Płaszów

(currently, possibly more in the future) - darkometer rating: 6 -

Płaszów is the name of a suburb of Kraków, Poland, but better known for the infamous former forced-labour and concentration camp that was named after the district. The camp was almost completely razed to the ground towards the end of the war and the site has long remained underdeveloped. Currently, however, some commodification efforts are ongoing and a museum is in the making too (as of spring 2024).

>More background info

>What there is to see

>Location

>Access and costs

>Time required

>Combinations with other dark destinations

>Combinations with non-dark destinations

>Photos

More background info: The camp was first set up in mid-1942 as a forced-labour camp, but it soon became a site of mass murder too, with executions carried out on site and the bodies buried in unmarked mass graves. And to add humiliation to violence, the camp was erected at the site of two Jewish cemeteries, which, as was common Nazi practice, were destroyed, the ‘matzevot’ (headstones) smashed up and used as building material (e.g. for some of the camp’s roads/paths).

In early 1943 the camp was taken over by the SS man Amon Göth from Vienna, Austria, where he had earliest roots in Nazism at a time when the Nazi party was even still outlawed in that country (and he was arrested twice but fled to Germany). Only after the Anschluss had he returned to Vienna and subsequently made a shining career within the ranks of the SS.

After he was assigned the post of commandant at Płaszów he set about expanding the site and soon became infamous for his extreme brutality, personally shooting inmates dead at random and just “for fun”. He also oversaw the liquidation of the Kraków ghetto at Podgórze in March 1943, again personally shooting victims in the process and sending a large number of Jews off to extermination at Auschwitz-Birkenau, while those deemed fit for work (several thousand) were transferred to Płaszów. In January 1944 it was “upgraded” and became a proper concentration camp. The hardest of the forced labour to be done by inmates was in the adjacent Liban granite quarry (see below).

Inmate numbers swelled to 20,000 or more by 1944, and conditions in the camp worsened. Płaszów also served as a transit point for deportations of yet more Jews. In total somewhere in the region of 150,000 people are assumed to have passed through the camp during the not even two years of its existence.

In the autumn of 1944, Amon Göth was dismissed from his post, apparently for violating camp regulations and personally enriching himself by appropriating looted Jewish belongings (which nominally had to be sent back to the Reich). He was not put on trial but ended up in a mental institution in Bavaria where after the war he was eventually identified by the US occupation force and extradited to Poland. He stood trial in Kraków, was sentenced to death and executed by hanging in 1946.

The Płaszów camp was liquidated in January 1945, when the remaining inmates were deported to other camps or sent on death marches. The Nazis then almost completely destroyed the camp structures and levelled the ground. So when the Soviet Red Army arrived later that month they found nothing.

After the war, the now practically empty site was almost forgotten and nature was allowed to take over. In the eastern parts of the camp, where the SS barracks used to be, some new housing developments took place, some incorporating former camp buildings. At the other end of the former camp, a large concrete monument was erected in the 1960s to commemorate the victims – in typical socialist-era style, both architecturally and in the fact that the inscription on the monument didn’t name Jews as the main group of victims but just mentioned a general martyrdom of the victims in the struggle against “Hitlerism”.

However, the Płaszów camp’s profile was raised through the fact that it played a significant role in the blockbuster movie “Schindler’s List” directed by Steven Spielberg and released in 1993. The film starred Liam Neeson as Oskar Schindler (see Schindler factory) and Ralph Fiennes as Amon Göth. Fiennes’s portrayal of the latter is still recognized as one of the most chilling acting performances as a “bad guy” in cinema history. Though nominated, Fiennes didn’t win an Oscar for it (while the movie raked in seven, including one for Spielberg), but he got a BAFTA for best actor in a supporting role.

Interestingly, Spielberg used the Liban quarry as a film set, where a smaller copy of the Płaszów camp was reconstructed. After shooting was finished this reconstruction was not completely dismantled and so, somewhat ironically, the film set remains became a kind of dark-tourism attraction in the absent real camp’s stead. There are still remnants of the mock-up of the camp’s fence and the reconstructed camp road made of smashed-up Jewish cemetery headstones.

At the real camp’s location there’s long been very little commemoration and commodification other than the large 1960s monument, though a few further markers were later added. There are a couple of surviving structures, including the former private villa of commandant Göth as well as the SS command house where he worked (both pre-war buildings requisitioned by the Nazis and handed back to their previous owners after the war).

