In connection with International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a screening of the documentary film "Let's remember about KL Plaszow" directed by Krzysztof Brożek took place at the "Atlantic" cinema in Warsaw on 24 January 2024.

Before the screening of the film, the Deputy President of the IPN, Prof. Karol Polejowski said:

This film, on the one hand, presents the history of the camp, but it also raises questions about holding criminals accountable, about punishing those who were guilty of the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people. It is also a question about commemorating the victims. It is our duty to conduct research, and to prepare films like this one, but also to take care of the memorial sites where German National Socialists killed those who they considered racially inferior.  

He also pointed out that KL Plaszow is a lesser-known camp when it comes to places of crimes against citizens of the Second Polish Republic.

KL Plaszow is still a somewhat unknown camp. Even those who watched the film "Schindler's List" do not always know that it was about KL Plaszow," director Krzysztof Brożek added.

Memoirs, photos, documents from the German occupation of Poland, secret messages, drawings and other memorabilia, donated, among others, by former camp inmates, were used in the film.

The screening was followed by an expert discussion, during which the panelists attempted to answer questions about the difficulties of determining the number of victims killed at the camp or the further fate of the Plaszow KL prisoners.

The panel discussion was attended by Marta Śmietana of the Plaszow KL Museum, Ryszard Kotarba - a retired IPN employee, Dr. Martyna Grądzka-Rejak of the IPN Historical Research Office, and moderated by Dr. Marcin Przegiętka (IPN Historical Research Office)..

KL Plaszow

The Germans established KL Plaszow in October 1942 on the site of two former Jewish cemeteries in the Wola Duchacka district. At first it was a labor camp for Jews from the Cracow ghetto, which was liquidated in March 1943. In 1944 it became a concentration camp.

During the entire period of the camp's operation, at least 30,000 people were imprisoned there. The number of people murdered there is estimated to be at least 5,000. The largest group of victims were Jews, victims of the liquidation of the Cracow ghetto and those caught having the so-called Aryan papers, destined for death during selections made in the camp. The Germans also executed Montelupich prisoners, Poles and people of other nationalities at Plaszow Concentration Camp.

In August 1944, the liquidation of the camp began. On 14 January 1945, the last group of about 600 prisoners left on foot for Auschwitz.