The Kraków Ghetto existed for two years. On March 3, 1941, a decree was issued by the Kraków district chief, Otto Wächter, establishing a "Jewish residential district" in Kraków. All Jews still in the city were ordered to relocate to the ghetto located across the Vistula River, in the Podgórze district. Nearly 11 Jews were crammed into an area of approximately 20 hectares. In the following months, this number increased, and at its peak, before deportations to the Bełżec extermination camp in June 1942, approximately 20 people were held there. The Kraków Ghetto was surrounded by a wall, and from October 1941, leaving it without special permission was punishable by death.
The Jewish population tried to adapt to the new conditions imposed by the occupiers as best they could. Social and religious institutions were rebuilt, healthcare facilities, orphanages, and a nursing home for the elderly were established. Concerts and artistic events were held, raising funds to support self-help institutions. Every day, efforts were made to function and provide food and other resources necessary for survival for themselves and their families.
In 1942, as part of Operation Reinhardt, the aim of which was to exterminate Jews from the General Government, the Germans carried out two deportations from the Kraków Ghetto. The first in early June, the second in October. A total of approximately 10-12 Jews were then sent to the Bełżec extermination camp. After December 6, 1942, the ghetto area was divided into two parts – "A" and "B." In "A," which encompassed sections of Józefińska, Węgierska, Krakusa, Targowa, and part of Nadwiślańska Streets, working people and their immediate families were settled. The rest were assigned to "B."
In mid-March 1943, the Germans began the final phase of the liquidation of this district. The operation was led by SS-Sturmbannführer Wilhelm von Haase, the same man who had carried out the deportation from the Kraków Ghetto to the Bełżec extermination camp in October 1942. A decree issued by SS and Police Leader for the Kraków District, SS-Oberführer Julian Scherner, ordered the residents of section "A" to pack their belongings and proceed to the assembly point by the afternoon of March 13, 1943. These individuals, approximately 8 in number, were then divided into groups and marched to the ZAL Plaszow camp. However, they were forbidden to take with them any children under the age of fourteen. They were required to remain within the district, and the Germans assured them that they would be transported to the camp once a special barracks designated specifically for them had been built there. Only a few of them, thanks to protection or various stratagems (for example, hidden in backpacks or on carts carrying belongings to the camp), managed to be taken to Plaszów that day. The rest were sent to the ghetto orphanage.
On March 14, 1943, the fate of the Kraków Ghetto was sealed. The occupiers began the liquidation of Section "B." These operations were much more brutal and bloody. Those unfit for transport, such as small children, the elderly, and the sick, were murdered within the ghetto. The events at the orphanage were particularly dramatic. Bodies of the dead lay in the alleys and streets. Jewish policemen collected them and transported the remains to mass graves within the ZAL Plaszow camp. During the liquidation and in the following days, when the ghetto was being cleaned up, over 700 people were murdered. Of those fit for work, at least 8 were imprisoned in the Plaszow camp, while approximately 2 were deported to Auschwitz II Birkenau. There, most perished in the gas chambers.
Below we present fragments of accounts of what happened in the Kraków ghetto in the last moments of its existence.
| Krakow Jews loading their movable possessions onto wagons (MGW)
Reference number: AŻIH, 301/4532, Account by Felicja Wohlfeiler.
Felicja Wohlfeiler, private official, born in Kraków in 1918. She lived in Kraków before the war.
"It was during the liquidation of the ghetto on March 13, 1943. I had my niece with me, my sister's daughter, who had been barracked in Kabel for a long time, and my five-month-old son, whom I refused to have circumcised so that I could return the child to the Aryan side at the decisive moment. I worked for Madritsch. Because we were under the illusion that Madritsch would succeed in resettling the women and children in Tarnów, I didn't give the child to the Pole who came to my house the day before we were barracked.
On Saturday, March 13th, at 10 a.m., an order went out that those working were to go to Płaszów, and that all children were to be placed in Kinderheim, with the understanding that they would go to Płaszów the next day. I was desperate about what to do with two children. The girl had an Einsatz, and I thought I could get her to Płaszów. I wrapped the little one up like a bundle and stood in the ranks on Węgierska Street. At one point, the hungry child cried. Since Göth had decreed that if he found the child, all five of us would be held accountable, I stepped out of line, not wanting to endanger my comrades. Helpless, I wandered around the ghetto, hoping for a miracle. At one point, Göth spotted me, called the OD man, and ordered him to take away the bundle he suspected contained the child. I ran after the OD man, begging him to give me back the child. He gave me the little one. I returned to the ranks. Next to me stood a woman with a child of about ten. Göth snatched the child from her. The woman took advantage of Göth's turn and went back for the child. Göth noticed this and immediately shot. The bullet hit the woman, who fell on me, covering me in blood. The child, seeing her mother lying in a pool of blood, tried to run to her and screamed desperately, "Mommy," and was torn from her. I was at the end of my strength, half-conscious, and decided to take the child to Kinderheim, knowing it was doomed.
