In the previous post about the New Jewish Cemetery at Miodowa St, I wrote a few words about Kazimierz. As I mentioned, this part of the city is commonly known as the "Jewish quarter," but it was not the only place where Jews settled. Starting from the beginning of the 20th century, they also willingly lived in the neighboring district, Podgórze. The outbreak of World War II changed everything. Nazis established a Jewish ghetto in Podgórze, and Kazimierz was abandoned. Shortly after that, they set up in Podgórze the most significant labor camp in the area (later a concentration camp) - Plaszow.
I'm sure some of you know the movie Schindler's List - it was the prisoners of the Plaszów camp who worked in Oskar Schindler's factory. In the film, you can see a fragment of the sad history of this place.
The camp was huge. Initially, it covered only two Jewish cemeteries (I'm amazed by the creativity of the Nazis, how many ways they could show their contempt), then it grew to an area of 80 hectares. After the war, part of the camp was built up; the rest of the site is now a vast, wild meadow, where nearby residents and a few tourists walk. There is neither a museum nor any remains. There is only one massive Memorial to the Victims of Fascism on the edge of the former campsite, in a busy street. There is also a cross commemorating the place of prisoners' executions. We will not find any material remains of the camp here, such as barracks or other buildings. There are only boards placed here and there that make us visitors aware of where we are. Thanks to that, we can see photos, learn the facts, read fragments of shocking memories of prisoners.
One could say that the only witness of those events is the Gray House, once the center of the camp. An inconspicuous building marked with human suffering.
Before the war, the house belonged to the Jewish community and served as the seat of the Jewish Funeral Brotherhood - there was a cemetery a few hundred meters away. After the nazis set up the camp in 1942, SS has taken over the building and turned it into their "office." There was a camp prison with punishment cells. The building became the focal point of the local reality, inspiring fear among prisoners.
In the film Schindler's List, the Gray House played the role of the villa of the camp commandant, Amon Göth. In fact, the commandant lived a few hundred meters away - in the so-called The Red House.
On the former Jewish cemetery, we can only see the stone bases of the tombstones. Nazis used the monuments to build roads and barracks in the camp. A similar fate befell hundreds of matzevas from the graveyard on Miodowa Street, about which I wrote here. However, while many tombstones from Miodowa Street have been restored, no stolen monument has returned here, in Plaszow.
Only one matzeva survived.
Is it wrong that there is no museum here and people can come for walks with their dogs and children? It's hard for me to judge. In my opinion, this place has an emotional burden anyway, and you can feel it. The past seems even crueler compared to today's freedom with which we can walk around this place. Here, the most significant monuments of memory are nature and the destroyed cemetery.
By climbing higher, we gain an insight into the size of the camp - and this is only a fragment of it! Down there were dozens of barracks, one next to the other.
Podgórze is full of hills, old quarries, and steep rock cliffs. It is a fascinating terrain rich in limestone rocks. A dozen or so minutes walk away there is a closed quarry "Liban". This is where the camp scenes for the movie "Schindler's List" were shot. Even today, you can find the remains of the scenery built 30 years ago. During the Nazi occupation, prisoners also worked in this quarry. Perhaps I'll show you this place in the next post.
I'm the only author of the text and photos.
Writing about the history, I used the following sources of information:
http://muzeumkrakowa.pl/aktualnosci/historia-kl-plaszow
https://www.krakow.pl/11195,inst,4811,0,instcbi.html
Szary dom - piekło obozu Plaszow