Plac Bohaterów Getta — Attraction in Krakow

In this square, which was bustling and also used as a market for agricultural food, mainly until the war, Jews from the Jewish ghetto were gathered to this square and sent in two main shipments to die in the extermination camps, mainly in the Alsace camp. Witnesses who survived this deportation say that on the night of the deportation the ghetto in the Jewish Quarter was surrounded by SS soldiers and their aides, when the Klags surrounded the ghetto, they prevented a Polish population from approaching He risked being shot at by the German Klags. The captured Jews were led in a convoy towards Plac Zgody Square, in the convoy families walked on their old and young children, carrying on their backs the porters they were allowed to take (fifty kilos per family), when the number of Jews staying in the square without food or food was collected. , Then began the trek to the train station in Plaszow. The second large shipment, made in October 1942, from this square the Jews were forced to walk and sometimes run to the train station in Plaszow and from there were loaded onto cattle wagons and sent to their deaths in the Alsace camp. Prominent among those sent were a group of three hundred orphans, gathered at the ghetto orphanage by director Aya Feuerstein, who was the director of the Jewish Orphanage Educational Institute called the "Orphanage Towers", alongside Alter David Kurtzman, who served as vice president of Agudat Israel in Krakow. These followed the couple on their way to the transport square and from there to the train station in Plaszow. It is important to note that Alter David Kurtzman and the director of the orphanage, Aya Feuerstein, preferred to march at the head of the caravan until they were exterminated in the camps, and refused to abandon them. Blessed be their memory.

A little about the liquidation of the Jewish ghetto in Krakow After the large shipments made in 1942, the German order was given in early 1943 to divide the ghetto into two parts called in Latin letters A and the letter B fit for work and the young were mainly gathered in Part A of the ghetto, while in Part B children, women, the sick and the elderly were gathered. In Part B arrive early in the morning at Plac Zgody Square on the pretext that the conditions of overcrowding and shortage of flats are forcing the Germans to move them to alternative places of residence, in order to facilitate the living conditions. After the collection, the Germans ordered them to line up in five and move in a convoy to the Plaszow train station. This convoy numbered about eight thousand deported Jews. Amon Gat (appears in the film Schindler's Lists) was appointed commander of the Plaszow concentration...

It's a very moving place here. The story behind the chairs is: in this Square in the Ghetto, people where choosen and categorized as potential good workes (obviously to deport them to Auschwitz or any other camp) or old and sick etc.. On the square there was one pharmacy located, which was owned by the only arish person in the ghetto, who said that "People came here together, and they got selected. The square was full of their furnitures moved every time due to reorganization, liquidation, catagorization etc.. Most of them were prepared for their next and probably last journey."

Basically on the Ghetto Heroes Square are exactly 37 big chairs, where 34 of them show in the direction of the pharmacy and 3 of them to the walls of the ghetto. On there square there are as well 33 small chairs, surrounding the heroes square as a symbol of the walls/design of the ghetto.

The reason why the artist used chairs is based on the memories the pharmacy man shared, as well as to show that the chairs are empty now (people who were deported and died) and on top as a symbol for last journey the "prisoners"...

My partner and I had a deeply moving visit to Plac Bohaterów Getta (Ghetto Heroes Square) in Krakow’s Podgórze district. Once known as Plac Zgody, this square was the heart of the Krakow Ghetto during WWII, where Jewish residents faced unimaginable horrors from 1941 to 1943. Walking across the square, we were struck by the haunting installation of 70 metal chairs, some oversized, symbolizing the absence of those deported or killed, inspired by Tadeusz Pankiewicz’s memoir about abandoned furniture left after the ghetto’s liquidation. It took us about 30 minutes to explore, pausing to reflect on the tragedy. The square’s quiet atmosphere, with its tram tracks and nearby Apteka Pod Orłem (now a museum), felt heavy with history. We stood by the preserved ghetto wall fragment on ul. Lwowska, imagining the lives lost. The experience was somber but powerful, sparking deep conversations between us. Plac Bohaterów Getta is a must-visit for its poignant memorial and historical...