OSCAR SCHINDLER FACTORY

The factory of this German industrialist, profiteer, swindler, corrupt, unfaithful and finally hero who saved a good part of his workers from Nazi extermination, used by Spielberg for his cinematographic reconstitution, still stands there, with its long white facade and the photos of some of his protégés. It has been transformed into an exciting museum of Krakow under the Occupation, very modern, based on visual and sensory documents, whose exhibition is worth a visit. The museum features exhibits on the Nazi invasion of Poland, life in the ghetto and the Plaszów camp, and a reconstruction of Schindler's office. It is always crowded and not very pleasant if you are not on an organized tour. It is therefore recommended that you go with a guide.

A German businessman and member of the Nazi party, Oskar Schindler arrived in Krakow in 1939, after the Third Reich army invaded Poland. An opportunist and war profiteer, he quickly realized that Jews were a very cheap source of labor to run his enameled dinnerware factory. But once there, he is challenged by the fate of his workers and the Jewish community. Thanks to his connections and diplomatic skills, and with the help of his wife Emilie and his Jewish accountant Itzhak Stern, he managed to save about 1,200 Jews by putting them on a list of workers essential to the smooth running of his factory. In 1967, the Israeli government honored him with the title of "Righteous Among the Nations". Schindler died in 1974 and his body was buried in a Catholic cemetery in Jerusalem. In 1993, Steven Spielberg adapted Thomas Keneally's 1982 novel Schindler's List to film. Most of the filming took place in the districts of Kazimierz and Podgórze. In the footsteps of Oskar Schindler, take Szeroka Street where the ghetto scenes are filmed. Indeed, Spielberg could not shoot in the real place of the ghetto, too built. So he chose this place where time seems to have stopped. Continue along Ciemna Street where the Eden Hotel was used as a setting for the filming. Then from Nowy Square, take Meiselsa Street and walk through the large courtyard that connects it to Józefa Street. Do you recognize the location of one of the poignant scenes in the film? Then walk to the ghetto and climb the hill on Rekawka Street, the one in the scene in the film where Schindler watches the liquidation of the ghetto. Go to the foot of the ghetto wall fragment on Lwowska Street and end up at Schindler's factory on Lipowa Street.