Germans began preparations for the construction of the Płaszów camp in the autumn of 1942. However, the exact date of the decision to establish the camp is not known, as the written order issued by SS-Oberführer Julian Scherner, the commander of the SS and the police for the district of Krakow, has not been preserved. The camp was established with the purpose of gathering fit for work Jews from the ghettos in Krakow and Tarnów and from other towns in the Krakow district and holding them in a single institution subordinate to the SS and controlled by the police and SS troops. Three small Julags – forced labour camps for Jews – had been operating in occupied Krakow since 1942: in Płaszów (Julag I), Prokocim (Julag II) and Bieżanów (Julag III). In 1943, they became sub-camps of Płaszów and were later liquidated.

In November 1942, SS-Unterscharführer Horst Pilarzik became the commandant of the Płaszów camp. In order to speed up construction works, Germans established the so-called Barackenbau, a kommando composed of artisans: bricklayers, carpenters, plumbers, locksmiths, as well as physical workers. According to the design by engineer Rudolf Lukas, the camp was to occupy an area of ca. 15 hectares and accommodate up to 5,000 Jewish workers. Over time, both the area of Płaszów and the number of prisoners were significantly expanded.

The camp was built on the outskirts of Krakow, far from the eyes of accidental witnesses. It was established on the grounds of three urban districts – Płaszów, Podgórze, and Wola Duchacka[[refr|:IPN GK 196/40, NTN, Criminal case files of Amon Göth, Site inspection protocol, fol. 10 onwards.]]. A part of the camp’s area was owned by private individuals, while the rest belonged to the city of Krakow, the Jewish Religious Community of Krakow and the State Treasury. Using force and providing no compensation, Germans displaced the residents of nearby private houses. The camp was built at the site of two Jewish cemeteries, located at 25 Jerozolimska Street and 3 Abrahama Street. The location of the Płaszów camp was well thought-out: it was built close to industrial plants and workshops where prisoners could work. There was a railroad less than a kilometre away from the site, and the limestone rocks of Krzemionki hid the area from outside witnesses. However, the landscape and the soil at the site of the camp made it difficult to build barracks and move around the area.

On 13 March 1943 – the day of the liquidation of the Krakow Ghetto – ca. 8,000 Jews were brought to Płaszów. The camp commandant at that time was SS-Hauptsturmführer Amon Göth, transferred to Krakow from the headquarters of the SS and police commander in the Lublin district on 11 February 1943. Göth had previously worked in the staff of Operation Reinhardt. Camp prisoners remembered him as a sadist and brutal executioner who achieved his goals through beatings and severe punishment. The scale of his power is reflected by the nickname used to describe him in many reports concerning Płaszów – “lager Göth.”

The exact number of prisoners of Płaszów is unknown. In mid-March 1943, ca. 10,000 people were held there. The number of prisoners increased over the following months. Ryszard Kotarba estimates that an average of some dozen thousand prisoners resided in the camp at a time[1.1]. According to prisoner Mieczysław Pemper, the camp had ca. 22,000–24,000 prisoners at the turn of June 1944, and a total of 30,000 prisoners were held in the Płaszów camp throughout the period of its existence[1.2]. In his post-war testimony, Amon Göth claimed that the highest number of prisoners in the camp did not exceed 17,000. On the other hand, another prisoner, Jan Podgórski, recalled that in the autumn of 1944, there were 26,000 people inside the camp, including 8,000 Hungarians[[refr|:IPN GK 196/39, NTN, Criminal case files of Amon Göth, Testimony of Jan Podgórski, fol. 24-25]]. The records did not include the so-called transitional transports and victims of executions carried out within the camp, such as prisoners from the Montelupich prison, who were shot on the spot. Executions were carried out at three locations in the camp: initially on the grounds of the Jewish cemetery, and later at two post-WWI artillery sites – in “Chujowa Górka” (used until February 1944) and “Cipowy Dołek” (used until autumn 1944). According to historians, the number of camp victims can be estimated at ca. 8,000. Prisoners of Płaszów were not photographed or tattooed.

