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A Krakow Jewish ghetto tour: what a guided visit to Podgorze shows

Kazimierz and former ghetto walk

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Answer in brief

A Krakow Jewish ghetto tour crosses the Vistula to Podgorze, where the ghetto stood from 1941 to 1943, to the memorial square, the pharmacy and the surviving wall.

Ghetto essentials

  • Ordered into Podgorze in March 19411
  • Liquidated on 13 and 14 March 19432
  • 2 wall sections survive3

Find out about 32 stops

Kazimierz and Podgórze, place by place

Select a route, then tap a marker or stop to see its note and open Google Maps.

Map of Podgórze with Ghetto Heroes Square, the Eagle Pharmacy, the surviving ghetto walls, Schindler's Factory, Podgórze Market Square and the Płaszów memorial

  1. The former Zgody Square, with the memorial of empty chairs.

    Google Maps

  2. Tadeusz Pankiewicz's pharmacy in the ghetto, now a branch of the Museum of Krakow.

    Google Maps

  3. One of the surviving sections of the ghetto wall.

    Google Maps

  4. A section of the ghetto wall behind the school at Limanowskiego 60/62.

    Google Maps

  5. The enamel factory at Lipowa 4 that Oskar Schindler took over in 1939, now a museum.

    Google Maps

  6. Laid out in the 1780s, closed by St Joseph's church and its 80 m tower.

    Google Maps

  7. Site of the camp set up late in 1942 on Jewish cemeteries; no camp buildings survive.

    Google Maps

Map source: © OpenStreetMap contributors

The ghetto the German occupiers forced on Krakow's Jews in Podgorze, the places where its story is told today, and how to visit them with a guide or on your own, with care.

Editorial team, krakowjewishquartertour.click · Updated November 9, 2026 · 7 min of reading

Key facts

  • WhereIn Podgorze, across the Vistula from Kazimierz.1
  • WhenFrom 3 March 1941 until the liquidation of 13 and 14 March 1943 by the occupier.1,2
  • What remains2 sections of the ghetto wall, on Lwowska and Limanowskiego streets.3
  • The memorialSculptures of chairs on Bohaterow Getta Square.4
  • Our walkKazimierz and the former ghetto in 2.5 hours, from €17.

What a guided visit to the former ghetto covers

The ghetto of Krakow lay in Podgorze, on the right bank of the Vistula, opposite the old Jewish town of Kazimierz.1 A Krakow Jewish ghetto tour crosses the river to the places where its story can still be read: the square where people were gathered, the pharmacy that stayed open inside the walls, and the fragments of the wall itself.4,5,3 Most of the district looks like any other part of the city today, which is exactly why a guide is useful.

Our walk spends 2.5 hours on both banks, beginning outside the Old Synagogue. Ghetto Heroes Square and a Holocaust memorial are among the places its listing names. It is a Krakow Jewish Quarter and ghetto tour in the literal sense: it covers Jewish life before the war and the place where that life was destroyed.

Other formats keep to the ghetto alone. A short ghetto walk takes 1 hour from €15, while the Galicia Jewish Museum leads a 2-hour Former Ghetto walk of its own.6 If you want the factory museum in the same visit, a guided tour of Schindler's Factory and the ghetto lasts 3 hours from €50. Whichever you choose, the ghetto is not a place to rush. Leave a margin before your next plan, because many visitors want a quiet moment on the square once the guide has finished.

The places

The former ghetto then and now

PlaceThenTodayVisit
Bohaterow Getta SquareZgody Square, the gathering place4Memorial of chairs4Open space4
Eagle PharmacyPankiewicz's pharmacy inside the ghetto5Museum of Krakow branch16Wed to Sun, 9:00 - 17:0016
Wall, Lwowska StreetPart of the 3-metre wall17Surviving fragment3Open space18
Wall, Limanowskiego StreetPart of the ghetto boundary3Fragment behind the school3Open space3
Plaszow camp siteCamp from late 194219KL Plaszow Memorial Site202 to 3 hours21

Opening hours and visiting times as the Museum of Krakow and the KL Plaszow Museum give them.16,21

Before the ghetto: the Jewish community of Krakow

Before the Second World War, more than 64,000 Jews lived in Krakow, a quarter of the city's population.10 For centuries Kazimierz had ranked among the great centres of Jewish learning and culture in Europe, and by the 1930s Jewish Krakow reached far beyond its old walls.11,12 Jewish families lived and worked across the city as merchants, craftsmen, doctors, teachers and artists, and their schools, newspapers and theatres were part of everyday Krakow, not a world apart from it.

