Krakow Ghetto today
Krakow Ghetto today

HISTORY OF THE KRAKOW GHETTO. KRAKOW GHETTO DURING THE HOLOCAUST 

By September 6, 1939, when the German army occupied Krakow on the sixth day of the War, about 65,000 Jews lived within the city and the suburbs, including those who had previously emigrated from Nazi Germany. Soon after the invasion, the occupation authorities prohibited Krakow Jews from holding meetings, using public transport, and visiting public places. Starting from December 1, 1939, all Polish Jews over the age of twelve had to wear a distinctive badge known as the Star of David. In 1940, more than 40,000 Jews were resettled in nearby villages outside Krakow, in the Lublin district, and also in labor camps. March 20, 1941, was determined as the deadline for the creation of a Jewish ghetto in Krakow, an area of about 20 hectares. Podgorze district, to the south of the historic Jewish area of Krakow, Kazimierz, was chosen as the object of resettlement.

Announcement introducing restrictions on the movement of Jews in Krakow 29 April 1940
Announcement in German introducing restrictions on the movement of Jews in Krakow, April 29, 1940
History of the Krakow ghetto
Krakow Jews were forced to clear the snow on the streets
Jews forced to clean snow from Krakow streets
Another photograph of Jewish males who were ordered to clean snow in Krakow streets

Since the special resettlement commission identified 2 square meters of living space for each inhabitant of the Krakow ghetto, about 18,000 people, several families in an apartment, now lived in Podgorze. Initially, the area was surrounded with barbed wire under security, and in April 1941, a three-meter-high wall was erected around the perimeter, the upper part of which replicated the shape of the Jewish gravestones. The windows facing the non-Jewish rest of the city were walled up. It was possible to leave the ghetto walls only with a special work permit, which gave the right to work on Aryan enterprises outside the Krakow ghetto. Food and medicine supplies were at a minimum level of accessibility. The German administration approved the creation of a puppet management body called Judenrat (Krakow ghetto Jewish Council).

Krakow ghetto during the Holocaust
The border of the Krakow ghetto at the initial phase was made of barbed wire
Krakow ghetto during the Holocaust. The ghetto wall
The building up of the 3 meter-high wall in Krakow, Spring 1941

The first deportation of about 1,000 residents of the Krakow ghetto area of the old age took place in December 1941 and the deported Jews were simply released from the carriages near the city of Kielce. The second action was operated in February 1942, when 140 Jewish intellectuals were arrested, and then taken to Auschwitz and murdered. On the night of March 14, 1942, another 1,500 inhabitants were taken out to the Lublin district and released there. The most massive action took place on 1, 3-4, 6, and 8 June 1942, when about 7,000 Jews who did not receive new German work permits were herded on the territory of the Optima factory and within the Plac Zgody square. At the start, they were taken to the Plaszow railway station, and then, in cattle cars, they were taken to the Belzec death camp, where they were killed shortly after their arrival. This mass action is known as the Krakow ghetto massacre. On June 20, 1942, due to the decrease in the number of residents, the Krakow ghetto area was almost halved.

Police round-up within the Cracow ghetto
A German official controls a deportation action in the Krakow ghetto in 1942

After a short standstill, the next mass deportation of Jews from the Krakow ghetto area was held on October 27-28, 1942, when 4,500 people were sent the same way to Belzec, and 600 residents, mostly children, the sick, and the old were killed on the street of the ghetto or in the Plaszow Concentration camp. A few days later the Krakow ghetto area was again reduced. On December 6, 1942, the Krakow ghetto was divided into two parts: Ghetto A and Ghetto B, segregating who was fit for work from all the rest. The Krakow ghetto liquidation was performed on March 13-14, 1943. During the most bloody action within the years of occupation, also known as the Krakow ghetto massacre, according to various sources, from 1000 to 2000 people were killed right on the streets. 6,000 fit-to-work were relocated to the Plaszow labor camp in the southern part of Krakow. 3000 old men, women, children, and the sick were loaded into cattle wagons and sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where only one among five was temporarily selected for work, the rest were sent to gas chambers shortly after. In September 1943, the last remains of the barbed wire were removed from the streets, symbolizing the complete liquidation of the Krakow ghetto. At the same time, the poor Poles eventually occupied part of the dwellings in Podgorze, and most of the Krakow ghetto has survived to the present day.

