| Aktion Krakau | |
|---|---|
 Kraków Ghetto. German checkpoint during theanti-Jewish OperationAktion Krakau in 1942 | |
| Also known as | German:Einsatz Krakau |
| Location | Occupied Kraków |
| Date | June 1942 - March 1943 |
| Incident type | Mass deportations toextermination camps |
| Perpetrators | Amon Göth,Julian Scherner,Odilo Globočnik and others |
| Participants |  Nazi Germany |
| Organizations | Waffen-SS,Schutzstaffel,Order Police battalions,Sicherheitsdienst |
| Camp | Belzec extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp |
| Ghetto | Kraków Ghetto including otherJewish ghettos in German-occupied Poland |
| Victims | Over 11,000[2] |
| Memorials | Ghetto site and deportation point |
| Notes | The most lethal phase ofthe Holocaust. |
Operation Reinhard in Kraków, often referred to by its original codename in German asAktion Krakau, was a major 1942German Nazi operation againstthe Jews ofKraków,Poland. It was headed bySS and Police LeaderJulian Scherner from theWaffen-SS. Theroundup was part of the countrywideAktion Reinhard (Operation Reinhard), the mass murder of Polish Jews in the so-calledGeneral Government under the command ofSS und PolizeiführerOdilo Globočnik.
Beginning in 1941, all Jewish inhabitants of Kraków were ordered to relocate intoKraków Ghetto, the newly established ghetto situated in thePodgórze district, away from the predominantly Jewish district ofKazimierz. A German Labour Office (Arbeitsamt) was set up for those employed outside the Ghetto. At the beginning of 1942, the entire Jewish population of Greater Kraków (including 29 surrounding villages) was forced to move into the same Ghetto with each person granted 4 cubic meters (140 cu ft) of space. On 1 June 1942 the ghetto was surrounded by German police and SS. To conceal the purpose of the "Aktion" and calm the Jewish population, theSD andSiPo officers – among themSS-Obersturmbannführer Willi Haase,SS-Obersturmführer Becher, andSS-Hauptscharführer Heinrich – told the Jews of a "resettlement" program. Jews who worked in German factories were permitted to remain, while the first transport of 7,000 Jews was assembled on Zgody Square and escorted to the railway station inProkocim. On 5 June 1942, an additional 4,000 Jews were deported toBełżec extermination camp in a similar way.
On 13 March and 14 March 1943, the Nazis carried out the final 'liquidation' of the ghetto under the command ofSS-HauptsturmführerAmon Göth. Those deemed able to work were transported to thePłaszów concentration camp. Some 2,000 Jews unable to move or attempting to run were killed in the streets and in their homes. The captives were sent toAuschwitz. As noted by historians Ernst Klee, Willi Dressen and Volker Riess, the German police from the office ofGrenz Polizeikommissariat were quite eager to take part in the murdering of Jews in and around Kraków, in anticipation of considerable material gains.[2]
Members of theGrenzpolizeikommissariat were, with a few exceptions, quite happy to take part in shootings of Jews. They had a ball! Obviously they can't say that today! Nobody failed to turn up... I want to repeat that people today give a false impression when they say that the actions against the Jews were carried out unwillingly. There was great hatred against the Jews; it was revenge, and they wanted money and gold. Don't let's kid ourselves, there was always something up for grabs during the Jewish actions. Everywhere you went there was always something for the taking. The poor Jews were brought in, the rich Jews were fetched and their homes were scoured.
— aKripo official from theKraków district, "The Good Old Days": The Holocaust as Seen by Its Perpetrators[2]
The majority of Jews who survived the 1942–43 Ghetto liquidation programme in Kraków, came from theDeutsche Emaillewaren-Fabrik (DEF) owned by theSudeten German industrialist and war profiteerOskar Schindler. Tipped off to the factory closure, Schindler persuaded the SS officials to allow him to move his 1,200 Jewish workers from the Kraków Ghetto to theBrünnlitz labor camp inBrněnec,Czech Protectorate, thus sparing them from deportation todeath camps.[3]
Schindler's factory relocation is not to be confused with the similarevacuation ofPrzemyśl Jews from deportation to Bełżec. The liquidation of Przemyśl Ghetto took place on July 27, July 31 and August 3, 1942. The operation was directed bySS-Hauptsturmführer Martin Fellenz. On 27 July 1942, the military commander ofPrzemyśl,Max Liedtke, ordered his troops to seize the bridge across theSan River that connected the divided city of Przemyśl, and halt the evacuation. The Gestapo was forced to give him permission to retain workers performing service for theWehrmacht. For the actions undertaken by Liedtke and his adjutantAlbert Battel in Przemyśl,Yad Vashem later named them "Righteous Among the Nations".[4] After theAktion had taken place, Jews in the Ghetto were requested to pay the transportation costs for the so-called 'evacuation'. All of them were deported toBełżec extermination camp thereafter.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link), Zielony Sztandar, 9 września 2007 r. Nr 36.See: reference made in the Polish language to the so called "Aktion Krakau" against university professors (29 November 1939). Retrieved from the Internet Archive.{{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help)