Zinar Castle
ZR Hotele
Plaszow Nazi camp
Photo gallery 2
At the peak of the camp's existence, approximately 35,000 prisoners were held in inhumane conditions. The command of the camp was performed by Amon Goeth, known for his cruelty.
The forced labor camp in Płaszów was established at the end of 1942 in the area of Jewish cemeteries (at Abrahama and Jerozolimska Streets). Its main street was paved with matzevot - Jewish tombstones. Mainly Jews from the Krakow ghetto and ghettos liquidated in other cities, as well as Poles and Roma were sent here. The number of prisoners - held in tragic conditions, forced to murderous work and starved - reached 35,000. They sewed uniforms, printed documents of the Nazi authorities, worked in electrical, locksmith and car workshops and in two quarries located within the camp. The camp commandant, Amon Goeth, was extremely cruel, he personally tortured and murdered the prisoners. It is estimated that 5,000-6,000 people were murdered here in mass executions and buried in mass graves. In view of the approaching Eastern Front, in August 1944 their bodies were exhumed and burned to remove the traces of the crime. The prisoners were successively transported to camps in Germany and KL Auschwitz. The last transport left in January 1945, just before the Red Army entered Kraków.
According to various sources, between 50,000 and 150,000 people passed through the Płaszów camp (since 1943 - KL Plaszow concentration camp). Among those who survived were, among others Oskar Schindler's factory workers (approx. 1100 people). The story of their rescue written in the novel Schindler's List became the basis for the award-winning film by Steven Spielberg. The grounds of the former camp served as a film set (1993).
The camp buildings no longer exist - neither barracks nor watchtowers have survived, and part of the camp area is occupied by a housing estate. However, there is still the villa of Amon Goeth (ul. Heltmana 22) and the so-called The Gray House (ul. Jerozolimska 3) - it was inhabited by SS men known for their cruelty, who set up a torture room in the basement: according to the memories of the camp survivors, no one left the camp alive. There are several small obelisks commemorating the victims of the camp, and on the side of ul. Kamieński, a seven-meter-high Monument to the Victims of Fascism was erected with the poignant symbolism of torn hearts.