The latter, called the Grey House, is no longer housing residential flats but, at the time of writing in spring 2024, is undergoing conversion into a museum of sorts. The villa, however, remains a private residence. The grounds of the camp are also receiving some symbolic commodification with extra markers. And apparently most of the previously installed information panels are also being replaced. When I visited in January 2024 there were only a couple that I saw. But the new ones were opened to the public in March 2024, as I’ve meanwhile found out.

The section below is only a temporary stand-in and will have to be changed and expanded once I’ve had an opportunity to go back for a return visit to see for myself the end result of all the current developments, especially the museum, and maybe also get a better chance to explore the quarry.

What there is to see: not yet so much – but there are developments going on.

When I visited the site in January 2024 it was winter with quite a layer of snow and it was bitter cold. Still, I climbed the hill to the Krakus Mound, had a look down into Liban quarry, but couldn’t actually get into it (too dangerous given the weather conditions), and then explored what I could find at the former camp’s actual site.

I visited the main 1960s memorial monument and the additional markers in the area at the western end of the site. One was a stone that pointed out the fact that most of the camp’s victims were indeed Jews – something the main monument fails to mention, as was usually the case in the communist era in the Eastern Bloc. I also saw the cross memorial at one of the camp’s execution sites.

I spotted numerous new concrete blocks and stelae, which will form part of the new developments at the site that were ongoing when I was there. I expected to find some of the over a dozen information panels I had read about but found only one, right at the end (see below). I presume these panels had already been taken down – to be replaced by new ones. There was also some construction work ongoing (or rather suspended at the time because of the weather) along some of the paths and steps in the area. All that is presumably completed by now.

And as I’ve recently discovered, the new “open-air exhibition” with the new panels and other commodifications now in place, opened in March 2024. So I will have to go back at some point to see all this for myself.

In the centre of the area I found a field with broken stones that are the remains of one of the old Jewish cemeteries destroyed in the construction of the camp, but due to all the snow nothing much was visible.

A larger pile of rubble I came across further east are the ruins of a Jewish funeral parlour destroyed by the Nazis.

Only a few steps to the south of this stands the largest surviving structure of the former camp, namely the so-called Grey House. This was the camp administration’s heart – the main workplace of commandant Amon Göth (see above). Until not long ago the house was used for council flats but when I visited there was a fence and evidence of lots of construction work. A sign on the fence pointed out that this building is to be turned into a museum. When that finally opens I will have yet another good reason for a return visit!

In the field in front of the Grey House stood a single headstone – a replacement of the original destroyed by the Nazis. This is for Sara Schenirer who was buried here in 1935. She was an important figure in the modernization of the attitude towards and roles of women in Jewish society. To my shock and horror I learned that shortly after my visit this site was vandalized and the stone toppled. In the meantime it will have been restored, though. There are a couple of yet more monuments, which I missed when I was in Płaszów in January 2024, such as at other execution sites. So yet more reasons for a return visit.

I did not walk down the street behind the Grey House to also see the former camp commandant’s private villa, as that is still a private residence and I can well imagine that camera-toting tourists snapping away at it may not be especially welcome.

By the way, there seems to be some confusion regarding this villa and a scene in “Schindler’s List” that depicts Amon Göth (played by Ralph Fiennes) randomly shooting at inmates inside the concentration camp. That seemed to be the private residence. But in reality, he could not have seen into the camp from the actual private villa. Instead he could have seen (and shot) into the camp from the balcony of the Grey House. Whether he actually did shoot from there is unclear, though. Some accounts say he tended to put on a special hat and went on foot to the camp for his random killing sprees. So that’s one reason less to go and see the former private villa but rather make do with the Grey House.

Instead I headed up north on Jerozolimska Street. Here I found one of the old information panels about the nearby SS guardhouse/barracks. I presume this will also have been replaced by a new one in the meantime. The QR code on the panel does still work, however. So maybe it will stay.

Finally a few steps further on there’s a row of abandoned low structures that are fenced off but you can take a good look … not that there’s much to see inside other then some graffiti and rubbish. I’ve meanwhile read (but cannot guarantee it’s correct) that these were sorting barracks where newly arriving inmates had to give up their belongings. Near here would also have been the camp’s main gate (part of which can now be seen in the Schindler factory museum).

