Oskar Schindler’s Factory is a poignant museum that is dedicated to showing the experience of Jewish families in Poland during the Holocaust. Hear historic radio excerpts of Nazi propaganda, read extracts from letters and diaries and see photographs and reconstructed scenes from daily life. The exhibits are designed to show how it would have felt being a Jewish worker in the factory during wartime Krakow.
In 2010, the Oskar Schindler Factory was turned into a museum. The original factory was owned by Oskar Schindler, a businessman who ran an enamel business here during World War II. The business made him wealthy and he was able to save the lives of more than 1,200 Jewish people by sending them to work. The story was made famous by the Oscar-winning film, Schindler’s List, directed by Steven Spielberg.
A sign-marked route will take you through the factory and the different exhibits. See the hair salon, the living apartment and the kinds of crowded quarters that families were sometimes forced to live in. Reconstructions, photographs and first-hand descriptions offer insight into how life was lived in the factory and Krakow. Look inside Schindler’s office and see his desk and the large glass cabinet with enamel goods inside.
In the museum’s screening room you can see documentaries and historical footage that was taken during the war. You may recognise many of the objects and areas in the factory that are featured in the Spielberg film.
The Oskar Schindler Factory is open daily with shorter opening times on Mondays. It is closed on the first Monday of every month. There is an admission charge.
The museum is located in the Zablocie district of Krakow, an industrial area less than 3 kilometres (2 miles) southeast of the Old Town (Stare Miasto) district. Buses and trams stop near the museum.
