The fate of Krakow’s builders and architectus of Jewish origin in the face of World War II. Possibilities of applying the micro-historical method in research on architecture and urban planning

Abstract

This article is about the fate of a group of architects and builders in Krakow during World War II. After the outbreak of the war and the start of the German occupation in September 1939, they found themselves in a very difficult position. As the persecution intensified, so did the opportunities for their professional activities strongly diminish, although they did not disappear. The article outlines in more detail two individual situations – those of Samuel Mehl and Jakub Stendig – one related to the creation of a building, the other to, among other issues, the loss of a building. The research used methods often applied in the studies in architecture and urbanism: literaturę analysis, search in archives, field research. The micro-historical method, which is rather rarely used in such research, was also applied. This method, which has been used for nearly 50 years in scientific, mainly historical research, is based on studying and preserving the individual element of the narrative while aiming to generalise the result. In spite of the extremely cruel persecution of the Jewish population in Krakow during World War II, some architects and builders of Jewish origin continued their professional activity under various and difficult conditions. Its forms varied from design work and construction of residential buildings, to care for historical monuments, to construction activity in a concentration camp. Professional activity and specific skills may have contributed to the fact that proportionally more Jewish architects and builders survived the Holocaust than the Jewish community in Krakow as a whole. The consequences of the Holocaust for the architecture and space of Krakow were serious and varied: the loss of an important professional group, the loss of valuable architectural and artistic works, the change of features in newly designed buildings. The legacy of the work of architects and builders of Jewish origin in Krakow is very significant. It has been commemorated in a variety of tangible and intangible forms, although insufficiently in proportion to its scale.