By A. Fedeski (FSWC Educator)

On March 13th and 14th, 1943, the Nazis began the final liquidation of the Kraków Ghetto. Established in 1941, the ghetto had once forcibly confined over 15,000 Jews in overcrowded, squalid conditions. Beginning in May 1942, the Nazis implemented systematic deportations from the Krakow ghetto to nearby concentration camps and killing centres; by March 1943, only around 4000 Jews remained alive in the ghetto. During the final liquidation, Nazi soldiers, led by SS officer Amon Goeth, violently removed the ghetto’s remaining residents from their homes and deported them. Those deemed able to work- around 2000 people- were sent to Plaszów labour camp, while those considered unfit for labour were sent to be gassed at Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp, or simply murdered in the ghetto itself. The liquidation of the Krakow Ghetto was shown in the film Schindler’s List, which depicts Oskar Schindler’s horror at the brutality of the events as prompting his decision to save over 1100 Jews during the Holocaust.