Rynek Główny / Kazimierz / Podgórze - June 2013

The Jewish Ghetto

According to German sources, 68,482 Jews lived in Krakow and the surrounding villages, in November 1939. It was one of the largest Jewish communities in Poland. Most of the Krakow Jews lived in the historical Jewish district Kazimierz but from 1867, many Jewish families had lived and had their own businesses throughout the entire city. Even today one can visit old Jewish houses and the synagogue in Kazimierz. It is the only historical Jewish district in a large Polish conurbation that was not destroyed during the war.

On 6 September 1939, Krakow was captured by German troops. The city became the capital of the newly established Generalgouvernement, led by Generalgouverneur Hans Frank. He chose the famous Wawel Castleas his residence.
Very soon the Nazis ordered all synagogues closed and the establishment of a Judenrat. The first president of the Judenrat was Marek Biberstein, a well-known Jewish teacher and social activist. SS-Oberscharführer Paul Siebert, who appointed the members of the Judenrat, told them to fulfil the German orders with absolute obedience and accuracy. One of the first SS orders was to deliver all valuables and historical artefacts from Krakow's synagogues.
In 1940 the Jewish ghetto police was established, headed by Symche Spira. Before the war he was a carpenter and an Orthodox Jew, who did not speak Polish or German fluently. He became the best-known collaborator of the SS and Gestapo.

From November 1939, all Jews aged 12 years or older had to wear armbands. According to Jewish sources the Judenrat sold 53,828 armbands bearing the Star of David.
Jewish homes and shops were looted; SS and Wehrmacht troops even blocked off entire streets to do this. The best Jewish apartments were confiscated for German officers' and officials' families. The houses of the Jewish community were also confiscated. German soldiers moved into the modern dormitory of the Jewish Academic Society and the old peoples home. Many young Jewish men were sent to forced labour camps in small towns and villages of the Krakow district.
In April 1940, Hans Frank announced that Krakow should become the "cleanest" city in the Generalgouvernement - that is, without Jews. Therefore on 18 May 1940, the Nazis ordered the resettlement of a large part of the Jewish population. According to this order only 15,000 working Jews were permitted to stay in the town, together with their families.

By 15 August 1940, many Jews had been resettled from Krakow, mainly to towns and villages around the capital. Because it was intended that even more Krakow Jews should be resettled, members of the Judenrat tried to bribe the Stadthauptmannschaft official who was responsible for resettlement. Therefore Marek Biberstein, several other members of the Judenrat and the German official were arrested. Marek Biberstein was imprisoned in Krakow and Tarnow until 1942. The Krakow advocate Dr Artur Rosenzweig was forced to take over the new leadership of the Judenrat. Rosenzweig was a very modest person who often refused collaboration with the SS. After his release Marek Biberstein was killed in the Plazow forced labour camp in 1944.
In autumn 1940, the next wave of resettlement occurred. More than 5,000 Krakow Jews were resettled to the Lublin district. Others tried to find new homes in the surroundings of Krakow. By the end of March 1941, around 41,000 Jews in total had been resettled.
On 3 March 1941 the governor of the Krakow district, Dr Otto Wächter, ordered the establishment of a ghetto in Krakow.

The ghetto was not set up in the historical Jewish quarter of Kazimierz but on Podgorze. All Jews who lived in Krakow had to move into the ghetto by 20 March 1941. Some decided to leave the city, others moved to Podgorze as ordered. Many Polish families also had to change their apartments and take over empty Jewish houses in Kazimierz. Everywhere people were on the move, carrying their property, looking for a new dwelling. A Polish witness wrote:
"We travelled over the Vistula river like many other families. On one side of the bridge we came from Podgorze, on the other side the Jews came from Kazimierz. I remember the silence of this removal... The silence changed into mourning and sighs."
The ghetto territory covered an area of 20 hectares, and included 15 streets and 320 houses with 3,167 rooms. A wall in the style of Jewish tombstones and a wooden fence (partially) surrounded the ghetto. 

Otto Wächter's wife described the ghetto wall as "elegant in the Hebrew taste". All windows and doors overlooking or leading to the "Aryan" side were to be closed with bricks.

Four guarded entrances were created: the main gate on Limanowski Street / Podgorski Market, others on Limanowski Street (only for army vehicles), Lwowska Street and Zgoda Square.

