Krakow Ghetto Anniversary Honours Victims of WWII

The Jewish ghetto in Krakow was established by Nazi occupiers on March 3, 1941, in the Podgorz district of Krakow. On this date, over 16,000 Jews from the city were compelled to relocate to the area established as the ghetto, as well as thousands of other Jews from adjacent towns near Krakow. Most of the residents of the ghetto were deported by the Nazis to concentration camps in 1942, with the last liquidation of the ghetto commencing on March 13, 1943.

Many Deportations or Deaths Occurred
Thousands of individuals were murdered and deported during the ghetto's liquidation. Many of the residents of the ghetto were deported to either the Plaszów concentration camp or Auschwitz-Birkenau for murder. Roughly 1,000 people were murdered at the site that is now known as Plac Bohaterów Getta (a.k.a. Heroes of the Ghetto Plaza). All of these events marked the destruction of the Jews of Krakow and did not begin to be revived until a couple of decades later, in 1989.

March of Commemoration and Call for Unity
On Sunday, the annual March of Commemoration was conducted with participants from Krakow's Jewish Community and government officials from surrounding regions, as well as representatives from the Catholic Church. President of Krakow's Jewish Community, Helena Jakubowicz, spoke to attendees and urged them to support one another, to be tolerant of one another and to be supportive of each other in light of the greater increase in anti-Semitism. She said that the anniversary should serve as a memorial to the lives of the victims and should remind all present of the obligation to work to build a better future for everyone.

Wojciech Kolarski, secretary of state at the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland, walked with the participants in the March on behalf of Karol Nawrocki and echoed the sentiments of the previously mentioned speakers in stating that the event was not only to honour murdered Jews but also to ensure that future generations have a memory of the Jews of Poland who occupied the country.

Lili Haber, president of the Association of Cracowians in Israel, conveyed to the participants in the March that for many generations Jews and Christians had lived side by side in the city of Krakow and contributed to the cultural and economic base of the area. She commented that while Jews and Christians had periods of friction in their history, ultimately their history was defined by the peaceful co-existence and cooperation that had defined their history together.

Referring to the war in Israel with Iran, Lili hoped that the conflict would come to an end soon and that the emphasis on extremism or fanaticism would be removed from society.

After conducting a peaceful march to the former Plaszów concentration camp, participants left from Plac Bohaterów Getta for this year's march to the former Plaszów concentration camp. Authorities reported that the march went smoothly and was peaceful.