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Plaszow Concentration Camp
Type: Concentration Camps Price: Free District: Podgorze
Plaszow Concentration Camp
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| The sign as you enter the site of Plaszow concentration camp |
Plaszow concentration camp was established in December 1942 on the premises of two former Jewish cemeteries – the ‘old Jewish cemetery’ and the ‘new’ one - located in the southern part of Krakow’s Podgorze district, close to Jerozolimska St. Plaszow’s primary aims were to exploit Jews as a slave labor force, and after liquidation of Krakow ghetto in March 1943, to house the remains of Jewish population before sending them to death camps, such as Auschwitz.
To create a foundation and prepare the unstable ground for building, the Nazis used Jewish tombstones, in the process erasing the burial ground from existence. The funeral house was an impressive two winged building that was originally spared destruction and used as a stable and shed for some time. However the Nazi’s decided to blow it up and today all you can find at the location is a few stone blocks overgrown with bushes and covered in trash. One mute witness of the cemetery’s profanation has been miraculously saved; the tombstone of Chaim Jakub Abrahamer, one of hundreds that once stood there - however patience and caution is needed to find it, lost on an overgrown hill.
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| Plaszow concentration camp as it was. In the foreground a group of women are marched to work. |
In 1942 Plaszow camp was originally a forced labour camp and had an area of ca. 25 acres, but this space was increased eightfold by 1944, as the concentration camp grew during its life and more space was required, until it was liberated on January 15, 1944. The whole area was surrounded by a live barbed wire fence and a ditch filled with water. As it began as a forced labour camp, Plaszow premises served as night shelter for prisoners who worked in different factories and plants in Krakow producing items that would be used or sold for the benefit of the Nazi army. One of them was Oskar Schlindlers 'Emaila', producing pots and pans, an institution than enabled ca. 1200 Jews survive the nightmare of the 2nd World War.
On the camp’s premises the prisoners built nearly 200 buildings, such as dwelling barracks for men and women (gender segregation was an obligation, severely punished when violated), production barracks and wardens for Ukrainians serving as Nazi guards, warehouses, workshops and other utility buildings. Inside the fence there were two execution spots, now marked by a stone block carved into the silhouettes of men shot through their hearts, and the other - a cross. Fortunately, the gas chambers were never finished, yet prisoners were murdered daily as shot from machineguns, hung, beaten to death, ill, starved and overworked. Experts believe that approx. 80,000 people died in the Plaszow camp, not to mention the thousands who were gathered in Plaszow and then sent to Auschwitz. Mass graves of execution victims were opened in September 1944 and the Nazis burned all the corpses to wipe out the traces of genocide. The ashes were scattered all over the camp.
An average life expectancy in the camp was a few months. Every so often the Nazis carried out a selection to send to gas chambers all those ill, old or injured. The most horrendous ‘culling’ took place on May 14, 1944, when all of the children at Plaszow were taken to Auschwitz to be killed. The Germans played lullabies on Plaszow’s loudspeakers to try to get the children to go quietly to the transport vehicles. Many parents watched helplessly as the children were herded away. Whoever tried to protest was shot on the spot.
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Amon Goeth, the camp commander, used to shoot workers of the camps from these balconies.
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Among all the butchers of Plaszow one man was the most notorious: sadistic Amon Goeth, Plaszow’s commandant. He was in charge from February 1943 till September 1944, when he was dismissed for embezzelment and converting goods taken away from Krakow Jews. The survivors of Plaszow say that Goeth had three hats: two soldier’s hats and a green Tyrol one. When he put on his Tyrol hat, he went hunting for prisoners, shooting them at work on the barrack square or following them inside the barracks. Witnesses say he would never start his breakfast without shooting at least one person. Apart from that, Goeth enjoyed torturing, killing and humiliating people in all ways imaginable. He came up with the idea of Mannschaftzug, or the human train: forcing women, some of them pregnant, to pull a wagonfull of rocks from the nearby quarry. Another of his inventions was the Stehzelle, or standing cell. It was a room of only 60 square centimeters where a prisoner who had ‘misbehaved’ had to stand for a day or more, nearly suffocating from lack of air. After the war, in 1946, Goeth was tried and hung for war crimes. Even at his end he remained proud of what he had done for the Führer, Adolf Hitler and his idea of exterminating all the ‘worst kinds of people’.
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| The site of Plaszow concentration camp today |
What can be seen now at Plaszow camp’s premises are two structures, the ruins of other buildings and a vast, silent, undulating stretch of ground. The location is between Wielicka and Kaminskiego Streets. One of the buildings in the area is an old house with peeling red paint. This is the Red House that belonged to Amon Goeth. Behind it was a quarry. The second building that has been preserved is farther down Heltmana Street – the notorious Gray Home, a prison where people were tortured and killed for breaking camp rules. Opposite it is an air-raid shelter that the prisoners dug out of the ground. Crumbling foundations indicate places where structures once stood. Paths cutting across the ground used to be camp streets. Up on the hill and to the right is the Liban quarry, which Stephen Spielberg used in the filming of “Schindler’s List.” Some Jewish tombstones in the area are fake remains from the filming.
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I was disappointed, nothing to see here. Nothing is marked except the large monument and a few small ones. It is now a place where people take their dogs for a walk and homeless people/drug addicts live. Access/parking to the camp is difficult to find. I had to see it but should have spent more time in other areas of this beautiful city.