Cracow Guide Krakow under German occupation

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Adolf Hitler Platz – The Main Square in Krakow and around. 2 h tour.

The Main Market Square renamed to Adolf Hitler Platz
The Palace under the Rams
Jagiellonian University in Krakow Collegium Maius
Jagiellonian University Collegium Novum
The prison in the Archaeological Museum – The cells where the worst beasts were kept.
Amon Göth, the commandant of the Plaszow camp.
Mr. Edward Mosberg – Survivor of the Nazi Ghetto in Krakow. He was a witness in Nuremberg at the trial of the Nazis. He is fighting for the memory of those murdered during the Holocaust, today. He is my history teacher of those dark days …
Edward Mosberg: 96-year-old Holocaust survivor was born January 6, 1926, in Kraków, Poland. He had two sisters, Halina and Karolina. His parents, Bronislawa and Ludwig, owned a department store; they prayed in the Popper synagogue. A little more than a year after World War II broke out in 1939, a ghetto was established in Kraków. Ed’s immediate family, grandparents and aunt settled in one apartment there. Ed brought them food and provided much-needed employee IDs and other papers. In 1943, the Kraków ghetto was liquidated and the Mosberg family was moved to the Plaszów camp on the outskirts of Krakow. As an office worker in the camp, Ed witnessed many atrocities committed by an infamous camp commander named Amon Goeth, who would later be tried, convicted and hanged as a war criminal. The following year, Ed’s mother and sister were taken to the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz in Poland. Ed was deported a few days later, first to Auschwitz and then to Mauthausen, a concentration camp in Austria, where he performed slave labor. After liberation, he briefly returned to Poland, but was met with fierce antisemitism and moved to Belgium, where he married a woman named Cecile. The couple immigrated to the United States and had three children, seven grandchildren and two grand-grandchildren as of Ed’s USC Shoah Foundation interview in 2016. Ed became a successful real-estate developer in New Jersey and remains active in Holocaust commemoration, working with International March of the Living.
https://www.facebook.com/edward.mosberg

Mr. Edward Mosberg and me

Amon Göth in Krakow’s prison before death sentence and the entry ticket to the prison for Mr. Mosberg.

Jewish Krakow. 3h tour

Szeroka Street
Old Syn. [admission 18 PLN]
Stephan Spielberg’s movie
Hellen Rubinstein – Queen of cosmetics companies in the World
Remuh syn. [ticket 10 PLN]
Famous restaurants
Wysoka syn. Izaak syn.
Slaughter house and New Square – the most famous pubs & coffees there …
Corpus Christi / Beera Meiselsa – the surprising street intersection
Schindler’s backyard
Joseph street

Former Ghetto in Krakow. [Podgórze] Podgorze district.

Oscar Schindler’s Enamel Factory.

The best exhibition in Krakow!

The permanent exhibition titled Krakow under Nazi Occupation 1939 – 1945 opened at Oscar Schindler’s Enamel Factory – the new branch of the Historical Museum of the City of Krakow situated at Lipowa 4; is primarily a story about the city and its inhabitants, both Polish and Jewish. It is also a story about Nazi Germans – the occupiers who arrived here on 6 September 1939, brutally disrupting Krakow’s centuries-long history of Polish-Jewish relations. This new exhibition has been created with the use of various means that go beyond the framework of traditional museum exhibitions, such as theatricalization of exhibition space, elements of stage design, multimedia solutions, etc. Krakow’s past has been recreated here in an evocative way in order to give visitors an opportunity to experience history in a direct, almost tangible way. Duration: 1h 30 min – 2h English guide: 300 PLN Tickets: 32 PLN p.p

Oscar Schindler Photo of MHK

The Eagle Pharmacy [Apteka pod Orłem] – Must see this place on the “Jewish Krakow”. The former ghetto in Krakow. Tadeusz Pankiewicz, the non-Jewish owner of the Eagle Pharmacy at Zgody Square, stayed in the Ghetto, refusing to leave the Podgórze district like other Poles did. It was only one pharmacy in Ghetto area. The only Aryan witness in the ghetto who could stay there from the beginning to the very end of the ghetto’s existence. He wrote his dark memories from that time, in the moving book “The Krakow Ghetto Pharmacy”. The admission ticket to this small museum costs 18 PLN. Guided tours are recommended before visiting the Schindler Factory.

Plaszow [Płaszów] camp. 2h tour.

