Attraction

KL Plaszow Memorial Site in Krakow: visiting and history

The site of the German Nazi labour and concentration camp Plaszow (1942-1945) is now a memorial and a war cemetery. There is no exhibition building yet: you visit the open ground and an open-air exhibition, free and without tickets.

The former KL Plaszow camp site is where the German Nazi labour and concentration camp Plaszow stood in the years 1942-1945. There is no building with an exhibition to visit here today: what is open is the ground itself, with an open-air exhibition. The Memorial, the museum's building with a permanent exhibition, is under construction on Kamieńskiego Street, outside the camp site, and the historic Grey House is being adapted and can be seen only from outside.

What the former KL Plaszow camp site is today

It is a memorial site and a war cemetery, with two Jewish cemeteries and three mass graves from the Second World War. The 37 hectares between Jerozolimska and Swoszowicka streets are partly wooded and partly kept as meadow. There are no barracks: the site is not a reconstruction of the camp. It is in the care of the KL Plaszow Memorial Museum in Kraków, a city cultural institution co-run by the Ministry of Culture, operating since 1 January 2021; the Museum of Krakow does not manage the site.

History of the Plaszow camp, 1942-1945

The Germans set up the camp in October 1942 on land in the districts of Podgórze and Wola Duchacka, and the first work began on the Jewish cemeteries. Plaszow was created as a labour camp (ZAL Plaszow) for Jews from the Krakow ghetto, liquidated in March 1943; the ghetto's story is told on our pages on Heroes of the Ghetto Square and the ghetto wall fragments. In July 1943 the Germans also set up a labour education camp for Poles here. In January 1944 the camp became a concentration camp (KL Plaszow). The prisoners were mainly Jews from Krakow and other towns of southern Poland, Jews from Hungary and Slovakia, and Poles and Roma.

According to the KL Plaszow Museum, about 35,000 prisoners passed through the camp, and 5,000 to 6,000 people were murdered in it. Executions and burials took place at three sites: next to the old cemetery and on two former artillery redoubts, H-Górka and C-Dołek. Camp rules admitted only people over 14, yet there were children in the camp; their Kinderheim (orphanage) was liquidated on 14 May 1944, and the children were sent to KL Auschwitz and murdered there. On 14 January 1945 the last group of about 600 prisoners set off on foot for KL Auschwitz. The commandant, Amon Göth, was tried after the war and sentenced to death; the sentence was carried out on 13 September 1946.

What you can see on the Plaszow site today

The open-air exhibition: "KL Plaszow. A Site After, A Site Without", in place since March 2024, has 14 boards in Polish, English and Hebrew, 41 points across the ground and 3 archaeological windows.
The archaeological windows: a section of the camp sewers, a wall of the bakery and a path laid with fragments of Jewish gravestones from the cemeteries on which the Germans built the camp.
The Monument to the Victims of Fascism: the main monument to the camp's victims, put up in 1964 on the former redoubt C-Dołek; on H-Górka a cross stands today.
The Jewish cemeteries: they take up a third of the commemorated area. The ruins of the pre-burial hall of the Krakow community's new cemetery survive, as do more than 600 graves in the Podgórze community's cemetery.
The Grey House, from outside: at ul. Jerozolimska 3, built in 1925 as the administration building of the Jewish community's cemetery. In the camp years it held the camp administration, with a jail in the cellars.

Plaszow opening hours, entry and guided tours

There is no exhibition building to visit on the site today, only the open ground with the open-air exhibition. The Memorial on Kamieńskiego Street is under construction (check its opening date on the museum's website), and the Grey House is being adapted and can only be seen from outside. Entry is free and without tickets, and the site is accessible 24 hours a day. It is not lit, so come before dark. Entrances are from Swoszowicka and Jerozolimska streets.

The museum guides in Polish and English; a tour lasts 1.5 to 2 hours and is booked by email through its Education Department. It costs an individual visitor 25 PLN in Polish and 30 PLN in English; a group of up to 30 people pays 350 PLN in Polish and 550 PLN in English. Visitors with special needs can use the guiding service free of charge. We do not sell these tours or take bookings for them.

The ground is hilly, and some places can be hard to reach in bad weather. An asphalt road leads from Kamieńskiego Street to the Monument to the Victims of Fascism; the other roads are surfaced with stone. The steps are 3 metres wide, with no handrails or barriers. There is no tactile path. Details checked in October 2026; confirm them on the website of the KL Plaszow Museum.

How to get to the former Plaszow camp

The museum has no parking of its own and asks visitors to use public transport; the nearest coach parking is on plac Braci Dudzińskich by Kraków-Płaszów, the nearest railway station. Trams stop at Dworcowa, buses at Kamieńskiego and Bonarka. From Kraków Główny, bus 304 runs from the Pawia stop to Kamieńskiego. The approach from Kamieńskiego Street is easier, though part of it follows Swoszowicka Street, which has no pavement. On foot it is about 30 minutes from Heroes of the Ghetto Square.

Plaszow memorial rules and tips for visiting

This is a war cemetery and the resting place of the victims' ashes, so the museum asks for silence and respect. Keep to the marked roads and paths, keep dogs on a lead and clean up after them. No vehicle may enter, and the ground may not be used for sport or training; on Abrahama Street, push a bike or scooter or ride slowly. The exhibition route takes about 60 minutes. Schindler's Factory Museum is another place of remembrance of the German occupation in this part of the city; see also Podgórze and the former ghetto.