Holocaust in Krakow
The SS Unterscharführer humiliates the Jews during the police raid in the Krakow ghetto, in 1940
The liquidation of the Krakow ghetto, March 1943
The mass eviction of the Jewish population from the Ghetto, March 1943
Krakow ghetto roundup
German soldiers during the roundup in Krakow

 

KRAKOW GHETTO TODAY. GHETTO LOCATION 

The Krakow ghetto today, in contrast to the larger and more well-known and infamous Warsaw ghetto, has survived to these days with almost the same appearance it met at the end of the war. Of the 320 houses that were inside the perimeter of the Krakow ghetto location in the spring of 1941, several dozen contained not only residents but also various kinds of organizations and institutions. Only a few of them at the intersection of Jozefinska and Na Zjezdzie streets have not survived until now: the Prison, the Order Police Building, and the orphanage house. Naturally, many of the buildings in the Podgozge Jewish area of Krakow have been renovated within seventy years, but altogether, the district has retained its gloomy appearance. Most of the buildings look the same as they were in 1941-1943, which makes the Krakow ghetto district a unique place for historical walks and among the most preserved Krakow World War 2 sites. The excitement is supported by various guides of the Krakow ghetto then and now, but I suggest you take a walk on your own and see all the key places of the Krakow ghetto today within 2-3 hours.

I’ve prepared a detailed Krakow ghetto map with all the main sites, that became infamous during the Krakow Holocaust period.

Krakow ghetto today. Krakow ghetto location

  1. Ghetto main gate
  2. Ghetto gate № 2
  3. Ghetto gate № 3
  4. Ghetto gate № 4
  5. Plac Zgody (Ghetto Heroes Square)
  6. Krakow ghetto ”Pharmacy under the Eagle” (Apteka pod Orlem)
  7. Jewish Fighting Organization (ZOB) safe house
  8. Judenrat  first office
  9. Order police office and a prison
  10. Ghetto Prison
  11. Industrial School for the Jewish Orphans
  12. Hospital for the chronically sick
  13. Infectious Deceases Hospital
  14. Jewish Mutual Aid Society (Self-Help Organization)
  15. German Labor Office (Arbeitsamt)
  16. The main hospital of the ghetto
  17. Julius Madritsch’s factory
  18. Optima factory
  19. Orphanage
  20. Zucker synagogue
  21. Remained fragments of the ghetto wall (Limanowskiego 62)
  22. Remained fragments of the ghetto wall (Lwowska 25-29)
  23. ”Variete” restaurant
  24. Jewish orphanage
  25. Judenrat second office
  26. Ghetto gate after 20 June 1942
  27. Jozef Pilsudski bridge

KRAKOW GHETTO MAIN GATE 

The main of the four gates to the Krakow ghetto area was located at the intersection of Rynek Podgorski Square and Boleslawa Limanowskiego Street. A tram line number 3 passed through them, and also trucks with goods, provisions, uniforms for German security guards, and Jews who were taken to work outside the ghetto, used to enter and leave the area through this gate. In addition, people with the appropriate pass could use the pedestrian entrance. A Star of David and a Yiddish inscription “Residential quarter for Jews” were painted on the wall of the Main Gate of the Krakow ghetto.

