The forced labour camp for the Kraków Jews was established in the autumn of 1942 and was transformed into a concentration camp on 10 January 1944. The last group of prisoners (about 600 people) left KL Plaszow on 14 January 1945.

The camp archive was destroyed, and the number of people who were killed or died in the KL Plaszow can only be estimated. Based on the available historical sources, it is estimated that the camp area may contain remains of five to six thousand people killed during the war, including the prisoners of the camp, the victims of executions carried out by the Gestapo, and of the ghetto liquidation operation in 1943.

About 30–35 thousand people were imprisoned in the camp during its operation period.

The camp was originally organized for Jews coming from the demolished Kraków ghetto. The largest group of prisoners included Jews coming from the General Government, principally from the ghettos established in Kraków and its environs. As well as Jews, Poles were also imprisoned in the camp: citizens of Kraków and neighbouring townships who were suspected of being involved in the resistance movement. Also Romani families were imprisoned here. Additionally, KL Plaszow was used as a transit camp. It received transports from other camps in the Kraków, Lublin and Radom districts; Jews from Hungary were also transferred here to be finally directed to KL Auschwitz.

In July 1943, a separate unit was established in the Plaszow forced labour camp, known as the educational labour camp for Poles. People accused of participating in the resistance movement, of administrative and trivial offences, and victims of military actions in villages near Kraków were imprisoned there. The educational labour camp was included in KL Plaszow in January 1944. The period of imprisonment (three to six months) was frequently extended. The number of prisoners is estimated at hundreds to 3 thousand people.

People who were not formally classified as prisoners were also put in the camp. In 1944, thousands of men were detained in KL Plaszow, following a preventive arrest operation conducted on 6 August in Kraków, and provoked by the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising (‘Black Sunday’). Additionally, German police formations used the camp area to execute people put in Kraków prisons, principally the jail in Montelupich Street.

The prisoners of KL Plaszow constructed and extended the camp, demolished and levelled the Jewish cemeteries then occupied by the camp, were seconded to work in two quarries operated by the camp, erected new structures (blocks, barracks, the bakery), and dug fire ponds. Until September 1943 the prisoners also worked in enterprises and factories located outside the camp. Some of them were put in subcamps established near those enterprises (e.g. at Oskar Schindler's Enamel Factory or the Kraków Cable Factory). The prisoners also worked in shoemaker, knitting, metalwork, clockmaker, paper-making, brush-making and printer workshops, and in Julius Madritsch’s sewing factory.

Mass executions were carried out at three locations in the camp area: at the northern border of the old Jewish cemetery (known as ‘bagier’, referring to the excavator operated there) and in ramparts FS-21 (the H-Hill, where a cross is erected) and FS-22 (the C-Pit, with the Nazi Victim Memorial). The name H-Hill, i.e. Hujowa (Prick) Hill, comes from the surname of SS member Albert Hujer who frequently directed executions in the camp. The name C-Pit, i.e. Cipowy (Cunt) Pit, was coined by the prisoners by analogy.

The prisoners of the camp and people transported by the Gestapo for execution (principally political prisoners, Jews who hid their identity under ‘Aryan’ documents, victims of military raids in townships near Kraków) were killed in KL Plaszow. In March 1943, Jews from the Kraków Ghetto were also shot – mainly elderly people who were incapable of taking on hard work.

The prisoners of the labour camp were transferred in 1943 to camps located at large factories, e.g. in Pionki, Skarżysko-Kamienna, and Częstochowa. The liquidation process of KL Plaszow began in the summer of  1944, and its prisoners were transported to other concentration camps: KL Auschwitz, KL Mauthausen, KL Gross-Rosen and its subcamp in Brünnlitz, KL Ravensbrück, KL Flossenbürg and KL Buchenwald.

Two major trials took place after the war to judge the officers managing KL Plaszow: the trial of commandant Amon Göth, sentenced to death (the execution was carried out on 13 September 1946), and the trial of eighteen members of camp staff, finalized on 21 January 1948 by death sentences for Lorenz Landsdorfer, Ferdinand Glaser, Edmund Zdrojewski and Arnold Büscher, and long imprisonment sentences for twelve former SS members. One of the remaining two SS members died before the trial ended; the other was acquitted. Some staff members were also summoned before Polish, German and Austrian courts in the following years.

The camp was divided into three sectors:

– the prisoners’ sector: residential barracks (separate for men and women), pit latrines, hospital and supplies buildings (a kitchen, foodstuff warehouses, a bakery), and a quarantine zone;

– administration buildings, designed for camp personnel: barracks, the commandant office, blocks, garages, a warehouse for confiscated property and the houses of SS officers;

– an industrial sector, consisting of workshops in which the prisoners were forced to work.

