (extermination camp), Plaszów (labor camp), or murdered in the ghetto.⸻ The children from the Kinderheim were shot in Plac Zgody.

Empty chairs in Ghetto Heroes Square.

Nowadays the square has been renamed as Plac Bohaterów Getta, or Ghetto Heroes Square. On the square are 31 empty chairs, representing the former residents of the ghetto who lost their lives.

Bernard Offen describes the final days of the Kraków Ghetto:

“On the morning of 13 March, SS-Oberscharfüher Albert Huyar arrived and shot infants, mothers, doctors and nurses at the main hospital at Jósefińska in the second large Aktion there. My father, brothers and I remained in the square for a large part of the day, while shooting and terror surrounded us, later to be marched to the Plaszów slave-labor camp, carrying some clothing, food and cooking pots, as hundreds of others were being shot in the streets.

“It is estimated that the deaths of around 3,000 people resulted from the liquidation of the Kraków Ghetto, perhaps more.

“Now the ghetto was really Judenrein (Jew-free). The 800-year old community of Kraków Jews had been irreparably destroyed, its people and the property and artifacts of its culture. Synagogues, Torahs and other holy books were all burned or simply stolen and re utilized, part of the Nazi's depraved actions.

“On 14 March the ghetto in Kraków ceased to exist.” ♠

Liquidation of the ghetto in 1943.

Corner of Rękawka and Węgierska streets.

Sources

Aside from Bernard Offen's book, information for this post came from touring the ghetto myself, and visiting Oskar Schindler's museum.  All the modern photos are mine, while the old ones have been pulled from other sites.