Krakow ghetto main gate
The Gate is under construction, Spring 1941. The Judenrat building is to the left. The photo was taken from inside the perimeter of the Krakow ghetto
Krakow ghetto main gate 1941
The Gates is still without the notorious inscription. This shot was taken from outside the ghetto at the Rynek Podgorski square
The Gates of the Jewish ghetto in Krakow
The Gates with the infamous inscription
Rynek Podgórski, brama nr I getta krakowskiego przy ul. Bolesława Limanowskiego
Another unique photograph of the ghetto main gates while looking from Rynek Podgórski Square. The sign says ‘Jewish residential area’
Boleslawa Limanowskiego Street, Krakow ghetto today
I took this photo while standing at Rynek Podgorski Square in the direction of the former Gates. The former building of the Judenrat is to the right
Boleslawa Limanowskiego Street Krakow
The office of the so-called Jewish administration or the Judenrat was located in this building between 1939 and 1942

 

GHETTO GATE №2 

This Nazi Krakow gate was located at the descent of the Boleslawa Limanowskiego and Lwowska streets and had only a pedestrian passage, and traffic or military formations were prohibited here. Gate № 2 was used for the deportation of residents to the Plaszow labor camp or other camps using the Plaszow railway station.

Ghetto gate № 2 Krakow
Photo of the gate in the direction of Boleslawa Limanowskiego
The second gate of the "Jewish residential quater' Cracow
The same place with the perspective far to the left
The former Ghetto gate № 2 Krakow
Boleslawa Limanowskiego Street is to the left as well as the preserved buildings that once formed the sides of the ghetto Gate № 2
Ghetto gate № 2 today, history of Krakow
A closer look at the site of the former gates to the ghetto. The buildings are the same as eighty years ago

 

GHETTO GATE № 3

Was located at the convergence of the Jozefinska and Lwowska streets. Tram line number 6 passed through them, and it was forbidden to make stops inside the Krakow ghetto walls. Most of all, this route was used by Polish workers, who used to make their way between the Podgozge district in the north and the factories in the south. Occasionally they threw food and belongings for Jews in the ghetto from a passing tram.

Ghetto gate № 3 Krakow
The photo was taken from inside the ghetto in the direction of Lwowska
A column of captive Jews march with bundles down the main thoroughfare in Krakow during the liquidation of the Krakow Ghetto. SS guards oversee the deportation action to the extermination camps
The Gate №3 (in the background) during the liquidation of the ghetto. SS guards oversee the deportation action to the extermination camps
Ghetto gate № 3 liquidation of the Krakow ghetto 1943
The infamous photo of the liquidation with Gate №3 in the far background
Krakow ghetto today
The Gates were located in the right part of this photo
Lwowska street today, Krakow, Poland
Lwowska Street was named after the city of Lwow, the modern Ukrainian Lviv

 

GHETTO GATE № 4

The last of the four ghetto gates in Krakow (a period from March 1941 until June 1942) was located in the northern part of Plac Zgody Square, at the intersection with Kacik Street. Jews who were lucky to be employed in enterprises outside the ghetto, for example, at the  Oscar Schindler’s DEF factory, generally used to leave the walls of the quarter using this gate, on a daily walk to the place of work. It was through this gate that the workers most often carried provisions into the ghetto walls, which they managed to obtain during the working day.

Ghetto gate № 4 Krakow
This rare historical photo was taken in the direction of the ghetto from the outside
Krakow ghetto gate Na Zjezdzie street
The reverse perspective: the cameraman stood inside the ghetto and took a photo in the direction of Na Zjezdzie street
Na Zjezdzie street today
The gates were located in the left part of this location

 

PLAC ZGODY (GHETTO HEROES SQUARE)

This area was ”created” in the Podgozge region as early as 1836. The largest open space within the walls of the Krakow ghetto was a traditional meeting place for its inhabitants. They used to manage their way out of the overcrowded apartments to the Krakow Jewish ghetto square to exchange news, and products, or just to chat with each other. The northern part of the square once placed one of the four gates to the ghetto, through which tram line 6 passed, as well as workers employed in factories outside the district walls. Plac Zgody was used by the Germans during mass deportations and a Krakow ghetto massacre as a gathering place for Jews to be sent to Belzec, Auschwitz, and Plaszow. Jews were executed within the square, and old people, children, women, and the weak were shot in the surrounding streets.

