Above Kraków ghetto

http://www.ceepackaging.com
http://www.pbn.com.pl
http://www.youtube.com/alanheath

The Kraków Ghetto was established on 3 March 1941 in the Podgórze district to the south of the river Vistula. Displaced Catholic families from Podgórze took up residences in the former Jewish dwellings outside the newly established Ghetto. Meanwhile, 15,000 Jews were crammed into an area previously inhabited by 3,000 people who used to live in a district consisting of 30 streets, 320 residential buildings, and 3,167 rooms. As a result, one apartment was allocated to every four Jewish families, and many less fortunate lived on the street.

The Ghetto was surrounded by walls that kept it separated from the rest of the city. All windows and doors that gave onto the "Aryan" side were ordered bricked up. Only four guarded entrances allowed traffic to pass through. In a grim foreshadowing of the near future, these walls contained panels in the shape of tombstones. Small sections of the wall still remain today, one section can be seen here. A better preserved section will be posted in the future.

From May 30, 1942 onward, the Nazis implemented systematic deportations from the ghetto to the death camp at Bełżec. Thousands of Jews were transported in the succeeding months as part of the Aktion Krakau headed by SS-Oberführer Julian Scherner. Jews were assembled on Zgody Square first and then escorted to the railway station in Prokocim. The first transport consisted of 7,000 persons, the second, of additional 4,000 Jews deported to Belzec extermination camp on 5 June 1942. On 13 - 14 March 1943 the Nazis carried out the final 'liquidation' of the ghetto under the command of SS-Untersturmführer Amon Göth. Eight thousand Jews deemed able to work were transported to the Plaszow labor camp. Those deemed unfit for work some 2,000 Jews were killed in the streets of the ghetto on those days. Any remaining were sent to die in Auschwitz.

My channel on you tube : http://www.youtube.com/alanheath is one of the most prolific from Poland. I have produced a number of films, most in English but also in Polish, French, Italian, Spanish and the occasional hint of German and Hebrew. My big interest in life is travel and history but I have also placed films on other subjects

There are a number of films here on the packaging industry. This is because I am the publisher of Central and Eastern European Packaging -- http://www.ceepackaging.com - the international platform for the packaging industry in this region focussing on the latest innovations, trends, design, branding, legislation and environmental issues with in-depth profiles of major industry achievers. Most people may think packaging pretty boring but it possibly effects your life more than you really imagine!

In 1997 I founded Polish Business News http://www.pbn.com.pl .There are a number of business related films here and I intend to do many more on CRM (customer relations management).

My blog can be found via http://www.ceepackaging.com and http://www.pbn.com.pl and contains background information and more details of many of my films. This information is in English.

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[iangarner18]

it looks strikingly similar to the place where steven spielberg has him watching the liquidation in the film i suppose he was doing guesswork as well but take away the trees and its almost identical. all fascinating stuff

[alanheath]

It could have been filmed there of course!

[iangarner18]

that looks exactly like the place where oskar shchindler would have been looking down. It must have been awful seeing the people being rounded up and shot. I will visit krakow one day and all the camps. i love your holocaust videos alan keep them coming!

[alanheath]

I also think it is where he was and accept that my 2007 comments about the inaccuracy of the film were incorrect!!

[m2moore]

The ghetto walls have been taken down but the buildings are somewhat the same. They have been repairing the buildings a lot. I was in Krakow the summers of 2006 and 2007 studying the Holocaust and Genocide for the University of Northern Iowa. The SS barracks were just over the other side of the wall...we went on a fantastic walk with a survivor of the geta along with Plaszow concentration camp and Auschwitz. Bernard Offen has a channel on here, not too many vids, but still good! Thanks 4 the vid

[alanheath]

Thanks for the excellent comment !!

I have got quite a lot of material here on the Shoah!

[conrad4ever]

interesting to see where schindler was standing. any well built buliding built around world war 2 times should be intact today. is the geto still simalar to how it look back them or has there been big changes?

[monik7272]

5* ;)

[iangarner18]

probably was i think spielberg used the real locations to film shindlers list. he also tried to film on location in auschwitz but was not allowed, so he had to build replicas of Plazow and Auschwitz. Am i right in thinking plazow is just fields now? also have you been to Mauthausen?

[djbuck1]

As always, a compelling video.

[alanheath]

Many of the buildings are still standing today - unlike in Warsaw!