Eagle Pharmacy Museum
pl. Bohaterów Getta 18, 30-547 Kraków
Tourist region: Kraków i okolice
The chemist's shop on today's Ghetto Heroes Square was run from 1909 by Józef Pankiewicz. His customers were Jewish and Polish residents of the district. In 1933, it was taken over by Józef's son, Tadeusz. Between 1941 and 1943, it was the only pharmacy within the Kraków ghetto run by a Pole who was allowed to stay in the part of the city that the Germans designated for Jews only. Pankiewicz managed to help many Jews by giving them medicines and shelter, passing on information and helping them contact their families. He described these stories in his book 'Apteka w getcie krakowskim' (Pharmacy in Krakow Ghetto), published after the war. Today, in the 'Eagle Pharmacy' building, which is a branch of the National Museum in Krakow, there is a permanent exhibition presenting the fate of the Jews of the Krakow Ghetto and commemorating Tadeusz Pankiewicz, a Righteous Among the Nations. When you enter this museum you walk into it as if it were a war-time pharmacy, a meeting place and shelter for the inhabitants of the ghetto. There you can learn the stories of particular people, the prescriptions that saved lives and the stories of women – Irena Droździkowska, Aurelia Danek-Czortowa and Helena Krywaniuk – who, with Pankiewicz, brought help to those under the Nazi heel.