ABSTRACT
Tarnow is an old city with a grand central square and an educational tradition which goes back to the 1500s. In the twentieth century the town's significant and long-standing Jewish population was a target for the Nazis, and there are still a series of Jewish monuments around the town. The mechanisms for this destruction were the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration/extermination camp, approximately 60 miles from Cricoteka Krakow, the Jewish ghetto in Krakow, and the Plaszow concentration camp on the outskirts of the city. In fact Tadeusz Kantor and his family lived for several years near the walls of what was the Jewish ghetto, set up by the Nazis in the Podgorze district of the city. In 1914, although the outbreak of war had no connection with Polish problems, the country in effect became a battleground with Germany fighting Russia, and one of the crucial images of Kantor's theatre – soldiers marching and shooting – became etched on the memory of the nation.