In Kinderheim, I found hundreds of children grieving for their mothers. I can't describe what I went through then. I was the only mother in Kinderheim who came here with her child. Other mothers went with their children to ghetto "B." I found my niece there. At the sight of the distraught children, I began to sob. The little girl soothed me: "Don't cry, auntie, it seems I was only destined to live ten years." The children were aware of the fate that awaited them. After an hour, the Blacks besieged Kinderheim, and Göth burst in, armed to the teeth. At the sight of him, the children's terror knew no bounds. The children ran to me, clutched my dress, and begged me to save them. Göth, seeing the "W" sign on my chest, ordered me to the barracks, escorted by a Ukrainian. He assured me: "Die Kinder kommen nach." I threw myself at his feet, begging him to let me stay. Let him do what he wants to me, but the children are innocent. To this, Göth replied: "Wir wissen dass die Kinder unschulding sind, aberwir mussen so machen dass sure Herzen brechen." At one point, he hit me in the face with a whip and hit me in the eye. Seeing this, my niece jumped up and begged me, "Auntie, go, save yourself." Göth tore the children away from me and ordered the Ukrainian to take me out, but the child remained in Kinderheim. On Targowa Street, I saw a couple with a child. They begged Göth to let them go with the child and die with it. Göth only allowed one parent to go with the child. I don't know what happened to those people, because the Ukrainian had already dragged me to the gate.
| The expulsion of Jews from Krakow. Those displaced stand in front of the post office at the Main Railway Station (IPN)
Reference number: AŻIH, 301/4215, Account of Renata Goldberger, née Grünbaum.
Testimony given at the Jewish Historical Institute in Krakow. Testimony given by: Renata née Grünbaum; 1st vote: Spira; 2nd vote: Goldberger; born in Krakow on August 21, 1916. Lived in Krakow before the war.
Minutes taken by: Róża Bauminger
“In February 1943, my husband and sister were sent to their posts in barracks, and I was left alone in the ghetto with my son and my sister’s child.
On March 13th, during the deportation to Płaszów, I was wandering helplessly alone with my children on Węgierska Street. Göth met me: "What are you doing here with the children?" he said. "Give the children to Kinderheim. Tomorrow they'll go by car to Płaszów, and you can join the transport to Płaszów yourself." So I did. I left the children at Kinderheim and went down to the street to assess the situation and return for the children. But I couldn't return, because a wave swept me away, and I found myself on a transport to Płaszów. What a journey to Płaszów I went through. I bitterly blamed myself for leaving the children; I should have gone with them. I was afraid to meet my husband and sister, what would I tell them. In Płaszów, Göth allowed the OD men to drive their car to the ghetto to retrieve his children. I had a brother-in-law who was an OD man, and he also brought me my child and my sister's child. In the camp, the women whose children had been exterminated couldn't forgive me that my child was alive. They teased me and the child at every turn, couldn't stand it when it played or laughed, saying to each other, "It couldn't have died like my poor child." What wrong had the poor child done to them? Today I think that if I were in their place, I wouldn't have been any better [...]."
| A Jew with an armband on his arm on a street corner in Krakow (MGW)
Reference number: AŻIH, 301/1520, Account by Jerzy Andrzej Hoffman.
Jerzy Andrzej Hoffman, born November 29, 1933, in Katowice, lived in Kraków before the war. The son of Wiktor and Natalia Fass. His father was a Bayer representative.
"One winter evening in 1943, the Gestapo unexpectedly burst in, loaded us into trucks, and took us to the OD. Fearing a search, my parents gave me all my valuables. At the OD, they interrogated my parents and searched them. Nothing was found. They let me go and sent me back to the ghetto. I was fine in the ghetto; I lived with OD man Wahrenhaupt [Warenhaupt], who made it easy for me to see my parents. Two days before the ghetto was liquidated, I saw them for the last time. Dad, as if he had a premonition, cried as he said goodbye to me.
On March 13, 1943, my uncle took me with him and hid me in the ranks on Węgierska Street among the adults. The adults took me in, and miraculously, I made it to Płaszów. To this day, I can't imagine how I managed to survive. Göth fished out three of my friends on Węgierska Street. In Płaszów, OD Warenhaupt told me that my father and mother had gone on a transport to deportation to who knows where."
| The displacement of Jews from Krakow. The displaced Jews board freight cars at the Main Railway Station (IPN)
Reference number: AŻIH, 301/5401, Account by Roman Ferber.
"The Krakow ghetto was liquidated by German guards entering houses at will and ordering residents to empty them. Only what they could carry was allowed to be taken. After leaving their homes, the Jews were surrounded by Ukrainian guards and policemen [OD men and Polish policemen, the so-called Blue Men] and then driven to Zgody Square. At Zgody Square, a certain von Maluczky conducted an inspection and left the healthiest, and the most skilled, in the camp. The rest were put on trucks and transported, but to where, I don't know. Two such transports departed. During this selection, both Maluczky and other guards, both German and Ukrainian, beat people with their hands, whips, rifle butts, and kicked them. Maluczky also shot at people more than once.
The final liquidation of the ghetto took place in 1943. All Jews still in the ghetto were ordered to line up in Zgody Square. All children were ordered to go to the so-called Kinderheim, located on Józefińska Street. This home already contained more Jewish children whose parents were already dead. Since my brother and I suspected that separation from our parents posed a danger to us, we hid and skipped the transport of children to Kinderheim. Then, hiding in the wagons carrying Jewish belongings to the Płaszów camp, we drove out through the gate and arrived at the Płaszów camp. The entire transport was on foot, driven by guards and Ukrainians with sticks and whips. Göth was particularly brutal in this. As I later learned, he was the commandant of the Płaszów camp. The camp was called Zwangsarbeitslager, later changed to a concentration camp. My brother and I arrived at the Płaszów camp in the evening with the first groups; further transports continued throughout the night. In the camp, I met my father, and together with him and my brother, I was placed in the same barracks."
