Jewish Krakow

The project is carried out at the Institute of History of the Jagiellonian University and is funded by the Strategic Programme: Excellence Initiative at the Jagiellonian University (as part of the “Science for Business and Society” competition). It is headed by Dr Alicja Jarkowska of the Institute of History of the Jagiellonian University, in cooperation with the Centre for the Study of the History and Culture of Krakow’s Jews at AGH University of Science and Technology (Dr Stanisław Szombara). In 2024, the project became part of the National Science Centre (NCN) OPUS 26 grant entitled Behind the Walls of the Krakow Ghetto (1941–1943) https://projekty.ncn.gov.pl/index.php?projekt_id=602680. That year, Dr Martyna Grądzka-Rejak also joined the project.

Since the 2020/2021 academic year, the project has involved interns from the Centre and volunteers from the Institute of History of the Jagiellonian University.

It is estimated that between 3,000 and 5,000 Krakow Jews survived the Second World War, out of approximately 68,000 Jews living in the city before the German occupation. It is currently assumed that most of them survived in the Soviet Union and in territories incorporated into it, where they had fled at the beginning of the war. After 1945, Jews began returning to Krakow, although many left the city in the summer of that year following the anti-Jewish riots of August 1945. Further waves of emigration took place in the 1950s, in connection with the consolidation of communist rule in Poland, the liquidation of small businesses, and the suppression of private trade. To date, the places where Jews stayed, moved, hid, and migrated within the territory of the General Government, as well as to destinations other than the Soviet Union, have not been comprehensively documented or studied.

The aim of the project is to identify these places (addresses and locations) from 1939 through the end of the 1940s, including places of residence after the end of the war, using spatial tools (Historical Geographic Information System), geodetic and statistical methods. The project will result in a spatial map, a geoportal, and a publicly accessible database containing relevant data. The database is intended to collect as much historical (archival) information as possible concerning the fate of Krakow Jews, making it possible to establish, in quantitative terms, how many Jews survived in the territory of the General Government and under what circumstances and in which places, as well as to reconstruct the histories of individuals. The project may also provide a basis for genealogical research, exhibitions, and public discussion panels aimed at popularising historical scholarship.

Conducting the above analyses required the collection of as much data as possible. The project draws on materials from Polish and foreign archives (Yad Vashem, USHMM, Bundesarchiv, Bad Arolsen), as well as existing databases, including databases on deportations (e.g. Yad Vashem, 2020) and on people hiding on the so-called “Aryan side” (Polish Center for Holocaust Research, 2020).

The research required cooperation with specialists in spatial, cartographic, and GIS analysis, including the application of standards for recording information, the visualisation of places, people, and events in geoportals, and HGIS methods for presenting large quantities of historical data. The methods traditionally employed by historians make it possible to collect archival materials, subject them to critical analysis, and reconstruct historical events. Historians, however, do not generally have the tools required to store such data, let alone to trace, in quantitative and cartographic terms, places of residence, hiding places, and movements.

The project leader conducted preliminary research, which resulted in two databases. One concerns the Plaszow concentration camp (6,032 records), while the other concerns Jews who were in Krakow during the Second World War (nearly 5,000 records). After processing, these databases were used for further research as the foundation of the project. The database published on the website contains personal data and information about the places where Jews stayed during the occupation, including locations associated with escape, hiding, and seeking help or shelter. Archival data will be assessed by historians and compared with other sources. Data concerning people, places, and time will be analysed in order to trace recurring locations and routes, as well as their absence, in the context of the dynamics of the occupation, the Holocaust, and the policies of the Third Reich, as well as topographical, climatic, and social conditions.

The materials used to create the database come from many years of archival research conducted by the project leader, Dr Alicja Jarkowska, in Polish and foreign archives (including AIPN, ANKr, Yad Vashem, Bundesarchiv, YIVO, AŻIH, the Wiesenthal Archive, and others), as well as from the participation of project members in local archival research. These sources were processed and entered into the database by all members of the project team. This was preceded by critical analysis and verification against other documents and publicly available databases, including:

Bad Arolsen: https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/search/

Yad Vashem: https://yvng.yadvashem.org/index.html?language=en/

https://collections.yadvashem.org/en/righteous/search-results/Krakow?page=1

USCShoah Foundation: https://vha.usc.edu/home

KL Plaszow https://ca.muzeumkrakowa.pl/

• mgr Katarzyna Boryczka
• Cristian Dumitrica
• mgr Aleksandra Kolanko
• mgr Konrad Mróz
• Kaja Kępczyńska
• Annika Wrona

• Julia Mazurek
• Julia Lisowska
• Zuzanna Grabska
• Sofiia Yarmolytska
• Marta Karczewska
• Karolina Mazur
• Aleksandra Janus
• Marek Radoń