The Grey house

Sara Schenirer

Roll-call square

The Red house

“Pomorska street” – the Memorial place – the museum – the former Gestapo prison cells, the torture chamber, NKVD and UB prison. The exposition “People of Krakow in Time of Terror of 1939 – 1945 – 1956. The exposition has been divided into three parts: 1 part is devoted to the history of the Silesia House and the activity of the Society for the Protection of Polish Borderlands in the West. 2 part profiles victims of Nazi terror during the German occupation in the years 1939-1945. 3 part is on the period from 1945 to 1956, presenting stories of people of Krakow subjected to repressions by Soviet and Polish Communists. → There are cells with the original, last letters of victims to their families scratched up on the walls in the basements of the Pomorska building. For tourists who want to learn more. Recommended guided tours. The ticket costs 12 PLN.

Memorial Route 1939-2019. 80th ANNIVERSARY OF THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD WAR II – September the 1st 1939 – 2019.

1st Part of tour
Pomorska street – death cells – entrance
AGH University of Science and Technology
Main Market Square renamed to Adolf Hitler Platz + Palace under the Rams
Jagiellonian University in Krakow
The Prison in the Archaeological Museum – The cells where the worst beasts were kept – Amon Göth – commandant of the Plaszow camp
Wawel Hill – Wawel Castle under Nazi German occupation
The arcades on Krakowska street
Szeroka street – the Jewish main Square before WWII
Duration 3h. Ticket costs 16 PLN

– New Square – so-called ‘Jewish Square’ and a break for lunch 1h – Famous former slaughterhouse for ritual slaughter before the Sabbath: the famous Krakow casseroles, sandwiches, polish style dinner sets, Kebabs, Chaczapurii, and many other food.

2nd Part of tour
The former Ghetto and Podgorze + ‘Apteka’ Pharmacy under Eagle and Schindler’s Factory [entrance].
We go by bus to Plaszow former labor and extermination camp – We see ‘grey house’, Red house’ and a monument.
Duration 4h
TICKETS: There is one ticket for the memory route: 45 PLN per person. Entrance to 3 museums: Pomorska street, ‘Apteka’ Pharmacy under Eagle, Oscar Schindler Factory – reservation in advanced necessary!

30 years ago Steven Spielberg shot “Schindler’s List” in Krakow.

Kraków.pl wrote ????March 2024

“30 years have passed since the premiere of “Schindler’s List”, Steven Spielberg’s seven-Oscar-winning work. The production made in Krakow has for years remained one of the most important and widely known films relating to war history. On the occasion of the anniversary, the city recalls the circumstances of the preparation and premiere of the film.

Photo frame from the film “Schindler’s List” directed by Steven Spielberg/source: Polish Press Agency????

“Schindler’s List” is a film considered a cinematic triumph by director Steven Spielberg. The script was based on the novel by Thomas Keneally, set during World War II. It tells the story of a German businessman – Oskar Schindler, who sees a chance to make easy money when the Nazis come to power. Thanks to the right connections, he opens a factory in occupied Krakow, which thrives on cheap labor in the form of forced Jews. When the Nazis implement the Holocaust plan throughout almost all of Europe, Schindler employs more Jewish workers in his factory, thereby saving them from death. The film also presents the conditions in the KL Plaszow camp. Based on a true story, “Schindler’s List” is considered a story about a man who did not remain indifferent and saved hundreds of lives in the darkest chapter of history.

Steven Spielberg, with the help of the excellent Polish cinematographer Janusz Kamiński, shot the film in black and white. The moving story takes place against the background of realistic scenography created by Allan Starski and Ewa Braun. The music for the film was composed by John Williams. They appeared in it, among others: Liam Neeson as Oskar Schindler, Ben Kingsley as his secretary Isaac Stern and Ralph Fiennes as Amon Göth, the heartless commandant of the Płaszów camp. Next to them appeared Polish actors: Andrzej Seweryn, Anna Mucha, Piotr Polk, Jacek Wójcicki, Paweł Deląg, Jerzy Nowak, Agnieszka Krukówna, Olaf Lubaszenko and Maja Ostaszewska. “Schindler’s List” received a total of seven Oscars, three Golden Globes and six BAFTAs.

KL Płaszów camp.

