Ghetto Wall
Trail of War
A surviving fragment of the wall that surrounded the Kraków Ghetto, established by the Germans in March 1941 in Podgórze. The wall was topped with arches resembling matzevot, Jewish gravestones.
History
The Kraków ghetto was set up in Podgórze in March 1941. In April of that year Polish bricklayers began building a high wall around it with semicircular tops, shaped like Jewish gravestones, known as matzevot. The wall had four gates, guarded by the German gendarmerie and the Polish "Blue" Police. After the liquidation of the ghetto began on 13 March 1943, most of the wall was dismantled. Small fragments, about 50 metres in total, have survived: on Lwowska Street, between houses 25 and 29, and behind the building at Bolesława Limanowskiego Street 62. Plaques commemorating the Jews imprisoned here have been placed on them, with text in Polish and Yiddish. The wall was conserved in 2000, 2013 and 2021, and in November 2013 it was entered in the register of historic monuments.
Did you know?
Two "Aryan" tram lines ran through the ghetto without stopping. The tram windows were not painted over, so passengers could see life in the ghetto.