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Eagle Pharmacy

Coordinates: 50°02′47″N 19°57′15″E / 50.04625°N 19.95414°E / 50.04625; 19.95414
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Eagle Pharmacy
Apteka Pod Orłem w Krakowie
Map
Established1910
LocationKraków, Poland
Coordinates50°02′47″N 19°57′15″E / 50.04625°N 19.95414°E / 50.04625; 19.95414
TypeHistory museum
ManagerMonika Bednarek
DirectorMichał Niezabitowski [pl]
CuratorMonika Bednarek
Public transit accessMiejskie Przedsiębiorstwo Komunikacyjne w Krakowie [pl] how to get there, see external links
Websitewww.mhk.pl/branches/eagle-pharmacy/

The Eagle Pharmacy Museum is located on the southwest edge of the Bohaterów Getta Square, under number 18 (formerly Maly Rynek, then Plac Zgody) in Kraków, Poland.

Since 1910, its proprietor was Jozef Pankiewicz and after him Tadeusz Pankiewicz (21 November 1908 – 5 November 1993), his son who ran it since 1933. Before World War II, it was one of the four pharmacies in the Podgórze district. Its clients were both Polish and Jewish residents of the district. A frequent customer was, e.g., "Bikkur Cholim" charity.[1]

In March 1941, the Germans established a ghetto in Podgórze for Kraków's Jews, Pankiewicz's pharmacy was the only one within its borders and its proprietor was the only Pole with rights to stay in it. The Germans also decreed that all signs and other public inscriptions in Polish had to be redone in Hebrew throughout the Krakow ghetto. The only exception was the Polish sign over the entranceway to Tadeusz Pankiewicz’s pharmacy, 'Pod Orłem'.[2][3]

The Jews that lived in the ghetto chose the pharmacy as the place for conspiratorial meetings. Among them were: writer Mordechai Gebirtig, painter Abraham Neumann, Dr. Julian Aleksandrowicz, neurologist Dr. Bernhard Bornstein, Dr Leon Steinberg and pharmacists: Emanuel Herman, Roman Imerglück.[citation needed] Soon it also became a source of various resources and medicaments, which helped in avoiding deportation: hair dyes used for rejuvenating the appearance, luminal (fenobarbital) used to calm children while hidden, smuggled in luggage beyond the ghetto.[4]

During the bloody displacement at the Plac Zgody in 1942, Pharmacy personnel issued free medicines and dressings while its recesses areas were used as shelters for saving Jews from deportation to extermination camps.[3] During the bloody liquidation of the Krakow ghetto in March 1943, Pankiewicz provided many parents with drugs to help their children sleep while in hiding.[2]

Pankiewicz and his assistants Irena Drozdzikowska, Aurelia Danek and Helena Krywaniuk were liaisons between Jews in the ghetto and beyond it, passing the information and smuggling food. They also were depositaries of valuables entrusted to them by deported Jews in the last moments before leaving the ghetto.[5]

After the War, as early as 1951 the former pharmacy was nationalized by the Polish state, but Pankiewicz retained a right to use the building until 1955. The pharmacy was finally closed in 1967, and the bar was located here until 1981. Two years later, in 1983 a small historical exhibition was opened in the building while Pankiewicz was still alive, and in 2003, thanks to the donation of the director Roman Polanski, once a prisoner of the Krakow ghetto himself, the museum was expanded.[6]

References

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  1. ^ Museum's History at the Museum's Home page Archived 2018-05-23 at the Wayback Machine (in Polish)[1]
  2. ^ a b Crowe, David (2004). Oskar Schindler : the untold account of his life, wartime activities, and the true story behind the list. Cambridge, Mass.: Westview Press. ISBN 0-8133-3375-X. OCLC 55679121.
  3. ^ a b Pankiewicz, Tadeusz (2007). Apteka w getcie krakowskim. Czesław Brzoza. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie. ISBN 978-83-08-04071-3. OCLC 189666313.
  4. ^ Photos of Pharmacy Under the Eagle. "Photos of Pharmacy under the Eagle.", Magiczny Kraków.
  5. ^ Pharmacy Under the Eagle. "About History of Pharmacy under the Eagle.", Magiczny Kraków.
  6. ^ Chornyi, Maxim (2018-12-01). "Krakow ghetto today: Jewish ghetto in Krakow". WAR-DOCUMENTARY.INFO. Retrieved 2022-12-22.
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Media related to Pharmacy Pod Orłem at Wikimedia Commons