During the liquidation of the Krakow ghetto in March 1943, clothes and personal belongings of the deportees, as well as furniture from nearby houses, were dumped on the square into heaps. In 1948, the square was renamed “Ghetto Heroes Square”, but their memory was blurred by the placement of a public toilet and a bus stop. Only in 2005, the area was historically renovated. Among other things, a bus station in the northern part of the square was reconstructed and today it contains the scheme of the former Krakow ghetto. 70 metal chairs (33 of 1.4 meters high and 37 of 1.2 meters high), known as ”Krakow chairs” were installed within the open space as the Krakow ghetto memorial, symbolizing the horrors of the ghetto, deportation, massacre, and liquidation.

Plac Zgody Krakow 1930
Plaz Zgody Square and the bus stop in the 1930s
Plac Zgody nbefore the WWII
The bus station before the occupation in 1939
Plac Zgody Krakow today
The building of ‘Galeria Na Placu’ (Gallery on the square) with a small souvenir shop where I bought an excellent map of the former ghetto area
Plac Zgody Krakow ghetto
One of the few known photos of Plac Zgody during the Nazi occupation
Plac Zgody 1950s
Plac Zgody in the 1950s
Plac Bohaterow Getta Cracow
I was impressed by seventy metal chairs which create a depressing yet involving historical atmosphere

 

PHARMACY UNDER THE EAGLE (APTEKA POD ORLEM)

This Krakow ghetto pharmacy, located in the southwestern part of Plac Zgody Square, was the only institution of its kind within the walls of the Krakow ghetto. The pharmacy was owned by Tadeusz Pankiewicz, a Polish pharmacist and the only non-Jewish person who was allowed by the German administration to live and work within the Podgozge ghetto in Krakow. Pankiewicz supplied the necessary medicines to the Krakow ghetto, and also provided Jews with provisions, temporary shelter, and even forged documents, saving human lives. Only four decades later, in 1983, Pankiewicz was officially honored as the Righteous Among the Nations.

The Pharmacy under the Eagle was also a meeting place for Jewish intellectuals and former cultural figures and a place to share the latest ghetto news. In 1951, the pharmacy was nationalized, but Pankiewicz retained control until 1955. The pharmacy was closed in 1967, and the bar was located here until 1981. Two years later, a small historical exhibition opened in the building, and in 2003, thanks to the donation of the director Roman Polanski, once a prisoner of the Krakow ghetto himself, the museum was expanded. Today, the building of the former ”Apteka pod Orlem” houses the historical exposition of the Krakow Historical Museum, which consists of five rooms dedicated to life and death within the Krakow ghetto.

Tadeusz Pankiewicz
Tadeusz Pankiewicz inside and outside his Pharmacy
The staff of Tadeusz Pankiewicz's The Eagle Pharmacy
The staff of Tadeusz Pankiewicz’s ‘The Eagle Pharmacy’ in 1942 or 1943. From left to right: Helena Krywaniak, Aurelia Danek, and Irena Droździkowska
Tadeusz Pankiewicz
Tadeusz Pankiewicz and his collegues
Tadeusz Pankiewicz Apteka pod Orlem
An elderly Tadeusz Pankiewicz standing next to his famous ‘Apteka pod Orlem’
Pharmacy under the Eagle (Apteka pod Orlem)
It is almost unimaginable to come to the former Plac Zgody and miss the building of the Pharmacy
Pharmacy under the Eagle Krakow ghetto today
The Pharmacy forms the Southern part of the modern Plac Bohaterow square

 

JEWISH FIGHTING ORGANIZATION (ZOB) SAFE HOUSE 

By the end of 1940, before the establishment of the ghetto area in Podgozge, after a year of occupation, the Jews began to organize the Resistance Movement to stand against the Germans. It is known as ”Zydowskiej Organizacji Bojowej” or abbreviated as ZOB and was conclusively organized in September 1942, after the unification of two different resistance groups. Initially, its members did not take active steps, but at the end of 1942, they began to carry out sabotage actions against the invaders, acts of wrecking, and even attacks on the Germans and collaborators. On December 23, 1942, members of the ZOB resistance even attacked the ”Café Cyganeria”, where German officers liked to assemble and several Germans died. Although members of the resistance gathered in different places, the headquarters of their organization is considered to be an apartment at Plac Zgody 6, right on the main square of the Krakow ghetto.