The occupation changed that within months. Forced resettlements began at the start of the war, and only 16,000 Jews remained in the city.13 For those who stayed, the next step was the loss of their homes and their freedom of movement. Guides often pause here to explain how fast the occupation moved, from registration and armbands to confiscated businesses, so that the ghetto is understood as part of a deliberate sequence rather than a sudden event.

Standing in Kazimierz before you cross the river helps make sense of what followed. The synagogues, the prayer houses and the shop signs you see there belonged to the same families who were driven into Podgorze. That is why a good tour begins on Szeroka Street and only then walks over the Father Bernatek footbridge to the other bank.14

Guided time

Ways to see the ghetto with a guide, in hours

  • Ghetto walk1
  • Museum ghetto walk2
  • Plaszow walk2
  • Our walk2.5
  • Factory and ghetto3
  • Podgorze and Plaszow4

Lengths from the GetYourGuide listings and the Galicia Jewish Museum's own tour page.6,15

Inside the walls of the Podgorze ghetto

On 3 March 1941 the occupier ordered the Jews of Krakow into a "Jewish residential quarter" in Podgorze, which they had to enter by 20 March.1 The area held 320 tenement houses, previously home to around 3500 people, who were forced to leave.23 The pharmacy of Tadeusz Pankiewicz was the only business allowed to stay, and he became the only non-Jew living inside.5,24

A wall 3 metres high closed the district off, its arched top shaped to resemble Jewish tombstones.17 There were 4 gates, the main one where Limanowskiego Street enters the market square of Podgorze.24 Trams still ran along Lwowska and Limanowskiego streets, but with no stops inside the walls.25 Passengers on those trams could see into the ghetto as they passed through it, and the official ban on even looking through the windows says much about how openly the separation was carried out in the middle of a living city.

From October 1941 leaving the ghetto without permission was punishable by death, and so was helping anyone who escaped.7 Overcrowding and hunger followed. When you stand on these streets today, it helps to picture the windows bricked up and the gates guarded, and to remember that the ordinary tenements around you were the whole of the world for the people locked inside.

Choose your visit

Which ghetto visit fits your time

Pick what you need from the visit and see the format that suits it.

  • If I want Jewish life before the war as well

    The walk on this site

    Life before the war, then the ghetto, on a 2.5-hour walk.

  • If I have an hour between other plans

    The ghetto walk

    A 1-hour walk of the former ghetto from €15.

  • If I want the factory museum too

    Factory and ghetto

    Skip-the-line entry and 3 hours with a guide.

  • If I want to see where the ghetto ended

    Plaszow

    A 2-hour guided walk of the former camp site.

  • If I prefer a museum-led guide

    Galicia Jewish Museum

    The museum's own Former Ghetto walk lasts 2 hours.6

With a guide

Three guided ways into the history of the ghetto

Our walk

Quarter and ghetto walk

Sold on this site

  • Length2.5 hours
  • StartOld Synagogue
  • AccessWheelchair accessible
See this tour

With museum

Factory and ghetto

With the museum

  • Length3 hours
  • StartFactory entrance
  • EntrySkip the line
See this tour

Camp site

The Plaszow camp site

The camp on the hill

  • Length2 hours
  • StartEagle Pharmacy
  • AccessWheelchair accessible
See this tour

Deportations and the liquidation of the ghetto

In June and October 1942 the occupiers carried out deportations of great brutality, and many people were killed in the streets during the round-ups.88 The painter Abraham Neuman and the poet and folk singer Mordecai Gebirtig were among those murdered on 4 June 1942, the day remembered as "bloody Thursday".8

Late in 1942 the shrinking ghetto was divided by barbed wire, with part A for those able to work and part B for children, the elderly and the sick.9 The final liquidation came on 13 and 14 March 1943, when around 6000 people from part A were moved to the camp at Plaszow.2 Their children under 14 had to stay behind in the orphanage.89

In the liquidation around 1000 people were shot dead on the spot, among them the elderly, hospital patients and their doctors, and children with the mothers who would not leave them.90 Those who survived the day were sent to KL Auschwitz.90 A guide will usually tell this part of the story on the square itself, and it is worth giving it your full attention.