Main entrance gate to the Kraków Ghetto from Rynek Podgórski

Most of the houses were old and dilapidated. Before the war, around 3,000 inhabitants lived in the ghetto area, but now more than 15,000 people were crowded together. According to the regulations, four families had to share one flat. Alternatively one apartment window for every three people was allocated. Because of the overcrowded housing, many people spent their time in the streets. In October 1941, around 6,000 Jews from surrounding villages were sent into the ghetto.
Hunger became the biggest problem, since the daily ration of bread for each person was 100 grams, with an additional 200 grams of sugar or fat provided monthly. The main food was potatoes.
Most of the Jews had to work in ghetto workshops and factories, in part for the German Wehrmacht or Luftwaffe. ID cards were supplied to many Jews. 

The first deportation took place between 30 May and 8 June 1942. Based entirely on their own judgement,SS-men decided who would stay in the ghetto and who would be deported. SS-Hauptsturmführer Wilhelm Kunde was responsible for this and the next deportation. On 31 May the handing over of ID cards was stopped. All persons without a card had to gather on Zgoda Square. Dr Artur Rosenzweig organized the assembly, but he did not want to participate himself in this "action". Jewish policemen, led by Symche Spira, rounded up the people in their houses and brought them to Zgoda Square. During the two first days of this "action" around 4,000 Jews were deported to Belzec death camp. The columns of deportees were led to the Plaszow Railway Station from where the overcrowded trains departed to Belzec. Officially the people were told that they were going to the Ukraine to work.

Not enough people were selected for deportation to satisfy the SS. During the next days of the "action", many Jews were killed on Zgoda Square or in the streets. During this time, Dr Rosenzweig lost his position because of his "insufficient effort" in organizing the deportation. Kunde told him that he would be deported, together with his whole family. The same day he was sent to Belzec. Dawid Gutter became his successor.

On 4 June 1942, around 600 people were killed in the ghetto. On the last day of this "action", 7,000 Jews from Miechow, Jedrzejow and Slomniki (villages near Krakow) were deported, together with Krakow Jews. Among these victims were Mordechaj Gebirtig, a famous author of Jewish folk songs and Abraham Neumann, a well-known artist and painter.
Soon after the first deportations many people in the ghetto discussed the fate of their relatives and comrades. Many Jews believed that the deportees had arrived in the Ukraine, and were now living in good conditions. But several weeks later, a Pole whose Jewish wife was deported from Krakow in June, was told by Polish workers that all the people had been deported to Belzec. He informed others and the truth went around in the ghetto.
At the end of June, the ghetto area was reduced. In August, Jews from surrounding towns and villages were concentrated in Wieliczka, a small town near Krakow. In late August, many of them were deported to Belzec.

On 28 October 1942, the biggest and most cruel deportation took place in Krakow. In front of the Arbeitsamt (job centre) many children were taken away from their parents. Whole families of employees were selected, although everybody had assumed that these people were "privileged". Sick people and invalids were killed or deported. All children from the orphanage were shot near the town, together with their teachers and curators who voluntarily accompanied them. These "actions" were followed by many suicides.
In the course of this action, around 4,500 Jews were deported to Belzec and approximately 600 were killed on the spot. Shortly after this deportation, letters from the Lwow ghetto were sent to Krakow, informing the Jews that Belzec was the deadly terminus of the deportation trains.

In December 1942, the ghetto was divided into two parts: "Ghetto A" for workers and "Ghetto B" for non-workers. The latter were to be deported as soon as possible. From November 1942, many Jews from the ghetto were sent to the SS forced labour camp in Plaszow, a suburb of Krakow. Among them were the Jews who worked in Oskar Schindler's enamel factory. Oskar Schindler protected his Jewish workers and helped them during the liquidation of the ghetto.
On 13 March 1943, "Ghetto A" was liquidated, and all workers were sent to Plaszow KZ. The action was personally led by SS-Untersturmführer Amon Göth, the new commandant of Plaszow concentration camp. Prior to this, Göth worked in the headquarters of Aktion Reinhard as Judenreferent (personal assistant in Globocnik's office) until early 1943. Because of a personal conflict with Hermann Höfle and his having been accused of corruption, Globocnik transferred Göth to Krakow.
On 14 March, the SS liquidated "Ghetto B". Many people were killed in courtyards or in the streets. The last remaining Jews were deported in trucks to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Columns of Jewish prisoners were led to the ghetto for the collection of Jewish property, left behind in the houses. This continued until December 1943. Several weeks after the liquidation of the ghetto Jewish policemen and the last members of the Judenrat were sent to Plaszow. Dawid Gutter, head of the Judenrat, was executed there in December 1943, immediately after his arrival in the camp. Symche Spira was released from Plaszow at the request of the Gestapo, but imprisoned there again in December 1943. Spira, the members of the former Jewish ghetto police and their families were finally executed in 1944, as a result of a personal order of Göth. That was the last act of the Krakow ghetto tragedy.