Jewish Fighting Organization (ZOB) safe house
The Jewish Combat Organization (ZOB) had meetings in the apartment at Plac Zgody

 

KRAKOW’S JUDENRAT’S FIRST OFFICE 

The office of the so-called Jewish administration or the Judenrat was located at the intersection of Rynek Podgorski Square and Boleslawa Limanowskiego Street for three years, from 1939 to 1942, and adjoined Main Gate No. 1. This puppet body, under the careful control of the German administration, consisted of 24 members under the conditional guidance of Artur Rosenzweig. Dr. Alexander Biberstein was elected as the first nominal leader of the Krakow Judenrat. He was the head of Kraków’s Judenrat until being arrested and sent to the Belzec death camp on June 1, 1942, for ”non-performance” of the deportation plan. The Judenrat was supposed to ensure the maintenance of life within the ghetto walls, control the minimum sanitary conditions, and the distribution of food among the inhabitants. Its members had to collect information about residents for the Germans and prepare lists for deportation. After the arrest of Rosenzweig, the Krakow ghetto Judenrat was dissolved in its original form, and the new puppet ”government” moved to Wegierska Street 16. The former building was used as a warehouse for things stolen from the deported Jews.

Krakow's Judenrat first office
Rynek Podgorski in 1903
The building of Judenrat Krakow
The building as it was in the 1910s
Jews next to the Judenrat building during the Holocaust
The Jews at the entrance to the Judenrat building during the occupation
Krakow Judenrat
Inside the Krakow Judenrat office
People applying for working permits at the Judenrat in the Krakow ghetto during the occupation
People applying for working permits at the Judenrat in the Krakow ghetto
The building of Judenrat krakow
The office of the so-called Jewish administration or the Judenrat was located here for three years, from 1939 to 1942.

 

ORDER POLICE OFFICE AND A PRISON

One of the two important buildings on the territory of the Krakow ghetto has not been preserved until today. Before the construction of Na Ziezdzie Street, which once connected Plac Zgody Square and two streets in the South after the war, the former police building was located at Jozefinska Street 17. Ordnungsdienst (OD) police force consisted of Jews, led by Simcha Spira, unfamous for his close cooperation with the Germans. Later, he and his family were executed in the Plaszow concentration camp in 1944, and during the time of the Krakow ghetto, the policemen maintained order in the district and played their cruel role in the actions of deportation of Jews and the liquidation of the Krakow ghetto in March 1943. There was also a prison in the same building on Jozefinska Street 17, where Jewish prisoners were kept, before being transferred to Montelupiсh prison in the center of Krakow, before being deported to Auschwitz, or just before being shot.

Order police in Krakow, the Holocaust
The members of the Jewish Order Police in Krakow
Order police office and a prison
While the original building was not preserved until nowadays, this is my photo of several buildings to the left, approximately 50 meters from the site

 

INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL FOR THE JEWISH ORPHANS 

This school was founded before the war in the Kazimierz district, where most of the Krakow Jews lived in pre-war times. After the creation of the Krakow ghetto area and the beginning of the redistribution of Jews within the city, a school was moved to Jozefinska 25, near the ”Apteka pod Orlem” pharmacy. Created under the patronage of the Chamber of Commerce, the Lyceum taught Jewish orphans who were children of deceased artisans and prof. workers. Like the order police office, the building has not survived to this day, after the construction of the Na Ziezdzie street, and only nominally is a part of the Krakow ghetto today.

