16/08/2025
This is Grey House or Szary Dom in Polish.
This place was a residential building occupied by personnel of the cemetery managed by the Krakow Jewish Congregation. During the of operation of Płaszow the house was adapted as offices and apartments for personnel, and its basement was used as a jail to detain camp prisoners and people brought into KL Plaszow for ex*****on.
This is the camp represented in the Film Schindlers list, in fact the factory is not too far from the site of the KL.
The the commandant of KL Płaszow was Amon Göth. A Hauptsturmführer in the SS, and a complete psychopath.
On 13 September 1944, Göth was relieved of his position and charged by the SS with theft of Jewish property (which belonged to the state, according to N**i regulations), failure to provide adequate food to the prisoners under his charge, violation of concentration camp regulations regarding the treatment and punishment of prisoners, and allowing unauthorised access to camp personnel records by prisoners and non-commissioned officers.
Göth was tried after the war by the Supreme National Tribunal of Poland at Kraków and was found guilty of personally ordering the imprisonment, torture, and extermination of individuals and groups of people. He was also convicted of homicide, the first such conviction at a war crimes trial, for “personally killing, maiming and torturing a substantial, albeit unidentified number of people.”
Amon Göth was executed not far from this site for his crimes.
If you are interested in learning more about Göth and KL Płaszow I would recommend reading Josef Lewkowicz’s book The Survivor, Josef survived 6 different camps, including Auschwitz, his testimony played a crucial role in bringing Göth to justice, and ultimately his conviction and ex*****on. It’s far from an easy read but it’s definitely worth reading.