Ucieczka kanałami z krakowskiego getta 13 marca 1943 roku

Abstract

ESCAPE FROM THE KRAKOW GHETTO THROUGH THE SEWERS ON 13 MARCH 1943

On 13 March 1943 Germans commenced the liquidation of the Kraków Ghetto. Th e only way to avoid deportation to a concentration camp was to escape to the world outside ghetto walls – to the “Aryan” part of the city. A few hours before the scheduled deportation, the Ghetto was surrounded by a police cordon, which automatically cut off all the escape routes that would normally be accessible. Those residents of the Ghetto who decided to escape through the municipal sewers right before, or even during the Nazi deportation operation undoubtedly proved great determination and courage. Battling with their own fears, carrying heavy hand baggage, some of them with little children in their arms, they entered the sewers, hoping to save their lives. The refugees wandered through the dark and narrow tunnels for many hours, wading through the stream of sewage flowing in the middle. Children suff ocated and adults fainted due to the lack of fresh air, the weaker refugees stumbled, blocking the passage for those behind them. Only a few of these people managed to safely leave the sewers. The memory of these dramatic events is still alive, although not many of the participants survived the war. Eyewitness accounts narrating the story of the escape were recorded immediately after the war in the reports presented by the survivors in front of the Regional Jewish Historical Committee. Nobody tried to reconstruct the exact route of that escape, as the committee tended to focus on collecting and documenting the mass of crimes against Jews. Issues concerning the history of the Ghetto gradually fell into oblivion, becoming part of the “forgotten memory”. Now, after so many years, the authors of the article, having examined eyewitness accounts of the participants and memoirs of war survivors in much detail and confronted these materials with specialist knowledge concerning the design, layout and practical functioning of the sewers, managed to reconstruct the route used by the refugees. The comprehensive explanations provided by this study have made it possible to unravel one of the intriguing mysteries surrounding the terrifying history of the Kraków Ghetto.