 

HOSPITAL FOR THE CHRONICALLY SICK 

This medical institution was established in the Kazimierz district in mid-1940, already during the occupation, but before the establishment of the Krakow ghetto. In 1941 it was moved to Boleslawa Limanowskiego 15. The hospital was called the ”Senior House” since many of its patients were already over 70 years old. Also here patients with chronic diseases were treated, and there were disabled and cripples at the outpatient clinic. In November 1942, the Germans broke into the building and killed all the patients of the hospital.

Hospital for the chronically sick
The hospital was called the ”Senior House” since many of its patients were already over 70 years old.
Hospital for the chronically sick Krakow
The building at Boleslawa Limanowskiego 15 bears one of the historical plates related to the Krakow ghetto

 

INFECTIOUS DECEASES HOSPITAL

Before the break of the Second World War, this infectious hospital was located at 30 Rekawka Street, built in the 1930s on the initiative of the famous doctor Aleksander Biberstein, whose brother Marek would later become the first head of Judenrat in the Krakow ghetto (killed in Plazow in 1944). Since the Germans were afraid to get infected themselves, they avoided hospital checks. For this reason, it has become one of the few relatively safe places within the ghetto walls. Medics sheltered the sick and infirm, and even ZOB members at one time kept weapons and contraband goods in the building. During the mass deportations in June 1942, about 300 people were hiding in hospitals. After June 20, when the ghetto territory was reduced to almost half, the hospital was now a part of the now-dismantled southern part and it was moved to Plac Zgody 3. At that new address, the infectious diseases hospital existed until the Krakow ghetto liquidation in March 1943.

Krakow ghetto Infectious Deceases Hospital
The hospital was located at 30 Rekawka Street in this building. During my visit, the building was accommodated by a Polish electricity company

 

JEWISH MUTUAL AID SOCIETY (SELF-HELP ORGANIZATION) 

After the creation of the Krakow ghetto, the Jewish Self-Help Organization (ZSS) was located in the building of the former pre-war bank (built-in 1910) at Jozefinska 18. The body, under the direction of Jewish Michael Weichert, provided food supplies to public kitchens, medicines in hospitals, as well as assistance to other charitable institutions within the ghetto walls. It was dissolved by the Germans on December 1, 1942. Today, as well as before the war, the building houses the ”Kasa Oszczednosci Miasta Podgorza” Savings Bank.

Jewish Mutual Aid society (Self-Help Organization)
This body provided food supplies to public kitchens, medicines in hospitals, as well as assistance to other charitable institutions within the ghetto walls.

 

GHETTO GERMAN LABOR OFFICE (ARBEITSAMT)

After the formation of the Krakow ghetto, the so-called Arbeitsamt (German labor Office) was located in the building at Jozefinska 10. Despite the completely innocuous name, the body provided full employment for all Jews in the ghetto over 14 years old, of both sexes. About 60% of the Jews in the Krakow ghetto area were eventually employed at German enterprises outside the walls. The rest were used for clearing snow in the winter, sweeping the streets in the warm season, building, and various utility works. Each worker had to have a special document, a work card permission, updated monthly within the Arbeitsamt building. A jew with permission was able to avoid deportations to death camps, leave the ghetto walls daily, and return after the shift. The enterprises paid 4-5 PLN per worker per day to the German administration, and the Krakow Jews received nothing.

 

GHETTO MAIN HOSPITAL

Initially, the institution of the Communal Jewish Hospital was located in the Kazimierz district, and after the establishment of the Krakow ghetto, it was moved to Jozefinska 14, next to the German labor office. It treated not only Jews from the ghetto but also other settlements in the Krakow region. During the liquidation of the Krakow ghetto in March 1943, all the patients and doctors were brutally murdered by the Germans. This scene, among others, became famous because of the “Schindler’s List” movie.