All in all, I’m not really in a position for an overall verdict here, given the unfinished/ongoing development work at the site when I was there and the adverse weather conditions at the time. I’ll have to go back at a later point (and in more conducive weather) to see what may become of this place. There is potential for improvement, though I am also aware that some people may deplore the fact that this forlorn and formerly almost “secret” site will now become yet another visitor attraction specially commodified for tourists (the author of this book being one of them). We’ll see …

Location: a few miles (4 km) south-east of the centre of Kraków, and a good mile (1.7 km) from the ghetto square in Podgórze.

Google Maps locators:

Main 1960s monument: [50.02902, 19.96136]

Jewish stone: [50.02956 19.96168]

Execution site memorial cross: [50.03036, 19.96541]

Another execution site: [50.03265, 19.96615]

Remains of the old Jewish cemetery: [50.0334, 19.9629]

Ruins of the former funeral parlour: [50.0336, 19.9657]

The Grey House: [50.0332, 19.9664]

Sara Schenirer grave: [50.03306, 19.96591]

Abandoned sorting barracks: [50.0354, 19.9658]

Liban quarry: [50.0369, 19.9563]

Krakus Mound: [50.0381, 19.9584]

Nearest tram stop: [50.0389, 19.9647]

Access and costs: a bit off the beaten track, quite some walking (with steep bits) required; but free.

Details: To get to the site there are a couple of options. If you want to go to the 1960s main monument first, you can take one of the bus lines that go down Henryka Kamieńskiego (e.g. line 173 from Rondo Grunwaldzkie). The better option is to take one of the trams that get you to the other side of the area, e.g. line 3 or 24, from right in the centre of Kraków, e.g. from Teatr Słowackiego or Poczta Główna all the way to either Cmentarz Podgórski or Dworcowa. The latter will get you closest to the Grey House – walk back up Wielicka and turn into Abrahama Street to its end by the Grey House. The former is the stop to start your explorations from the northern end of Jerozolimska, which branches off Wielicka some 900 feet (280m) south from the tram stop.

Alternatively, you could cross the street and head up to the Podgórski cemetery and fiddle around its northern perimeter until you come to the foot of the hill with the Krakus Mound at its top and start climbing. From up here you get a good view into Liban quarry and can even find the path descending into it (see below) or continue along the path past the western end of the cemetery towards the northern and western parts of the area once occupied by the Płaszów camp.

Access to all these open-air sites is free at all times, but of course only daylight hours make sense.

What opening times (and admission fee) the museum-to-be will have remains to be seen.

Time required: I spent a bit under two hours at the site, but that was in very snowy weather, which made walking hard going and slowed me down. On the other hand, with the new open-air exhibition now in place you may spend more time at the information panels. And once the museum opens this will require a good chunk of time too. So it could well end up being a half-day excursion.

Combinations with other dark destinations: As already mentioned, the nearby Liban quarry is closely connected to Płaszów camp, a) because that was the place where inmates had to do the hardest forced labour, and b) because it was used as a film set for Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List” movie (see above), and some relics of the set can still be found. Moreover, it looks like a splendid playground for urbexing, what with the industrial ruins also to be found down there.

You can get a good and easy view into the quarry from the cliff edge just west of the Krakus Mound (see below). Getting down there can be a bit tricky though. When I was there in January 2024 it was plain impossible because of all the snow. I couldn’t even see the path that is supposed to branch off the path south from the Krakus Mound past the cemetery, and even if I had I would not have attempted it in such snowy weather.

Where exactly the path down branches off is also a bit unclear. The directions on InYourPocket say 200m south of where the path from the Krakus Mound goes past the cemetery. But all I could see along the southern rim at that sort of distance was just a sheer cliff face. I presume that the path branches off much sooner (maybe they meant 20m), close to the corner of the cemetery and then down the north-eastern edge, where you can clearly see a path on Google Maps below the cliff face south-west of the Krakus Mound. But where this path might start is hidden by trees. What you are advised against is trying to enter via the entrance off Za Torem street. Guards may shoo you away if you try it from there.

If you do manage to get down to the bottom of the quarry (at your own risk!!), you can find remnants of the mock-up camp fence that featured in the “Schindler’s List” movie as well as the path made from replica Jewish cemetery headstones that runs through the centre of the area. At the north-western end of the quarry some old abandoned industrial ruins beckon those who are into urbexing. At all times watch your step for debris, barbed wire and glass in the undergrowth and wear sturdy boots.

Much less adventurous but also thematically closely related is the museum inside Schindler’s factory as well as Podgórze with its ghetto wall fragments and the Eagle pharmacy, easily reached from the Płaszów and Liban/Krakus locations by the same tram lines that then continue towards the city centre.