Plaszow Concentration Camp

[CARL]

KZ-PLASZOW

Located in the southeastern part of Krakow, now the Podgorze district, the former ZALfJ (forced labour camp for Jews) later became a Konzentrationslager that would eventually hold over 20,000 prisoners at one time. The site was far from ideal as it was located on mostly rocky, hilly ground and marshland. However, due to the close proximity of the centre and nearby Liban quarry, the site was chosen.

Surrounded by doubled electrified fencing - either side of a ditch filled with water, thirteen watchtowers - fitted with machine guns, telephones and revolving search lights, the camp was divided into sections for the SS, industry and prisoner accommodation. Jews and Poles were segregated, with Gypsy families also being held within the Polish camp.

Several sub-camps existed, including the former "Rekord" plant in the city centre - home of Oskar Schindler's DeutscheEmaillewarenfabrik where over 1,000 forced labourers worked. Later, Schindler attempted to protect his workers from deportation to the extermination camps in the east, moving his factory and work force of around 1,000 Jews to the Sudetenland, thus preventing their deportation and murder.

Armaments facilities at the site operated with two daily shifts, each of twelve working hours. The nearby quarry was also exploited with many prisoners, including women, working under arduous conditions.

Until early 1944, when the camp became an official KL, most of the staff were Ukrainian police - chosen from POW camps under German control and then trained at Trawniki, the Lublin training camp. Later, hundreds of SS including a few Aufseherinnen served at Plaszow. SS-Oberscharführer Franz Müller was the first Kommandant, replaced by the infamous Amon Göth in early 1943. Göth was arrested in September the following year, for misappropriating valuables and property from the camp inmates.

A large pit, measuring some 50 x 5 metres, was used for mass executions. The victims were forced to undress before being shot in groups and then stacked in layers. Once this had been filled to capacity, barracks were erected on the site and executions were moved to another nearby area. Eyewitnesses reported that the ashes of these victims were scattered over the entire camp area, following the exhumation and burning period that lasted for two months prior to the abandonment of the concentration camp.

Most recent studies estimate around 8,000 were killed at Plaszow, mostly by shooting. Many also died of typhus due to the poor conditions within the camp.

As the Soviets approached, the SS transferred prisoners to other camps in Germany, Austria. Others were sent to be murdered at Auschwitz-II, Birkenau. In mid-January 1945, the last transport of prisoners left Plaszow under SS guard, headed west to Auschwitz. Many of those who actually survived the death march were killed upon arrival. Soviet forces eventually arrived at the site later that month, only to find a barren tract of land.

[CARL]

IMAGES:

1-3) The former camp grounds. Very few remnants actually remain at the site.

[Tango]

I did reply to this thread but it must of went into cyber-space??????????.... I was just about to ask Carl if you had any photos & hey presto they turn up???... I was also saying I watched the film "Uprising" yesterday & thought that it was good film!!! Cheers Terry.

[CARL]

4-6) Shelters in the form of tunnels, dug by the prisoners into the side of a hill.

[CARL]

7) One of the few information signs that border the former site. This one stands at the edge of the former SS-Lager.

8-10) Views taken within the former SS zone. Note image 10, which shows the former SS prison building known as the "Grey House" in the background.

[sandgroper]

Just terrible Carl, 8000 people reduced to nothing, if there is a hell I desperately hope the creatures that dreamed up places like this and operated them are there now suffering until the end of time.

[CARL]

11-13) Remnants of period structures located near the former entrance area, including a former guard post.

[CARL]

14) SS prison - the "Bunker" was located in the basement.

15) Another view of the SS prison building. The SS accommodation barracks were located to the rear, on the area just visible in the background.

[CARL]

16-19) A short walk from the prison building, the former house of Kommandant Amon Göth.

[CARL]

20) The commemorative cross marking the location of one of the mass execution sites. Known today as "Hujowa Gorka", which translates as "Prick's Hill" - a Polish insult of the SS officer Hujar's name. SS-Unterscharführer Albert Hujar directed executions at the site.

21) The Jewish commemorative stone located on the grounds of the former camp.

22-23) Atop a hill overlooking the camp area stands the large "Memorial Of Torn Out Hearts".