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Kraków in the war

6 articles · 1939–1945

The Germans took Kraków without a fight on 6 September 1939, and on 26 October the city became the capital of the General Government; Hans Frank took up residence at Wawel. On 6 November 1939 more than 180 professors and university staff were arrested here and deported to Sachsenhausen. In 1941 the Jews were shut in a ghetto in Podgórze, liquidated on 13–14 March 1943. Soviet troops took the city, largely undamaged, in January 1945.

1939

  1. 6 September 1939EventThe Germans take KrakówOn 6 September 1939 the German 14th Army entered undefended Kraków. The Kraków Army was retreating to the Nida and Dunajec; the Wawel treasures had left.
  2. 26 October 1939EventThe annexation of Polish lands and the General GovernmentOn 26 October 1939 Hitler’s decrees took effect. Western Poland was annexed to the Reich and central Poland became Hans Frank’s General Government.
  3. 6 November 1939EventSonderaktion KrakauOn 6 November 1939 the Germans lured Kraków professors to a bogus lecture in the Collegium Novum, arrested 183 people and deported them to Sachsenhausen.

1943

  1. 13 March 1943EventThe liquidation of the Kraków GhettoOn 13–14 March 1943 the Germans liquidated the ghetto in Kraków's Podgórze. Those fit to work were driven to Płaszów; some 2,000 were killed on the spot.

1944

  1. 6 August 1944EventBlack Sunday in KrakówOn 6 August 1944 the Germans carried out the largest round-up of the occupation in Kraków. Some 6,000–8,000 men were held as hostages in Płaszów camp.

1945

  1. 12 January – 3 February 1945BattleVistula–Oder offensiveBetween 12 January and 3 February 1945 Zhukov's and Konev's fronts drove from the Vistula to the Oder, smashed Army Group A and took Warsaw, Kraków and Łódź.

People

Born or died here

  • Amon GöthCommandant of the Płaszów labour camp, later concentration camp (1943–1944), SS-Hauptsturmführer
  • August Emil FieldorfHead of the Directorate of Diversion (Kedyw) of the AK High Command (1942–1944), organiser of "NIE", deputy commander of the Home Army (1944–1945)
  • Józef HallerCommander of the II Brigade of the Legions (1916–1918), Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Army in France (1918–1919), commander of the Northern Front (1920), minister in the government-in-exile (1939–1943)
  • Tadeusz KutrzebaCommandant of the Higher Military School (1928–1939), commander of the Poznań Army (1939), deputy commander of the Warsaw Army (1939), Major General