Krakow Ghetto in 1939
The Krakow Ghetto was one of five major metropolitan Jewish ghettoes created by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. The ghetto was formed in September 1939, when the Germans occupied Poland and forced the Jews from the countryside to register themselves and their families and head to the major cities. 10,000 Polish Jews entered Krakow daily in the early months of the war, adding to the already-large Jewish population of 80,000 people in the city. The Nazi Party closed synagogues and confiscated religious items, and they installed a Judenrat to govern the Jewish population. From late 1942 to early 1943, the ghetto was liquidated by the Germans, with the Jews being sent to the Krakow-Plaszow concentration camp or to death camps; many Jews were massacred during the liquidation.