In summer 1942, a Jewish resistance group met in the ghetto. The leaders were Adolf Liebeskind, Abraham Lejbowicz, Symek Dränger and Maniek Eisenstein. Organizing a revolt was impossible, but the group helped Jews escaping to the forests. The most notable acts of resistance were a bomb attempt on the German café "Cyganeria" in December 1942, and the burning of German cars in garages on Grzegorzki Street.
After the liquidation of the ghetto and the looting of Jewish property, the houses at Podgorze were taken over by poor Polish families. Today, fragments of the former ghetto wall are still visible, as well as the pharmacy "Under the Eagle" (now containing a small ghetto museum), which was situated within the ghetto itself. Its owner, Tadeusz Pankiewicz, was the only Pole living in the ghetto.

The tour around the Ghetto starting from Rynek Główny.

Getting up very early at around three, after a sleepless night i thought i might as well spend the time constructively and go and do some more walking around.  The previous day had been a familiarisation of the city and time spend in Kazimierz and Podgórze.  That had been a day of torrential rain, with rolling claps of thunder and lightening.  Thankfully the night had dried up a little and after detailing my previous days explore of the two districts, i caught a cab to the edge of Rynek Główny. Thankfully dawn was starting to break by the time i reached the square.  Very few people were about which added to a very productive but isolated walk which eventually crossed the Vistula.

Historically when invaded an attempt at all traces of Polish existence was made.  The street names were chanced and Rynek Główny was renamed Adolf Hitler Platz.

The zeal with which German municipal authorities attempted, immediately after the seizure of power, to play their part in the "National Rising" (German: Nationale Erhebung) is shown by the practice of conferring honorary municipal citizenship on Hitler, and even more by naming a street (Strasse), a square or place (Platz), a promenade (Anlage), an avenue (Damm, Allee), a stadium (Kampfbahn), or a bridge (Brücke) after the new chancellor. As early as March and April 1933, a wave of renaming swept through Germany's cities. Most of the examples in the list come from this period.

Further evidence of Street Names removed.

The Cloth Hall in The Market Square

Circa 1300 a roof was put over two rows of stalls to form the first Sukiennice building – Cloth Hall – where the textile trade used to go on. It was extended into an imposing Gothic structure 108 meter long and eight meter wide in the second half of the 14th century.

The Church Of St Mary to the left.

Statue of Adam Mickiewicz

St Adalbert's Church

Heading off towards the Royal Castle at the end of Grodzka







The Church Of Sts Peters and Paul

The Church of St. Andrew

The Royal Castle 

After Hitler's accession to power in 1933, Frank became Nazi Germany's chief jurist and Governor-General of occupied Poland's 'General Government' territory. During his tenure (1939–1945), he instituted a reign of terror against the civilian population and became directly involved in the mass murder of Polish Jews. At the Nuremburg Trials he was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity and was executed.

Frank also changed the historical Polish name of the castle, Wawel, into German. From that time onward it was to be called Krakauer Burg (Cracow's castle). Nazi officials made it clear that Poland was of use to them "only as a reservoir of labour." German administrative units were instructed to engage in "a hard racial struggle (Volkstumskampf) which will not permit any legal restrictions." This struggle would be fought primarily against Poland's political, cultural, educational, and religious elite and their institutions. Hans Frank, echoing Hitler, put it very bluntly: "What we have now recognized in Poland to be the elite must be liquidated." He was also expressing the will of his Führer when he said that the Polish people were "to become a society of peasants and workers" with no "cultured class."

Oskar Schindlers Residence

Oskar Schindler arrived in Kraków on 7 September 1939, one day after the city was occupied by the German Army. He lived in three residences in total Kraków. This one on Straszewskiego Street was his final residence before he left Poland. He lived in apartment 2, number 7 Straszewskiego. This had been vacated by a Jewish family before he moved in.

