Owing to its status as a cultural and artistic centre of the Polish nation as opposed to its actual capital, Kraków largely escaped serious infrastructural damage during the war - but that does not mean it went unscathed.

Vast sections of its population 'vanished' into the night and fog, leaving entire streets and city blocks empty and silent. The universities have been closed, the churches repurposed, and the construction of vast factory complexes with attached labour camps have completed Kraków's transformation into an industrial nightmare held in a vice grip by the demands of the Reich.

While Warsaw's destruction represented to the Polish nation the short term destructiveness of Germany's new order, Kraków's enslavement is a painful reminder of its long term intent to stamp out all that made Poland proud.