Most of the prisoners were Polish Jews who were targeted for destruction by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust.

[8] On 13 March 1943, he oversaw the liquidation of the nearby Kraków Ghetto, forcing those Jewish inhabitants deemed capable of work into the KL Plaszow camp.

[15] The female guards treated the prisoners as brutally as the men: "When we were loaded on the train in Płaszów, an SS woman hit me on the head.

On 13 September 1944, Göth was relieved of his position and charged by the SS with theft of Jewish property (which belonged to the state, according to Nazi legislation), failure to provide adequate food to the prisoners under his charge, violation of concentration camp regulations regarding the treatment and punishment of prisoners, and allowing unauthorised access to camp personnel records by prisoners and non-commissioned officers.

The condemned were walked into a trench of the Hujowa Górka hillside, ordered to strip down and stand naked, and then were finally shot.

[18] In early 1944, all corpses were exhumed and burned on a pyre to obliterate the evidence of the mass murder.

Witnesses later testified that 17 truckloads of human ashes were removed from the burning site and scattered over the area.

Göth entrusted documents pertaining to the mass killings and executions to a high ranking female member of the SS, Kommandoführerin Alice Orlowski.

[6] The Jüdische Unterstützungsstelle, a support group that the Germans tolerated, would provide the inmates with food and medical assistance.

Any action perceived as sabotage, such as smuggling items into the camp, disobeying orders, or carrying an extra piece of food in one's clothes was an offense punishable by death.

[29] While prisoners' daily lives were dominated by fear and starvation, there were some outlets for hope of survival.

[30] Oskar Schindler, a member of the Nazi Party who saved the 1,200 Schindlerjuden, was also a key figure.

[32] Having relatives and friends that worked for Schindler gave one a better chance at being put on the list for transport.

[33] During July and August 1944, a number of transports of prisoners left KL Płaszow for Auschwitz, Stutthof, Flossenburg, Mauthausen, and other camps.

When the Nazis realized the Soviets were approaching Kraków, they completely dismantled the camp, leaving only an empty field.

[10] Most numbers of inmates and killings rely on estimation,[22] as the prisoner card index was destroyed during the camp's destruction.

The Jewish cemetery, where the Nazis removed all but one of the tombstones, stands on the side of the hill at the eastern end of the camp, near the Grey house.

Another small monument, located near the opposite end of the site, stands in memory of the first execution of (non-Jewish) Polish prisoners in 1939.

As the Płaszów area is now a nature preserve and modern high-rise apartments were visible from the site, the director Steven Spielberg replicated the camp in the nearby Liban Quarry, which also served as a labor camp during the war.

Each year, it is the finishing point of the March of Remembrance taking part in mid-March to manifest the respect to the victims of the Holocaust.