When you hear the phrase 10 harrowing facts, you might expect a list of shocking statistics. In the case of Krakow’s ghetto, those facts paint a vivid, painful picture of a community forced into cramped walls, brutal oppression, and daring resistance during World War II. Below we walk through each unsettling detail, preserving the gravity of the original accounts while adding a conversational spin.
10 Life in the Ghetto
Seventy‑five thousand Jewish residents were ripped from their homes and herded into a confined district that spanned sixteen city blocks. One‑third of Krakow’s population found itself packed inside these walls, where food was as scarce as a kind word. Only those with cash could slip into the illicit black market to obtain the few items the official supply failed to provide.
The ghetto lay on the Vistula’s right bank in the Podgórze neighborhood, quickly becoming known as the Krakow or Podgórze Ghetto. It occupied roughly fifty acres of two‑ and three‑storey structures, turning the area into a sprawling slum.
In the seventeen days before the forced relocation, the original three‑thousand inhabitants were expelled to make room for an additional sixteen thousand Jews, underscoring the severe overcrowding. Around two thousand more people slipped in illegally, convinced that the walls would offer safety compared to the streets outside.
9 Tombstone Walls
Within the ghetto, a single apartment block housed four families, meaning each individual was allotted a meager two square metres (about 21 sq ft) of personal space. Beyond the crushing crowding, the Nazis deliberately designed the environment to feel oppressive: windows that faced the city were boarded up, cutting off any visual contact with the outside world.
The most striking—and chilling—feature was the three‑metre‑high (ten‑foot) wall that encircled the ghetto. Its arches were fashioned to resemble tombstones, a constant reminder of death that loomed over every resident’s day.
8 The Final Solution
In 1941, Adolf Hitler signed off on a plan to exterminate eleven million Jews. The decisive moment arrived on 20 January 1942, when SS‑Gruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich chaired the infamous Wannsee Conference. Delegates there agreed to deport Jews to death camps, a policy that became known as the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question”.
The conference set the stage for a systematic genocide that officially began on 3 June 1942, after Reichsführer‑SS Heinrich Himmler and General Governor Hans Frank signed off on the plan. The code‑named “Final Solution” projected the murder of roughly eleven million Jews across occupied Europe.
Even before the Wannsee decision, the SS and Wehrmacht had already begun mass killings in Serbia and the occupied Soviet Union. The Krakow Ghetto itself experienced two major deportations: between 1 and 8 June 1942, 7,000 Jews were shipped via the nearby Plaszow camp to the Belzec extermination camp, with 1,000 murdered before the train even left for Belzec. A second wave occurred on 27‑28 October 1942, when another 6,000 Jews were rounded up; 600 were killed during the deportation, including 300 children. None of those deported survived the death camp.
7 The Jewish Fighting Organization
By 1942, two resistance cells had sprouted inside the Krakow Ghetto: the Akiva group, led by Aharon “Dolek” Liebeskind, and a second faction headed by former soldier Heshek Bauminger. In the wake of the Chelmno killings and the June 1942 deportations, they resolved to fight back. They enlisted courier Hela Shüpper to reach out to fellow Jewish resistance groups in Warsaw, Rzeszów, and Tarnów, sharing intelligence and smuggling weapons into the ghetto. Meanwhile, Shimshon Draenger set up a forgery workshop to produce falsified documents.
After the two mass deportations, the two factions merged in October 1942 to form the Jewish Fighting Organization (JFO). The JFO carried out daring raids on German warehouses, sabotaged railway lines, and launched attacks on German soldiers and police. Operating from a base outside the ghetto, they hurled grenades into cafés frequented by German officers, distributed anti‑Nazi leaflets, sabotaged police and army vehicles, assassinated soldiers, and raised Polish flags over Vistula bridges. Their activities, however, attracted a massive Gestapo manhunt. The Nazis eventually discovered Liebeskind’s hideout, leading to a shoot‑out in which he was killed. The following day, Bauminger met a similar fate. Yet the JFO persisted, continuing sabotage, leafleting, and urging Jews to flee to the forests.
6 Propaganda
Before the ghetto’s liquidation, Jews who lacked a stamped work card proving employment with a German firm were rounded up at Zgody Square (now Bohaterów Getta Square) for deportation. A horse‑drawn platform carried the crowd, while the Gestapo photographed the scene from the balcony above the Eagle Pharmacy, attempting to portray the resettlement as a humanitarian act.
Once the photographs were taken, the crowd was violently driven off the platform, many receiving beatings. The coachmen were dismissed, and the deportees were herded to the Prokocim railway station for transport to the death camps.
