Plaszów: Memorial and Future

Entrance sign in front of Plaszów

On our last exploratory day in Poland, we had the opportunity to go on a walking tour through Kraków and visit the Plaszów Concentration Camp. After seeing Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II, I was slightly unimpressed by the preservation of Plaszów. This sight is marked with a few select signs marking the entrance to Plaszów and different historic locations. The camp is located off of “Abraham” and “Jerusalem” street and what once used to be a place of brutality was now a normal neighborhood.

The ground was dry and arid and appeared to be a simple walking trail. When we asked our tour guide about the topography of the camp she mentioned that in one point in time Plaszów was more built up, but for only a short period of time before the Nazis were forced to destroy their own structures before the end of the way. The area before the camp served as the local park and today, the transformation of concentration camp back to a park is complete. However, you can still see indentations in the walking path that exhibit the place where the Nazi soldiers used to place Jewish tombstones a form of cobblestone. Placing grave markers face down into the dirt is disrespectful to the culture. Since then, the tombstones have been removed and were made into a memorial wall in a nearby cemetery. Still, while we were walking around there were bikers and people casually strolling on this same path.

Memorial in the area of Plaszów

The main difference between the beginning of the park’s formation before the war and the park now is the presence of  markers that serve as memorials.  The memory of the events that occurred on this land is sustained only through specific monuments. The first monument is a cross that was erected in honor of the victims who died here. It is removed from the main path of the nature preserve but can still be seen from the walkway. We did not have the time to approach the memorial very closely, but the placement of the cross in amidst of Jewish suffering was meaningful to me. This showed me that there is hope for even further betterment of Jewish-Christian relationships and that, at least while that monument stands, the events of Plasków will not be forgotten.

The townspeople and people of neighboring towns continue to preserve this memory in a more active manner. Each year in a March of Memory is held walking people from the center of town to one of the memorial sites in the camp. This past year, these events took place on March 13^th, and the walk culminates with the placing of stones on the Jewish memorial that displays the remembrance of “horrible bestiality, ruthlessness, and pain” caused by “Hitlerism”. This memorial also states that “the last cry of despair is the quiet of this cemetery” showing that even as the Jewish people have preserved through this time of suffering, there is still a reason to not forget these events so that genocide will cease and the Shoah will never happen again.