Easter 1995
Krakow, the ancient capital of Poland has not yet succumbed to the tourist invasion of Prague in the new Czech Republic, but you can bet a good night out at your local pub that it will. During our recent exploration of Eastern Europe, we arrived in Krakow principally to see where the Oscar winning film 'Schindler's List' took place and was filmed by Stephen Spielburg.
The city has a marvellous historical feel to it. The Rynek Glowny, was the largest square of Medieval Europe, a huge expanse of flagstones, ringed by magnificent houses and towering spires It has always been the commercial hub of the city, and the massive Cloth Hall Market dominates the square. The Cathedral also contains the tombs of virtually every Polish King & Queen. More recently, the history has been more dramatic and 50 miles west of Krakow lie the death camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau where 1.2 million people perished at the hands of the Nazis.
Jews settled in Krakow 600 years ago and developed a unique area in Kazimierz near the city centre . In 1941 the occupying Nazis had reduced the 69,000 community to 12,000 and forced them to leave the area, herding them across the Vistula River into a Jewish ghetto, before finally shipping them to Auschwitz in 1942.
The original Jewish ghetto was based around Zgotu Square, but modernisation forced Spielburg to film in the original district of Kazimierz on Szeroka St. The most dramatic scenes were filmed here, those of the war life of the Jewish ghetto and its liquidation. In Ciemna St nearby, we found ourselves in the place where Poldek Pferrerberg bumped into Amon Goeth, the German Commander, who with a group of Nazis was killing any remaining Jews, and reported that he had been ordered to clear the street from Jewish possessions. Oscar Schindler's luxurious flat was also here. Jozefa St and Meiselsa St are linked by a courtyard where scenes of expulsion were filmed. One of the bridges over the River still remains where the Jews were forced to march to the ghetto. However , the film reverses the direction they marched. This is because you cannot see any modernisation as you look towards the city. This seemed amazing after 50 years.
Schindler's factory still stands in Lipowa St. south of the River and many film scenes were shot here. He came to Krakow with the intention of making a fortune in a short time. He took over a small Jewish factory that had gone bankrupt and using his connections with the Nazis, eventually had 750 Jewish workers. Schindler originally saw the Jews as cheap labour until one day on Lasota Hill, he watched the extermination of the Jews in the ghetto. It was here that he noticed a small girl in a red dress, interpreted in the film as the reason he changed his mind. It was then he decided to save as many Jews as possible. He bribed Amon Goeth to allow him to set up a sub camp on the premises of his factory which allowed his workers to live in safety. When in July 1944, the Russian offensive started towards the west, Schindler decided to move factory and his Jewish workers to his Czech homeland. The so called Schindler's List included about 1,200 Jewish names.
The final film location you can see, is the concentration camp in Plaszow near the ghetto. It was destroyed by the Germans before their defeat, so Spielburg recreated it in a quarry, the most expensive film setting in Polish history. 34 barracks and 11 watch towers were erected. The film scenes here include Amon Goeth choosing his servant and shooting prisoners from his mansion, building the camp by prisoners and shooting a woman prisoner for making critical remarks about the shoddy foundations of the barracks. Little of the film set remains. Even, if you have never seen the film, Krakow provides a wonderful setting for a few days.