The Eagle Pharmacy (Apteka pod Orłem) Being Rebuilt

On the site where the Museum stands today, during the War, stood the only pharmacy in the Kraków ghetto. Its owner was a Pole, Tadeusz Pankiewicz. The site was used by the underground as a point of contact and for providing help to Jews. In 1983, in recognition for helping the inhabitants of the ghetto, Pankiewicz was awarded the Righteous Amongst the Nations medal. From that moment, the pharmacy has operated as part of the Museum, devoted to the history of the site.

In accordance with the guidelines for its revitalisation, the Eagle Pharmacy is to look as it once did during the time of the ghetto. The building’s facade has already been restored and work is now being carried out on its interior. The decor will be based on Tadeusz Pankiewicz’s own photographs.

The Eagle Pharmacy will serve as an archive containing witnesses’ stories from the Kraków ghetto. Photographs, letters, documents, film and audio will be accessible there – and all within the confines of the genuine, old pharmacy.

An exhibition will tell the story of the site – of the building itself, as well as of the people who once worked at The Eagle Pharmacy. The second room is the dispensary, where medication was once produced. The third room was Pankiewicz’s quarters. Here, the most tragic moment of the ghetto’s history will be told, namely, its liquidation. The fourth room was once the pharmacy’s storeroom which, significantly, adjoined the backyard. The final room, a laboratory, is where the exhibition  ends – an exhibition dedicated to restoring the memory at story of this place.

A shortfilm about the Eagle Pharmacy’s renovation can be viewed here.