5 The Eagle Pharmacy
The Eagle Pharmacy stood out as a rare example of a civilian business that kept its doors open throughout the ghetto’s existence. Run by the non‑Jewish pharmacist Tadeusz Pankiewicz—who was the sole gentile resident within the walls—the pharmacy became a bustling hub of intellectual exchange. Scholars, artists, and professionals gathered in the basement to discuss news from the front, share everyday concerns, and debate political and scientific matters.
When the ghetto’s post office shut down, the pharmacy took over the role of a makeshift courier service, handling letters, money, and news. Pankiewicz employed additional staff—pharmacists Irena Drozdzikowska, Aurelia Danek, and Helena Krywaniuk—to act as intermediaries. The building’s two entrances, leading to a courtyard, provided shelter for many during night raids, saving countless lives.
During the deportations, Pankiewicz supplied sedatives, cardiac medicines, and wound dressings free of charge to physicians and nurses. He also facilitated final good‑byes: Jews visited the pharmacy to leave messages or entrust valuables for loved ones. Remarkably, he commissioned a hidden cabinet to conceal ten precious Torahs, safeguarding them from Nazi plunder.
After the war, Pankiewicz published his memoir, The Pharmacy in the Krakow’s Ghetto, in 1947, and later testified at the Nuremberg Trials. Recognized as Righteous Among the Nations, he managed the pharmacy until 1954, after which he transferred to another location. The Eagle Pharmacy closed in 1967, but thanks to former colleagues, it reopened in 1983 as a Museum of National Remembrance and now forms part of the Historical Museum of the City of Krakow.
4 Ghetto A & B
Following the June and October deportations, a Nazi squad stripped Jewish apartments of furniture and valuables, transferring the loot to a storage depot on Józefinska Street. Once the flats were “cleaned,” the ghetto was prepared for a fresh influx of Jews in December 1942. This time, authorities split the area into two sections: Ghetto A for working Jews and Ghetto B for those unable to work, including the elderly, the sick, and children under fourteen.
Unbeknownst to the residents, this division was a prelude to the final liquidation. On 13 March 1943, SS‑Oberführer Julian Schemer ordered the ghetto’s eradication in two phases. That day, 6,000 Jews from Ghetto A were transferred to the newly built Plaszow labor camp. The next day, Ghetto B was liquidated, resulting in 3,000 deaths on the spot, while the remaining inhabitants were loaded onto trucks bound for Auschwitz‑Birkenau.
The Jewish council members, their families, and the ghetto police were also sent to Plaszow. Of the 3,000 deported to Auschwitz‑Birkenau, only 499 men and 50 women were earmarked for forced labor at Plaszow; the rest were murdered in the gas chambers. Between September and December 1943, the majority of the remaining prisoners at Plaszow were executed in mass shootings.
3 Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski’s family returned to Krakow in 1936, only to find themselves thrust into the ghetto when the Nazis invaded in 1939. During the mass deportations, young Roman watched his father being seized and his mother sent to Auschwitz, where she perished shortly after arrival.
One harrowing memory Polanski recounted was hiding in a stairwell recess after witnessing the murder of a Jewish woman, remaining concealed for hours. His later film, The Pianist (2002), offers a stark cinematic portrayal of ghetto life. In 1943, Polanski escaped the ghetto by assuming the alias Roman Wilk, aided by a Polish Catholic family—particularly Mrs. Sermak, who honored a promise to shelter him. He later reflected, “I survived because I didn’t look much like a Jew… I definitely looked like many Polish kids.”
2 Polish Righteous Among the Nations
Tadeusz Pankiewicz was not alone in receiving the title of Polish Righteous Among the Nations. In total, 6,706 Polish men and women have been honored for selflessly risking their lives to aid Jews during the Holocaust.
The medals awarded bear the inscription, “whoever saves one life, saves the world entire.” These courageous individuals helped not only within Krakow’s ghetto but throughout Poland, their bravery ensuring the survival of countless families.
1 Plac Bohaterow Getta Square
During the war, Plac Bohaterów Getta—known then as Plac Zgody—served as the ghetto’s central square, a place where residents fled their cramped apartments for a brief respite. Tragically, it also became the stage for one of Krakow’s most horrific scenes: thousands of families were torn apart as Nazis ordered mass deportations to concentration camps, and many Jews were beaten and executed in the open.
Following the final liquidation, the square was littered with abandoned furniture, luggage, clothing, and personal belongings, an image that would later symbolize the sheer loss endured there.
After the war, in 1945, the square’s name was changed to Plac Bohaterów Getta, meaning “Ghetto Heroes Square.” A modest monument was erected to honor the victims, though the space later fell into disuse, serving as a parking lot and public restroom.
In 2005, after years of neglect, a new design transformed the area: seventy evenly spaced chairs now stand as a stark reminder of the departed Jewish residents. The installation serves as a solemn memorial to the ghetto’s victims.
Elisabeth Sedgwick, a freelance writer from Liverpool, England, contributed to this piece. You can explore more of her work by following the provided links.