The route commemorates places associated with the tragic history of Jews in Bochnia, and its vicinity, during the Nazi occupation. It consists of 15 points pertaining to the ghetto and its inhabitants.
In the middle of March 1941 the German occupying authorities decided to create a district for the Jewish people in Bochnia. The ghetto included a dozen or so of streets located in the north-eastern part of the town: Kowalska, Niecała, Św. Leonarda, Solna Góra, Pod Lipką, Kraszewskiego, part of Kolejowa, Wojska Polskiego, Poniatowskiego and Trudna; a part of Proszowska, Wygody and Krzeczkowskiej constituted the so-called mixed district. The resettlement of the population started on 2nd April 1941 and was supposed to end after three days. Around 15 thousand Jews passed through the ghetto during more than two years of its functioning. On 1st January 1943 the ghetto was renamed as a work camp. Only a fraction of its population came from Bochnia. The majority of the inhabitants were Jews deported by the Germans from Cracow and surrounding villages as well as forcibly resettled from localities like Brzesko, Krzeszowice, Mielec, Dębica and others.
Three great extermination actions were organized by the Germans and took place at the end of August 1942 (the first Action), in November 1942 (the second Action) and at the beginning of September 1943. The actions resulted in the murder of over 14 000 Jews by moving the “capable of work” to death camps, or execution on the spot (also in Puszcza Niepołomicka) of the elderly, the sick, the children and those caught hiding. The Germans left a few hundred healthy and young people alive some of whom were transported to the work camp in Szebnie leaving about 150 people who were made to clean the desertsd ghetto. After cleaning the ghetto they were moved to Płaszów or other concentration camps.
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