The story
Welcome to the corner of Plac Bohaterów Getta, at number 18. Take a moment to look at the grey, unassuming building before you: the Eagle Pharmacy, or Apteka Pod Orłem. Today, this square is a place of quiet reflection, marked by the haunting monument of sixty-eight empty bronze chairs.
But eighty years ago, this was the beating heart of a nightmare, the center of the Kraków Ghetto. In March 1941, when the Nazi occupiers established the ghetto here in Podgórze, they ordered all non-Jewish residents to leave. Among them was Tadeusz Pankiewicz, the proprietor of this pharmacy.
He was offered a lucrative swap—a pharmacy in the center of the city belonging to a Jew—but he refused. He insisted on staying. Through a combination of persistence, calculated bribes, and sheer courage, he became the only Pole allowed to live and work within the ghetto walls.
As you stand here, imagine the view Pankiewicz had from those very windows. While the world outside forgot what was happening behind the barbed wire, this pharmacy became a bridge. It wasn't just a place to buy medicine.
It was an embassy of hope, a sanctuary, and a newsroom. Underground newspapers were read here, and letters to loved ones on the "Aryan side" were smuggled in and out through the pharmacy’s back door. The stories from within these walls are both harrowing and heroic.
Pankiewicz and his three assistants, Irena, Helena, and Aurelia, worked around the clock. They provided hair dye to help the elderly look younger and more "fit for work" during selections. They distributed tranquilizers to mothers so they could keep their children quiet during the terrifying midnight raids.
When the ghetto was being liquidated in March 1943, Pankiewicz stood at his window and watched the horrific scenes unfold on this very square, recording everything he saw in his mind to later testify to the world. He didn't just witness history; he saved lives. He hid people in the pharmacy’s laboratory and basement during deportations.
For his "uncommon bravery," Tadeusz Pankiewicz was later recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem. As you look around the square today, let the silence of the bronze chairs speak to you. They represent the furniture left behind during the deportations, the lives interrupted.
But remember that right here, at the Eagle Pharmacy, one man decided that even in the darkest corners of humanity, he would not turn away. He stayed when everyone else was forced to leave, proving that a single shop on a corner can become a fortress of defiance. Take a deep breath, and as you continue your walk, carry the memory of this quiet hero with you.