Places:
Podgórze, Kraków, Polska
| City | Podgórze, Kraków |
| Country | Polska |
| Latitude | 50°02'43"N |
| Longitude | 19°57'17"E |
Narrative
The Kraków Ghetto was formally established on March 3, 1941 in the Podgórze district, not in the Jewish district of Kazimierz.
Displaced Polish 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.