Dates

From the order to the liquidation

  1. 3 March 1941

    The order

    Jews ordered into a quarter in Podgorze.1

  2. October 1941

    Death for leaving

    Leaving without permission punishable by death.7

  3. 4 June 1942

    Bloody Thursday

    Mordecai Gebirtig and Abraham Neuman among the murdered.8

  4. Late 1942

    The ghetto divided

    Barbed wire divides part A from part B.9

  5. 13 March 1943

    Liquidation

    Around 6000 people moved to Plaszow.2

Ghetto Heroes Square and the Pharmacy Under the Eagle

The former Zgody Square, where people were gathered for deportation, is now Bohaterow Getta Square, whose name honours the heroes of the ghetto.4 Its memorial is a field of oversized chairs, recalling the furniture and belongings left scattered across the empty ghetto.4 Every year a March of Memory sets off from this square to the former Plaszow camp on the anniversary of the liquidation.22

On the corner of the square, at number 18, stands the Eagle Pharmacy, also known as the Pharmacy Under the Eagle.5 Open day and night, it served as a secret meeting place for the underground and a contact point for food and medicine.91 Tadeusz Pankiewicz later recorded what he witnessed in his book Pharmacy in the Krakow Ghetto.92

Today the Museum of Krakow runs the pharmacy as a branch, open Wednesday to Sunday from 9:00 to 17:00.16 A normal ticket costs PLN 22, and entry is free on Wednesday.93,86 Inside, the pharmacy interior has been recreated, and its drawers hold documents and photographs that tell the story of the ghetto. A ticket to Schindler's Factory also admits you to the pharmacy within 7 days, so the museums are easily combined in a single afternoon.94

Video

The Krakow ghetto and Oskar Schindler's factory

The History Underground on YouTube · Tap play to load the video; not before.

Every year the March of Memory is organised on the anniversary of the liquidation of the ghetto.
Krakow Festival Office, official city tourism portal (krakow.travel)22

Visiting with care

At the memorials of the former ghetto

Before you go3

  • Eagle Pharmacy opens Wednesday to Sunday16
  • Eagle Pharmacy free on Wednesday86
  • Allow 2 to 3 hours for Plaszow21

At the memorials3

  • Do not sit on or climb the memorial chairs
  • Keep groups quiet at the square and the wall
  • Leave flowers, candles and stones where they lie

At Plaszow3

  • Keep to the marked camp roads and paths87
  • Read the rules on the boards at the entrances87
  • Remember that the ground holds cemeteries19

What survives: the wall fragments and the streets

Very little of the ghetto itself survives. The only physical remnants are 2 sections of the wall, on Lwowska Street and behind the school at number 60/62 on Limanowskiego Street.3 The Polish Tourism Organisation points visitors to the fragment at 29 Lwowska Street, near the square and the factory museum.18

Beyond the wall, the ghetto survives as ordinary streets of tenements. Its main gate, inscribed Jüdischer Wohnbezirk, stood where Limanowskiego Street enters the Main Market of Podgorze.24 Little on the buildings themselves tells you where the boundary ran, which is why a guide is the easiest way to read these streets.

If you come on your own, start at the wall on Lwowska Street, then walk to Bohaterow Getta Square and the pharmacy, and finish at Schindler's Factory on Lipowa Street.18,95 The map on this page shows those places, and the page on the self-guided walk links them to Kazimierz across the river. A Krakow Jewish ghetto walking tour with a guide covers the same ground in a fixed order, which is the easier choice on a first visit.