Accounts and documents concerning KL Plaszow are included principally in the collections of the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, the Institute of National Remembrance, the Yad Vashem Archive in Jerusalem, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington and the USC Shoah Foundation in Los Angeles. The Kraków Museum launched the KL Plaszow Digital Archive (www.ca.muzeumkrakowa.pl) in December 2019, which will finally provide a complete library of information about the camp.

Before the camp was established, there were two ramparts and powder magazines of the Austrian Kraków fortress constructed in the 19th century, and two Jewish cemeteries (founded by the Podgórze community in 1887 and by the Kraków community in 1932) with funeral homes and administration buildings. There was also a sanatorium for children exposed to the risk of developing tuberculosis, managed by the Jewish Society for Health Protection in Kraków. Private houses stood at the sites of the present Heltmana, Jerozolimska and Wielicka Streets.

The camp occupied an area of about 0.8 sq. km in mid-1944. Its boundary extended from the main gate at Jerozolimska Street, along Wielicka Street to present Kamieńskiego Street (including the houses in Pańska Street). Then, the camp fence was erected along Kamieńskiego Street, over the ridge of Bonarka quarry, along Swoszowicka Street and the present access road to the Krzemionki reservoir managed by the Municipal Waterworks and Sewerage Company, and farther along a road extension to the municipal lime kiln.

The establishment of the KL Plaszow Museum is a project supported by Kraków City and the government of Poland. The Museum preserves the memory of thousands of victims persecuted and killed in the former German Nazi camp KL Plaszow. Establishing an institutional manager, organizing the area, constructing an exhibition building − the Memorial − all these goals come from the need to respectfully commemorate the tragic history of this site and broaden knowledge of the German Nazi concentration and forced labour camp operated in Kraków during World War II.

The establishment of the Museum and the KL Plaszow Memorial Site in Kraków to remember the German Nazi Labour and Concentration Camp (1942–1945) (in progress) provides a response to appeals to commemorate the victims of KL Plaszow, expressed for many years. The Museum began its operations on 1 January 2021. It is co-managed by the Kraków Municipality and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.

The KL Plaszow Museum was assigned to implement a project aimed to preserve the former camp area and describe and illustrate the fates of the prisoners and victims of the camp. This goal will be achieved by arranging sightseeing trails in the former camp area and two permanent exhibitions: in a new building (the Memorial) and in the historicalGrey House.

The Memorial building will be constructed outside the post-camp area, but on an adjacent plot of land in Kamieńskiego Street. The building will host a permanent exhibition and contain the infrastructure necessary to operate the Memorial site (a car park, information stand, ticket office, toilets). The project also includes the renovation and adaptation for exhibition purposes of the historical building preserved in the former camp area known as the Grey House that contained camp administration rooms and a prison at the time of the camp’s operation.

The Memorial will stand on a plot of land located on Kamieńskiego/Swoszowicka Streets, adjacent to the historical area of KL Plaszow.

No, the former area of KL Plaszow will remain open, unfenced and green. Modifications to natural features during the Memorial construction (planned outside the former camp area) will be limited to the minimum necessary. The Memorial and car park are designed to control growing pedestrian and coach traffic around the post-camp area.

No, it will not be fenced, and no admission tickets will be required. Direct modifications to the post-camp area will be limited to a minimum. Only maintenance tasks and necessary interventions are planned.

The Memorial and functional amenities intended for visitors will be used to manage and control the chaotic tourist traffic that presently poses a nuisance to people who live around the former camp KL Plaszow. Coaches will be directed to a dedicated car park and prevented from obstructing traffic in and around Jerozolimska Street. Tourist traffic management is necessary, considering that the number of visitors to the former German Nazi camp KL Plaszow is growing year by year. This increase in traffic was inhibited by the restrictions imposed to contain the pandemic, but now it is intensifying again.

The former camp area, occupying 0.37 sq. km, is not a park; neither by a legal nor by a common-sense definition. The area is entered in the list of protected heritage monuments. It is also registered as a war cemetery. The site contains two Jewish cemeteries and three mass graves and execution places. We refer to the area bounded by Jerozolimska, Lecha, Pańska and Swoszowicka Streets using only the name that reflects its past: ‘the area of former KL Plaszow camp’.

The KL Plaszow Museum is currently carrying out a commemoration project in the former camp area, aiming to preserve historical objects in the post-camp area and the memory of camp prisoners and victims. The commemoration project includes three components: the post-camp area, the Grey House at Jerozolimska street and a new exhibition building - named Memorial at Kamieńskiego street.

The detailed designs present the Grey House, the area of former KL Plaszow and the Memorial. The building design created by Grupa Projektowa GPP Sp. z o.o. was used to complete detailed designs for the Memorial (author: BBC Best Building Consultants sp. z o.o.) and the area of former KL Plaszow (author: Grupa Projektowa GPP sp. z o.o). A building design and a detailed design were also created for the Grey House by the design firm Biuro Projektów Piotr Wolarek.

