Memory Trail

The KL Plaszow Memorial Museum in Kraków, which is dedicated to the remembrance of the victims of the Plazow German Nazi Labour Camp and Concentration Camp (1942–1945), started its operations on 1st January 2021 in line with a resolution adopted by the Kraków City Council. It is managed by the Kraków Museum.

The KL Plaszow Museum is established to preserve and manage the area of the former German Nazi concentration camp in Plaszow, operated in 1942–1945. According to estimates, about 35 thousand prisoners were detained in the camp: Jews, Poles and other nationals. 5–6 thousand people were killed in the camp.

The Museum performs research and educational tasks aimed to commemorate the history of KL Plaszow and its victims. The institution manages the former camp area entered in the list of protected heritage monuments, and an historical building known as the Grey House. A plot of land adjacent to the former camp area is designated for the Memorial construction. Both the Grey House and the Memorial will host permanent exhibitions illustrating the history of the camp.

The end of investment of the KL Plaszow Museum is scheduled for late 2025.

The Memory Trail consists of three branches of the Kraków Museum: Pomorska Street, the Pharmacy under the Eagle and Oskar Schindler's Enamel Factory. The KL Plaszow Museum forms its natural extension. Those four points on the map of Kraków represent complementary tales of World War II and the time thereafter. The narrative of the Memory Trail covers the years 1939–1956, beginning just before the outbreak of the war and guides the visitors through the everyday life of wartime Kraków, Nazi repression of the population, the ghetto, camp Plaszow, to the terror used by post-war communist authorities after 1945. The Memory Trail gives not only a panoramic view on the history of Kraków, but also a tale of the inconceivable experiences of the Poles, Jews and Germans who lived in Kraków during the war.

The Silesian House at 2 Pomorska Street was occupied in 1939–1945 by the headquarters of the German Security Police and Security Service for the Kraków district, including the Gestapo. The building was used for prisoner interrogations, and a temporary detention centre was maintained in its basement. Currently, a permanent exhibition ‘People of Kraków in the time of terror 1939–1945–1956’ can be visited in the house and the preserved cells of the former Gestapo prison.

This Museum is located in the former ‘Under the Eagle’ pharmacy run by Tadeusz Pankiewicz during the war. In 1942–1943 the pharmacy was situated in the ghetto established by the Nazi authorities to displace the Jews from Kraków. Pharmacy staff provided the ghetto population with assistance. Pharmacy personnel were also witnesses to the tragedy of ghetto inhabitants, and Tadeusz Pankiewicz published one of the first testimonies about the extermination of Kraków Jews after the war. The current permanent exhibition illustrates the history of the ghetto and its inhabitants, and of the pharmacy.

The administration building of the former Oskar Schindler’s Enamel Factory hosts a permanent exhibition featuring the history of Kraków and its citizens during World War II. The history of Jewish workers, prisoners of KL Plaszow who were saved by Oskar Schindler, was told in Steven Spielberg’s film ‘Schindler’s List’.

About the Museum

Memory Trail

Pomorska Street

The Pharmacy under the Eagle

Oskar Schindler’s Enamel Factory

The KL Plaszow Memorial Museum in Kraków