In the early stages of the camp’s operation, its prisoners were mainly Jews, mostly former residents of the Krakow Ghetto. Over the following months, they were joined by Jews from the Tarnów Ghetto and other towns in the Krakow district. In mid-1944, groups of Jews from KL Lublin (Majdanek) and temporary transports of Hungarian Jews on their way to KL Auschwitz were also sent to the camp. In order to accommodate all prisoners, a so-called health assembly took place in the camp in mid-May 1944. It was essentially a selection process meant to weed out the elderly, the sick, and children from the Kinderheim – as a result, ca. 1,400 prisoners were sent to Auschwitz. In July 1943, two barracks were designated for the so-called “educational labour camp” for Poles. Polish people were sent to Płaszów for such transgressions as disobeying the curfew, refusing to work for the occupier, entering the German compartment in a tram or joining underground organisations. Poles apprehended in pacification operations were also held in Płaszów. The head of the Polish section of the camp was SS-Unterscharführer Lorenz Landstorfer, called “Hawk” (Jastrząb) by the Poles and “Meshulach” (“Ghost”) by the Jews – this was because he would appear out of nowhere and surprise disobedient prisoners, for example when they were sabotaging their work. Until November 1943, Landstorfer’s deputy was SS-Sturmann Georg Michalski from Silesia. He was later succeeded by SS-Oberschütze Thomas Riesberg. The separate Polish section of the camp was liquidated at the turn of February 1944. Initially, less than 1,000 Polish prisoners were held in the Płaszów camp. In the spring of 1944, out of the total of ca. 20,000 prisoners at the camp, nearly 3,000 were Poles. The largest group of Poles – ca. 6,000 people – was sent to the camp on 6 August 1944, after the so-called “Black Sunday,” an operation carried out as a preventive measure following the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising. Several days later, most of those arrested were released. Among the prisoners of Płaszów there were also some Germans, Ukrainians, Latvians, and Roma people.

People imprisoned in Płaszów were allowed to keep their civilian clothes. Those who stayed in the camp permanently had their clothes painted with red stripes, while those who worked in outside institutions were marked with yellow stripes. They also wore badges with identification numbers. Those accused of trying to escape had a rainbow-coloured circle painted on their back. Striped uniforms were not introduced until 1944, but they were not consistently enforced and only a small group of prisoners actually wore them.

Despite the passage of months, works on the expansion of the camp continued. At its height, it covered an area of ca. 80 ha. One of its sections encompassed workshops and plants producing goods for the Third Reich. All these activities has significant impact on the living conditions of the prisoners. The barracks, mainly wooden buildings, were overcrowded and from time to time would lose access to running water. Dirt, poor sanitary conditions, hard work and small, low-calorie meals made the situation even worse. Had it not been for smuggling and help extended by people from the outside, the prisoners of Płaszów would not have survived on the camp food rations.

Until January 1944, Płaszów operated as a labour camp (Zwangsarbeitslager Plaszow des SS- und Polizeiführer im Distrikt Krakau). It was later converted into a concentration camp (Konzentrationslager der Waffen SS Krakau-Plaszow). From then on, it was administered by the SS Main Office of Economy and Administration in Berlin. New regulations defined the code of offences and appropriate penalties, which meant that the commandant would no longer be able to give arbitrary punishment; he was also obliged to contact the head office before administering some of the more severe punishments. It soon turned out, however, that the regulations were largely ignored by Göth, who would severely beat up or even shoot a prisoner if he did not like his behaviour. After the conversion into a concentration camp, a group of German criminal prisoners arrived to Płaszów. A group of guards and SS officers was sent to join the existing staff.

With the advancements of the Red Army in late summer 1944, Germans started to liquidate the camp. Mass graves were exhumed and the bodies of the victims were cremated. On 13 September 1944, Commandant Amon Göth was arrested by SS-Polizeigericht officers under the accusation of mismanagement of funds. However, he managed to escape trial and went into hiding until the end of the war. He was replaced by SS-Hauptsturmführer Arnold Büscher. The prisoners of Płaszów were transported to camps in the German Reich: KL Stutthof, KL Gross-Rosen, KL Sachsenhausen, KL Mauthausen, and KL Dachau. The last transport left on 21 October 1944. A small group of prisoners were left at the camp and tasked with completing its liquidation. On 14 January 1945, the last commandant of the camp, SS-Hauptscharführer Kurt Schupke, ordered for the last prisoners to be transported out of Płaszów. They were sent to Auschwitz together with a group of people held in the prison at Montelupich Street. On 18 January 1945, the area of the former camp was seized by the Red Army.

Martyna Grądzka-Rejak

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