Haapalah / Aliyah Bet

Płaszów Konzentrationslager
KZ Plaszów
Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp

In the summer of 1942, the Płaszów camp, intended as a forced labour camp, was constructed on the grounds of two former Jewish cemeteries, in Płaszów, now part of Podgórze district, a southern suburb of Kraków.
The camp was a slave Arbeitslager, Work Camp, supplying manpower to several armament factories and a stone quarry.
The Kraków-Płaszów concentration camps located in the vicinity of Kraków, included:
* Kraków Prokocim (Julag II), established in March 1943 at the former "Kabel" plant, 75 Prokocimska street
* Kraków Bieżanów (Julag III)
* Kraków Zabłocie, Oskar Schindler's "Deutsche Emailwaren-Fabrik", former "Rekord" plant, 4 Lipowa street
* Kraków Liban, a quarry (Liban & Ehrenpreis)
* Mielec
* Wieliczka
* Zakopane

In 1943, Płaszów camp was extended, having become a concentration camp in October, 1942, with deportations of the Jews from the Kraków Ghetto.

On January 14, 1945, the last inmates, – 178 women and 2 boys, and camp staff, including several female SS guards, left Płaszów camp on a death march to Auschwitz.
Many of those who survived the march were killed on arrival.
When the Nazis realized that the Soviets were already approaching Kraków, they completely dismantled the camp, leaving an empty field.
The bodies buried in mass graves were exhumed and burned.
Holocaust Research Project.org cites witnesses claiming that 17 truckloads of human ashes were removed from the cremation site, and that the ashes were probably scattered over the camp area.

On January 20, 1945, the Red Army reached the empty land of Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp.