Visit Plaszow concentration camp - only a few kilometers from the Krakow Main Square. The Plaszow camp started operation in 1940 and was dedicated to forced labor and then the concentration of Jews deported from ghettos in Malopolska. Start the tour in the city center and take the tram ride up to the location. Your guide will reveal to you the historical background and show all the most important places in the area.
Plaszow was known as a concentration camp, supplying several military factories and a quarry with labor. At that time the camp covered 12 ha of the land formerly occupied by the cemeteries of Krakow and Podgórze Jewish Communes. In July 1943 the Germans established an “educational” labor camp for the Poles. The people detained there were Krakow citizens and the victims of the pacification of villages near Krakow.
The camp and life in it are shown in the "Schindler's List" movie (1993) about the life of Oskar Schindler. The area which held the camp now consists of sparsely wooded hills and fields, with one large memorial to all the victims, erected in 1964 and a few smaller. As the Plaszow area is now a nature preserve, so the director Steven Spielberg built a camp replica in the Liban Quarry, some hundred meters away. During the tour, you will visit all the former sets and hear interesting stories about the production of the movie.
