Hujowa Górka

About

Hujowa Górka ([xuˈjɔ.va ˈɡurka]; sometimes ”Hujarowa Górka” or Chujowa Górka, rarely ”Kozia Górka”) is a place near the site of Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp, where in April 1944 the Nazis exhumed and incinerated the bodies of around ten thousand previously killed Jews, to hide the evidence of the crime before retreating from the area. The place took its name from the surname of Unterscharführer Albert Hujar (also Huyar) who committed and directed the executions. It is also a mockery of Hujar's surname, which is pronounced similarly to a vulgar Polish language expression for "penis" (its English equivalent is "prick"), hence the name is Polish for "Prick Hill", because it could be seen from almost any part of the camp.

Before World War II, an old Austrian fortification of the 19th century, dismantled in the 1930s, had been located on a hill. After destroying the fort, a large hexagonal pit remained here, with a circumference of up to 50 meters and a depth of up to 5 meters. Starting from August-September 1943, ”Chujowa Gorka” had become the main place of mass executions of prisoners in Plaszow and was used until mid-February 1944, when it was filled with bodies.

The prisoners were...