In March 2023, a contract notice was announced for site development in the area of former camp Plaszow. Contract notices will be announced in 2023 for the construction of the Memorial, and for construction works aimed to adapt the Grey House for museum purposes. The commencement of Memorial construction is also scheduled for 2023.

Visualizations of the detailed designs of the KL Plaszow Museum can be found on its website https://plaszow.org/en/about-the-museum/investments

The detailed designs show the historic building known as the Grey House, a new museum building - the Memorial - and the vast post-camp area of about 0.37 sq. km.

The detailed design for the Grey House is aimed at arranging in its interior a section of our permanent exhibition presenting the history of this site by a narrative of prisoners’ lives. The adaptation of the Grey House for museum purposes is the most challenging task in the entire project. The building was constructed before World War II to accommodate the administration of two Jewish cemeteries. During the German occupation, at the time of operation of the German Nazi forced labour and concentration camp Plaszow, the building was used as office space for the camp administration, and its basement as a prison and place of solitary confinement. After World War II, the Grey House was used as a residential building. The building is owned by the Jewish Religious Community of Kraków. It is included in the Museum’s assets under an agreement made between the Jewish Religious Community and Kraków authorities.

A square located in front of the Grey House will accommodate larger groups of visitors who will be offered the opportunity to sit on benches, relax and see a model representing KL Plaszow. This space can also be used for educational purposes. The Grey House will be equipped with a lift for disabled visitors. The appearance of the building will be restored, as in the 1940s.

23 concrete poles (pylons) will be erected along the perimeter of the post-camp area, to mark the borders of the memorial site. The poles will be located mostly at the access roads to the museum area, at distances of several dozen meters. They will be accompanied by boards communicating by-laws applicable in the area and information boards explaining its nature. The roll-call ground of former KL Plaszow will be marked by a strip from bright-coloured aggregate poured along its perimeter, about 2.5 m in width. The Jewish cemeteries where Germans constructed camp Plaszow will be marked using concrete blocks. The open-air exhibition displayed in the post-camp area will be modified Relics of the camp will be indicated in several dozen locations. Path and road surfaces n the vast post-camp area will be repaired. Fine gravel will be used as a material harmonizing with the environment. Several benches will also be installed in the post-camp area.

The newly constructed Memorial will serve the functions of the main museum building and a back office for the Museum administration. Its structure will be covered with earth, and only its northern wall with its main entrance will be exposed. A car park will be arranged next to the Memorial. Borysław Czarakcziew, the designer of the Memorial, proposes that the building be surrounded by green space. The permanent exhibition to be displayed in the Memorial will occupy about 500 sq. m, the remaining space of 300 sq. m will accommodate ticket counters, a library, coffee shop and toilets. The Memorial will be connected with the former camp area by a tunnel under Swoszowicka street. The tunnel will lead to a small square with direct access to the post-camp area. A model of the camp as of 1944 will also be displayed in the square.

The contest for the best artistic concept of the permanent exhibition in the KL Plaszow Museum – Memorial Site in Kraków was concluded in December 2022. The contest aimed to select an aesthetically appealing, attractive and functional concept of artistic arrangement of the permanent exhibition to be displayed in the KL Plaszow Museum, considering the character of this memorial site. Fixed components of the exhibition will be made e.g. from limestone, as a reference to the site history. The exhibition will be arranged both in the Memorial - the new museum building - and in the Grey House, the preserved historic building located in the area of former KL Plaszow. As explained by the contest jury, the authors of the winning design proposed a coherent and spatially attractive arrangement that is purposefully adapted to the characteristics of both the Memorial and the historic Grey House.

Six concepts were submitted in the contest. The contest committee concluded that the best design was proposed by Koza Nostra studio from Kraków, who were awarded the first prize amounting to PLN 20 000.

A visualization of the preliminary design of the permanent exhibition in the KL Plaszow Museum is displayed on its website https://plaszow.org/en/new/prizes-in-the-contest-for-the-arrangement-of-the-exhibition.

The Memorial is designed as the main museum building. Located on a plot of land outside the area entered in the list of protected heritage monuments, but adjacent to it, in a location that is easily accessible on public transport, the Memorial is intended to introduce visitors to the history of the Memorial site.

The architects used natural terrain to design a structure embedded in an escarpment, hidden underground, and exposing only its front facade. A tunnel constructed under Swoszowicka Street will enable visitors to reach the Memorial site directly from the building.

The Museum preserves the memory of thousands of victims persecuted and killed in the former German Nazi KL Plaszow camp. The idea of the Museum is dictated by the need to commemorate the tragic history of this site and to broaden knowledge of the camp’s operation and its victims. Additionally, the Museum is designed to protect people living around the site against disruption and nuisance caused by uncontrolled tourist traffic. The Memorial site will retain its green and open character.