Nazi Plans of Krakow. Lecture

In Poland, the German occupation from 1939 to 1945 is unequivocally associated with the Nazi policy of genocide, and Krakow became part of this atrocious plan. At the same time, the city was put to a specific sort of test. Designated by Hitler as the capital of the General Government, it was to be swiftly transformed into a model German city in the East. The aim of the Nazi officials was not only to rebuild large Polish urban centres in the spirit of the Third Reich. For them, architecture and urban planning were tools facilitating the process of depolonisation of Krakow.

This subject remained taboo for many post-war decades. During the lecture, Prof. Jacek Purchla will fill one of the blank pages in the history of Krakow and Poland.




Prof. Jacek Purchla – lecturer, one of the world's leading experts on cultural heritage. His research interests include urban development, social history, and art history of the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as cultural heritage theory and preservation. Author of more than four hundred studies, including many books. Founder and long-time director of the International Cultural Centre, where he still heads the Research Institute of European Heritage. Chairman of the Polish National Commission for UNESCO from 2015 to 2020 and Chairman of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee from 2016 to 2017.