Monuments at Plaszow
Memorial stone to all
those who were killed at Plaszow
The photograph above shows the large
monument at the former Plaszow concentration camp, which commemorates
all the victims who died there, Polish Catholics as well as Jews.
Of all the Holocaust monuments I've seen, and I've seen a few,
this one has the best design, in my opinion. This monument faces
the city of Krakow in the distance.
The photograph below was taken from the
steps of the monument, looking towards Krakow, the capital of
Nazi-occupied Poland. This monument was erected in 1964.
View from Plaszow monument,
looking toward the city of Krakow
The photograph below shows a view of
the former site of the Plaszow concentration camp with the back
of a small memorial stone shown in the foreground on the right.
The guidebook says that this stone was erected in memory of "the
Jews who were slaughtered at the camp." The tour guide translated
the words inscribed on the stone, written in Polish, which say
something to the effect that we don't know their names, so we
call them by one name: Jews. We can't describe how terrible and
barbaric the Nazis were, so we call them by one name: Hitlerists.
There was one word that the guide didn't know how to translate
into English; it was the one word in the Polish language that
I knew, the word pogrom, which needs no translation.
Site of Plaszow concentration
camp, Jewish memorial on the right
One of my tour guides pointed out that
the term Hitlerites or Hitlerists or Nazis should always be used
when referring to the enemy in World War II, rather than Germans.
There were many countries that supported or collaborated with
the Nazis, and many soldiers from Allied or neutral countries
that fought in the Waffen-SS, the volunteer army of Nazi Germany.
The photograph below shows the front of the memorial stone with
the inscription in Polish, which uses the name Hitlerists for
the perpetrators.
Memorial stone to the
Jews who were killed at Plaszow
|