Ghetto Main Hospital: Krakow ghetto today
Jozefinska 14 building is the site of the infamous killing of the patients better known for ‘Schindler’s list’
Ghetto Main Hospital
Nowadays it is the office of ‘The Polish Association of Pensioners, Pensioners, and Disabled’

 

JULIUS MADRITSCH’S FACTORY

Before the liquidation of the Krakow ghetto and the transfer of the enterprise to the territory of the Plaszow labor camp, the factory of Austrian industrialist Julius Madritch was located at Rynek Podgoski 2, next to the Judenrat office. The factory was engaged in tailoring, and its staff consisted of about 800 Jewish workers. Through the personal efforts of Madtrich himself and his administrator Raymond Tisch, hundreds of lives were saved from being sent to the death camps. The enterprise of Julius Madritch was known for better working conditions and additional provisions, which the Austrian businessman bought for his own money.

Julius Madritsch's factory
The cloth workshop under Julius Madritsch in the times of the ghetto
Julius Madritsch's factory Krakow
Female workers during their work at the factory

 

OPTIMA FACTORY 

The capacities of the Optima factory, which had produced chocolate before the war, occupied almost a whole quarter, between the streets of Krakusa and Wegierska. With the beginning of the occupation, the profile of the factory was changed, and now Jewish workers here were engaged in sewing clothes and shoemaking. During the mass deportations and Krakow ghetto massacre on June 6, 1942, most of the captured Jews were temporarily detained on the territory of the Optima factory before being sent to Belzec. The original buildings of the Optima factory have not survived our days in their original form. At the same time,  you can see the original Optima sign on the facade of the building at Krakusa 7.

 

 

KRAKOW ORPHANAGE FOR JEWISH CHILDREN 

This Jewish orphanage in Krakow was created before the war, in 1936, and was located at Krakusa 8. In addition to the orphanage for children, school lessons were organized for them, which were taught by Anna Feuerstein. After the mass deportations and reduction of the ghetto territory in June 1942, the shelter was moved to Jozefinska 31 at the building where the furniture factory had previously worked. After the decision to place an Order Police Office in the adjacent buildings, the orphanage was moved for the second time down the street to number 41. During the second deportation action in October 1942, the Germans brutally eliminated the orphanage. Older children were pushed to the Plac Zgody square (similar to the notorious ‘Umschlagplatz’ in Warsaw) for further deportation, and the younger ones were taken to the Plaszow labor camp, where most of them were killed upon arrival.

Krakow Orphanage for Jewish children Krakusa 8
The original building of Krakusa 8 is just across the road from the Optime factory
Krakow Orphanage for Jewish children
A memorial sign in Yiddish and Polish commemorating the establishment of the orphanage in 1936

 

ZUCKER SYNAGOGUE

At the time of the outbreak of the war, there were four Jewish synagogues in the Podgozge district, within the ghetto created by the Germans. The only surviving of them until today is the Zucker Synagogue at Wegierska 5. The occupation authorities banned any religious gatherings of Jews and turned the synagogue buildings into warehouses. The same fate befell the Zucker synagogue. First, valuables from other synagogues in the Kazimierz district were demolished here, and then the Germans set up a warehouse here, and after a while the factory. The building, built in 1879-1881, was abandoned after the war and gradually collapsed before it was redeemed in 1996, the facade was restored and turned into an art gallery which is still here today.

The preserved Zucker Synagogue in Krakow
The building of the famous Zucker Synagogue in Krakow was taken by an art gallery

 

REMAINS OF THE KRAKOW GHETTO WALL 

Two fragments of the Krakow ghetto wall have been preserved until today. The first, 12 meters long, is located near the Lwoska 25-29 buildings. Only in 1983, a plaque in Polish and Hebrew was placed here: ”Here they lived, suffered and died in the hands of German executioners. Here they began their way to the death camps”.  The second 11-meter fragment of the Krakow ghetto wall is preserved in the courtyard behind the local school, at Boleslawa Limanowskiego 62, at the foot of the hill, and Fort Benedict. The upper part of the ghetto wall was erected in the form of Jewish tombstones – thus the Germans with cruel symbolism made it clear what fate awaited Jews in these walls.