Plaszow: the camp on the hill

South of the ghetto lies the site of the Plaszow camp, set up late in 1942 on Jewish cemeteries, its main road paved with tombstones.19 At its height it held around 35,000 prisoners under the commandant Amon Goeth.96 An estimated 5000-6000 victims of mass executions were buried there, and between 50,000 and 150,000 people are thought to have passed through the camp.97,98

No camp buildings stand today; the villa of Amon Goeth at 22 Heltmana Street and the Grey House at 3 Jerozolimska Street remain.99 The site is now the KL Plaszow Memorial Site, run by the Museum of Krakow since 1 January 2021, and it can be visited on your own, with a hired guide or at museum events.20,100 Boards at the 7 main entrances set out the rules of the grounds.87

Plan on 2 to 3 hours there, the museum advises.21 A guided walk of the camp site lasts 2 hours and starts at the Pharmacy Under the Eagle. Treat it as a cemetery, which in large part it is: stay on the marked paths, speak quietly, and leave the monuments as you found them. The 7-metre Monument to Nazi Victims stands on a low rise by Kamienskiego Street, and a handful of low obelisks also commemorate the victims.101

FAQ

The short answers to your questions.

Where was the ghetto in Krakow?
In Podgorze.

In March 1941 the German authorities forced the city's Jews into Podgorze, on the far side of the Vistula from Kazimierz.1

Can you still see the ghetto wall?
Yes, 2 sections.

Look for them on Lwowska Street and at 60/62 Limanowskiego Street, behind a school.3

What are the chairs on Ghetto Heroes Square?
A memorial.

Sculptures of chairs recall the empty ghetto and its abandoned belongings.4

When is the Eagle Pharmacy museum open?
Wednesday to Sunday.

It opens 9:00 to 17:00 on those days, and entry is free on Wednesday.16,86

Does the walk on this site visit the ghetto?
Yes.

The former ghetto is in its title, and Ghetto Heroes Square is on its list of places.

Can I visit the Plaszow camp site?
Yes, on your own or guided.

The memorial site can be visited individually, with a hired guide or at museum events.100

How long should I allow for the ghetto?
Half a day with Plaszow.

The Galicia Jewish Museum combines Podgorze and Plaszow into a 4 hour tour.15

Sources

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  21. KL Plaszow Museum (plaszow.org) · Individual visitors ↩
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  38. Krakow Travel (City of Krakow, Krakow Festival Office) · Izaak Synagogue
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  49. Krakow Travel (City of Krakow, Krakow Festival Office) · Wolnica Square
  50. Krakow Travel (City of Krakow, Krakow Festival Office) · Wolnica Square
  51. Krakow Travel (City of Krakow, Krakow Festival Office) · Church of Corpus Christi
  52. Krakow Travel (City of Krakow, Krakow Festival Office) · Church of Corpus Christi
  53. Krakow Travel (City of Krakow, Krakow Festival Office) · Church of St Catherine and St Margaret
  54. Krakow Travel (City of Krakow, Krakow Festival Office) · Pauline Church on the Rock
  55. Krakow Travel (City of Krakow, Krakow Festival Office) · Pauline Church on the Rock
  56. Krakow Travel (City of Krakow, Krakow Festival Office) · Szeroka Street
  57. Krakow Travel (City of Krakow, Krakow Festival Office) · Szeroka Street
  58. Krakow Travel (City of Krakow, Krakow Festival Office) · Wolnica Square
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  64. Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow · Cheder
  65. Galicia Jewish Museum · Practical information
  66. Galicia Jewish Museum · Tickets online
  67. Galicia Jewish Museum · Cafe
  68. Starka restaurant · Starka
  69. Starka restaurant · Starka
  70. Klub Alchemia · Kontakt
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  72. Krakow Travel (City of Krakow, Krakow Festival Office) · The Eagle Pharmacy
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  75. Krakow Travel (City of Krakow, Krakow Festival Office) · Oskar Schindler's Enamel Factory
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  77. Krakow Travel (City of Krakow, Krakow Festival Office) · Podgorze Market Square
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  79. Krakow Travel (City of Krakow, Krakow Festival Office) · Plaszow Nazi German Concentration Camp
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  81. Krakow Travel (City of Krakow, Krakow Festival Office) · Main Market Square
  82. Krakow Travel (City of Krakow, Krakow Festival Office) · Wawel Hill
  83. Krakow Travel (City of Krakow, Krakow Festival Office) · The Vistula Embankments
  84. Krakow Travel (City of Krakow, Krakow Festival Office) · Father Bernatek Footbridge
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Also worth reading

More to read before you walk

GuideJewish Quarter tours in Krakow: free, paid and what they costGuideWalking, golf cart or segway: Jewish Quarter tours comparedGuideSchindler's Factory museum: tickets, timing and the real storyGuideA self-guided walk through Kazimierz, with map

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