The KL Plaszow Site and Its Visitors: Shaping Attitudes Towards the Commemoration of the Site

In 2006, the Municipality of Kraków held an international competition to select plans for one of the last uncommemorated major former concentration campsites in Poland, the KL Płaszów concentration camp. The winning design met with criticism from various stakeholders, and the proposal was consequently put on hold. More than a decade has passed since the key actors: the Jewish community of Kraków, the Municipality of Kraków and the State of Poland (Ministry of Culture and National Heritage) arrived at a consensus to establish an independent institution in charge of this vast expanse of terrain in southern Kraków (2021). Meanwhile, a variety of approaches towards the site have been expressed by various actors, and local grassroots opposition to the proposed musealisation have gained in strength. The chapter follows the post-1945 site usages of the former Nazi labour and concentration camp, KL Płaszów. It strives to identify changes in the visiting public and attitudes towards the idea of the site’s musealisation. It attempts to assess the current state of the discourse stemming from the clash between official and grassroots policies towards the site’s future, together with the populist threats that are overshadowing the free exchange of standpoints.