In 1910 its proprietor was Jozef Pankiewicz.
Tadeusz Pankiewicz (21 November 1908 – 5 November 1993) was his son who ran it beginning in 1933. Before
World War II, it was one of four pharmacies in the
Podgórze district. Its clients were both Polish and Jewish residents. One frequent customer was "
Bikkur Cholim" charity. In March 1941, the Nazis established a
ghetto in Podgórze for Kraków's Jews. Pankiewicz's
pharmacy was the only one within its borders, while its proprietor was the only Pole with rights to remain within it. The Nazis decreed that all signs and other public inscriptions had to be redone in Hebrew throughout the Krakow ghetto. The only exception was the Polish sign over the entranceway to Pankiewicz’s pharmacy, "Pod Orłem". The Jews in the ghetto chose the pharmacy as a meeting place. Among them were writer
Mordechai Gebirtig, painter
Abraham Neumann, Dr.
Julian Aleksandrowicz, neurologist Dr. Bernhard Bornstein, Dr Leon Steinberg and pharmacists Emanuel Herman and Roman Imerglück. Soon it became a source of resources and medicines, which helped in avoiding deportation: hair dyes used for rejuvenating the appearance, luminal (
fenobarbital) used to calm children in hiding, smuggled in luggage beyond the ghetto. During the bloody displacement at Plac Zgody in 1942, Pharmacy personnel issued free medicines and dressings while its recessed areas were used as shelters to save Jews. As early as 1951 the pharmacy was nationalized by the Polish state, but Pankiewicz retained the right to use the building until 1955. The pharmacy was finally closed in 1967, and a bar was located there until 1981. Two years later, in 1983 a small historical exhibition opened in the building while Pankiewicz was still alive, and in 2003, thanks to
Roman Polanski's donation, once a prisoner of the Krakow ghetto, the museum was expanded. == References ==