Carrying back on with the journey and a closer inspection of the castles defences.

The Church Of Missionaries

Heading down Stradmoska

Moving to the Ghetto from Miodowa Street

Kazimierz Town Hall

Church Of The Order Of St John

Heading towards Most Pilsudskiego, over the Vistula and into the former Ghetto.

The view back down Krakowske Street.

Moving to the Ghetto from Krakowska Street.

Looking at the view of where the Ghetto Wall Existed nest to where the Judenrat were located for the Ghetto.  The Wall was built next to the corner of the Magistrates building on the right and crossed over to the other side.  The trams still had free passage down what was effectively the the main thoroughfare.  The windows on the outer edge of the Ghetto were bricked up to fully enclose the occupants.   

The Church Of St Joseph

Looking back up Rekawa Street and where the Ghetto Wall existed on the left hand side.

A 12 meter stretch of existing Ghetto Wall.

Our guide for the day into the first explore of the Ghetto - a big thanks to Jakub Hoffmann for his patience dragging two loons around on a very lengthy tour either side of the Vistula.

Plac Zgody was the central meeting point inside the Ghetto. The square not only served as the centre of much Ghetto activity, but was also the point of departure for all deportations to the gas chambers of Bełżec from the Ghetto. Here all those who were refused the right to stay in the Ghetto were gathered in the square. All who did not have a stamp in their job cards to confirm employment in a German company were brought here during a deportation Aktion in 1942. The last selection in Zgody Square took place during the liquidation of the Ghetto – on the 14 March 1943 units of the Ukrainian Auxillary Police, also known as “Blacks” and navy-blue police drove the residents of Ghetto “B” to the square. 

  Metal chairs at Plac Zgody memorialising the victims of the Krakow ghetto.

It represents the poignant scene of furniture and belongings left behind by the people of the ghetto

The name later changed to Plac Bohaterów Getta (Ghetto Heroes Square)

The Pharmacy under the Eagle

The Pharmacy was run by Tadeusz Pankiewicz and although his story isn't as well known as that of Oscar Schindler he, like Schindler, was honoured by the Israeli Holocaust Memorial authority Yad Vashem as one of the Righteous Among the Nations.

When the Germans gave the order to establish a ghetto in the Podgorze district of Krakow, every Pole was told to leave the area. Even though he was offered other Jewish owned pharmacies in the city, Pankiewicz, the non-Jewish owner of the Eagle Pharmacy, decided to stay.

For the inhabitants of the ghetto the pharmacy became a place to get medical help, a trusted location to meet and exchange information, and a place to hide. For many it provided a brief spell of normality away from the harsh realities of the ghetto.

Pankiewicz and his staff helped people in the ghetto in a variety of ways; for example, they provided sedatives for children who were being hidden from the German soldiers and hair dye for the older people of the ghetto. This more "youthful" look enabled them to avoid deportation to the death camps. In the last tragic days of the ghetto, Pankiewicz and his staff were on hand to distribute medicines and dressings amongst the population of the ghetto.

When the War ended Pankiewicz continued to work at the pharmacy until 1953. He died on 5 November 1993.

Overlooking Plac Zgody During the war, Plac Bohaterów Getta 6 was the regular meeting point of the Jewish Combat Organisation (ŻOB), as noted by a plaque on the front of the building. Kraków’s Jewish underground resistance orchestrated acts of sabotage outside the ghetto, with their greatest success coming in December 1942 when a grenade detonated inside the Cyganeria Café – a popular meeting place for Nazi officers on ul. Szpitalnia - killing and wounding several Germans.

The Optima Factory

Two factories were situated within the ghetto, the Madritsch factory located at Rynek Podgórski 3, and the Optima factory, located between ul. Wegięrska 3 and ul. Krakusa. 7. Both factories used forced labour to help in the German war effort. There is no real sign of these factories now, however, anyone who goes to ul. Krakusa 7 will see the original Optima sign on the wall of the building.

The yard of the former factory of Optima, situated at ul. Węgierska 7/9 was a gathering place for the Jews before they were transported to the camp in Bełżec in June 1942. After they had been arrested, the Jews were kept there for two days.

The guided tour around the areas of Kazimierz and Podgorze took in Schindlers Factory but this will be covered in another report.  The experience of getting out to another country and viewing a long awaited city such as Krakow was fascinating from an historical and architectural point of view.

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