Emma Discover Schindler’s Krakow
Schindler’s List is one of Director Steven Spielberg’s most famous films and draws many visitors to the city to see the Schindler’s List film locations and experience Schindler’s Krakow.
On this trail you will visit places such as the former Deutsche Emailwarenfabrik in Zabłocie and the Jewish Kazimierz as well as the Jewish Ghetto.
Who was Oskar Schindler?
We’d best start with this, who was Oskar Schindler? He was a German industrialist and member of the Nazi Party who is credited with saving the lives of around 1200 Jews. He employed them in his enamel factory in Krakow, Poland.
Schindler grew up in Zwittau, Moravia, and joined the Abwehr, the military intelligence service in 1936. In 1939, he acquired an enamelware factory in Kraków, Poland, and utilised his connections in the Abwehr to protect his workers.
The end of the war meant that the SS began closing the camps and deporting the prisoners to camps away from encroaching allies.Schindler convinced SS-Hauptsturmführer Amon Göth, commandant of the nearby Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp, to allow him to move his factory to Brněnec/Brünnlitz in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Various lists were compiled, one of which can be found in the State Library of New South Wales, of those he wished to take with him to the new factory.
Schindler’s List Trail around Krakow
Map of Schindler’s List Trail
We start in Kraków’s Kazimierz district, in ul. Szeroka, which took the place of plac Zgody in the ghetto.
1. Szeroka Street
Did you know four synagogues used to be on this street?
The Jews of Kraków began to settle here after the decree of King John Albert (Jan Olbracht, 1495), which in fact made them leave Kraków. This is where the Oppidum Judaeorum, the Jewish City, was formed, separated from the rest of Kazimierz by walls.
Standing on the northern side of Szeroka Street (No. 6) is the building of the ritual bath, the so-called mikvah, whose pool was fed by a spring.
2 The courtyard of the house at No. 12
We see the courtyard when the Germans chase people out from their homes, and hurl their belongings down from the balconies.
3. Lasoty Hill, also known as Mount St Benedict
During the Second World War, the border of Kraków ghetto ran along the northern slope of the hill. It is from here that Oscar Schindler and his friend Ingrid watch the liquidation of the ghetto.
4. Liban Quarry
The name of the quarry comes from the name of its owner, a Kraków industrialist Bernard Liban, who opened a lime kiln here in 1873. All that has been left are remnants of steel kilns and conveyors.
The actual camp in Płaszów was recreated here with 34 barracks, seven guard towers, and a faithful replica of commandant Amon Göth’s villa. Remnants of film props can seemingly still be found in the quarry
5. Amon Göth House
Camp commandant Amon Goeth lived in the villa at number 22. After the war the building was later returned to the family that owned. In 2015 the property was controversially sold to a private investor and completely renovated for use as a modern family residence. It is not open to the public.
6. Guardhouse and Officers Club
You will find two pre-war buildings which were used by the camp still standing. These are at 8 and 10 ul. Jerozolimska. The buildings have been altered over the years and originally housed the main guard post, telephone systems and radio systems as well as an officers club.
7. Villa of Oskar Schindler
The house where Oskar Schindler resided between 1939 to 1944 is around the corner from the factory and is in a sorry state.
8. Deutsche Emailwarenfabrik
The factory here was staffed mainly by Jews as they were a cheap labour force. . After the liquidation of the ghetto in March 1943, Schindler was able to set up a sub-camp within the factory to ensure that the factory had staff. Conditions here were much better than in the main camp.
The sub-camp was liquidated when the Nazis were evacuating Krakow. This is when Schindler opened a munitions factory in Brünnlitz (Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia), where he employed “his” Jews.
Website for Oskar Schindler’s Enamel Factory in Krakow.