Krakow ghetto wall
Photo of the ghetto wall fragment next to Rekawka Street. The Church of St. Benedict is on the hill
Ghetto wal in Krakow during the Holocaust
Another section of the wall near Rekawka. Fort Benedict is on the hill
The remnants of the ghetto wall
A fragment 12 meters long is located near the Lwoska 25-29 buildings
Memorial sign to a ghetto wall, Poland
Another historical plate in Yiddish and Polish
Ghetto wall in Krakow
An 11-meter fragment is preserved in the courtyard behind the local school, at Boleslawa Limanowskiego 62

 

VARIETE RESTAURANT

After the establishment of the Krakow ghetto, several cafes were preserved in it, where the Germans spent their time. Among them was the ”Variete” restaurant, located at Rynek Podgorski 15. It was owned by Aleksander Frostrer, a wealthy businessman of German-Jewish origin, who arrived in Krakow in 1941. The cafe was located directly across the street from the Judenrat building to the left of the Main Gate to the ghetto. Today it houses a store.

 

JEWISH ORPHANAGE AT JEZEFINSKA 22 

At Jozefinska Street 22, very close to the Jewish Self-help Organization, there was an orphanage for children 6-14 years old, who were given there for a while, while their parents worked during the daytime. During the liquidation of the Krakow ghetto in March 1943, the Germans broke into the building and brutally killed all the children and support staff who were there at the time.

Jewish Orphanage at Jozefinska 22
Another unremarkable (in an architectural way) building with its history

 

THE SECOND JUDENRAT OFFICE

In June 1942, after the dissolution of the primary version of the Jewish Judenrat at Rynek Podgorski, and after the arrest of its leader, a new body was formed by the Germans. It was named the ”Ghetto Management Board” and obtained a new head, Dawid Gutter. The work of the puppet body at Wegierska 16 continued until the liquidation of the ghetto in March 1943, the dissolution of the council, and the expulsion of its members.

The second Judenrat office
The second Judenrat office at Wegierska 16

 

GATES AFTER JUNE 20, 1942

After a massacre and mass deportation of the inhabitants of the Krakow ghetto to the death camp of Belzec, on June 20, 1942, the German administration ordered the area to be reduced. Almost half of the former territory in the south was now beyond the new administrative boundary and natural barrier along Limanowskiego Street. New gates on the south side were installed at the corner of Limanowskiego and Wegierska streets, adjoining the building where the new body of the ”Ghetto Management Board”, which replaced the first Judenrat, now worked.

Krakow Ghetto gates after June 20, 1942
The corner of Limanowskiego and Wegierska streets where the Gates were built

 

JOSEF PILSUDKI BRIDGE 

The first bridge with this name, 146 meters long, was opened in 1933, connecting the Podgozge and Kazimierz districts. During the forced relocation of Jews to the established ghetto in Podgozge in March 1941, the Pilsudski Bridge became (like the Krakus Bridge) a transport route for people to move from the Kazimierz district. During the evacuation of the German troops from Krakow in January 1945, the Pilsudski bridge was mined and seriously damaged, and its current appearance, close to the original, was restored in 1948. It is located outside the territory of the former Krakow ghetto, but it is an important historical monument that deserves a mention here.

Moving to Krakow ghetto 1941
The infamous moving to the ghetto, Krakus Bridge in March 1941
Jozef Pilsudski bridge
Jozef Pilsudski Bridge before the WWII
Jozef Pilsudski bridge in Krakow
I felt fortunate to cross the bridge several times in different directions
Jozef Pilsudski bridge, Krakow Poland
A photo in the direction of the Nothern bank of the Vistula River with the former ghetto area behind

 am very grateful to war archives, museums, libraries, private collections, and writers for the historical photos in this article. To the extent that some author or a copyright owner may not want some of the above black-and-white photos to be used for educational purposes here, please contact me for adding credits or deleting the pictures from the article. 
My video of the Krakow ghetto area from 2018