The film takes place, among others, in the KL Płaszów camp. Let us remember: the Nazi concentration camp in Płaszów operated in the years 1942–1945. Approximately 35,000 people passed through him. prisoners, mainly Jews, but also Poles and Roma, approximately 6,000 people lost their lives there.
In 1945, when the Germans evacuated the camp, they practically razed it to the ground and effectively erased the traces of the crime that took place there. However, three mass graves and two Jewish cemeteries remain at the memorial site. Today, this area is under the protection of a conservator and has the status of a war cemetery, cared for by the KL Plaszów Memorial Site.

You can still see elements of the set design.

The film was shot in the Libana quarry in Krakow, located next to the camp. The name comes from the name of the owner, Krakow industrialist Bernard Liban, who founded a lime kiln here in 1873. The remains of steel furnaces and conveyors remain to this day, and the quarry itself currently has the status of ecological use. In the years 1942–1944, the Nazi occupiers established a penal labor camp in the quarry, through which approximately 2,000 people passed through. people. Due to the difficult working conditions, many prisoners died. In this area, the victims of the occupation are commemorated by a monument and a stained glass window by Władysław Jastrzębski, placed here in 1948 and renovated last year.
In 1993, the creators of “Schindler’s List” appeared in the quarry area. The reality of the camp in Płaszów was recreated: 34 barracks, 7 guard towers and a faithfully reproduced villa of Commander Amon Göth. The roads were paved with concrete replicas of tombstones. Camp scenes were filmed here. To this day, you can still find remnants of the film’s set in the quarry: slabs imitating tombstones, fence posts and steps.

Care for memory and dialogue.

– There’s never enough talk about the importance of this production for our city. Krakow residents are divided into those who played in Spielberg’s great production – as extras, craftsmen, subcontractors, and those who watched the production from the other side – observers. The great production changed the film profile of the city and the country, contributed to the emergence of the film industry and influenced Krakow’s later policy in this area. But much more important is how the film resonated in the area of difficult memory. He initiated an important international Polish-Jewish dialogue and a number of activities undertaken in the city aimed at preserving and cultivating the memory of the victims of KL Plaszow and, more broadly, the time of the Holocaust, says Robert Piaskowski, the mayor of Krakow’s plenipotentiary for culture, listing the most important activities in this regard.

This is primarily the opening of a branch of the Krakow Museum – Oskar Schindler’s Enamel Factory in the former Schindler factory, care for the post-camp area where the KL Plaszow Museum is being built, but also the activities of Jewish organizations and associations: the Jewish Religious Community, the Galicia Jewish Museum, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. summer, Jewish Culture Festival, FestivAlt Association.

In 2005, the city bought the building of the former German Enamel Factory, which was owned by Oskar Schindler during World War II. The facility became part of the Krakow Museum. In 2010, in the branch of Oskar Schindler’s Enamel Factory at ul. The ever-popular exhibition “Kraków – the time of occupation 1939-1945” was opened at Lipowa 4.

The Museum – KL Plaszow Memorial Site, co-run by the city and the ministry, takes care of the area of the former German Nazi concentration camp KL Plaszow. According to the museum, there is also research and educational work to remember the history of KL Plaszów and its victims. The institution was established in 2021, its creation was preceded by public consultations on the forms of commemoration and development of the post-camp area. Ultimately, the KL Plaszow Museum – Memorial Site will include the following elements: the former camp area, the Gray House, the Memorial building (which will be built) and the KL Plaszow Sound Monument. Currently, the stage of cleaning the area has been completed and the open-air exhibition “KL Plaszow. A place after, a place without. This event will take place just before this year’s March of Remembrance, organized on March 17 – on the anniversary of the liquidation of the Krakow ghetto.

Activities focused on caring for memory and Polish-Jewish dialogue also include the ongoing social discussion on Krakow’s adoption of the definition of anti-Semitism recommended by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), coordinated by the Galicia Jewish Museum.

Meeting at the Kijów Cinema after 30 years

In connection with the anniversary, on March 5 at At 7 p.m. at the Kijów Cinema – where the premiere of the film and a press conference with its creators took place 30 years ago – people associated with the production and Krakow actors met. The event’s guest was also Niusia Horowitz-Karakulska, a Holocaust survivor who worked on the film as a consultant. The band Kroke performed. Admission to the event was free, additional information in the announcement.

The program of this year’s Film Music Festival in Krakow will also refer to the anniversary of the presentation of “Schindler’s List”. It will include, among other things, a concert featuring songs from the soundtrack to this unforgettable film. Festival details coming soon.”

Krakow under German occupation