#3 Krakow & Oskar Schindler's holocaust journey ...

 Our tour moved on to Krakow & the part of Oskar Schindler in the Holocaust. His story is famously told through Schindlers List - that epic film with the haunting music by John Williams.  65 000 Jews were murdered in Krakow so it was an important part of the Holocaust tour. 

Zgody Square became part of the Krakow Ghetto  & the empty chair installation a powerful reminder of the loss to family tables thenceforth. 

The 33 oversized Empty Chairs each represent 1000 lives lost here 

Note the Ghetto wall that was built in the shape of Jewish grave headstones to surround the area where the population was confined to. They felt entombed by the walls. 

The Ghetto space had previously housed 3,000 Poles, now 15,000 Jews were cramped in to the same space. Food rations were meagre & many died of hunger & cold. 

We walked the streets that formed part of the Ghetto, astounded by the incarceration of so many. 

The Chemist shop museum on the corner of the square remains as a tribute to Tadeusz Pannkiewicz, a gentile who kept his pharmacy open & kept the embattled ghetto population supplied with medical care. 

He also helped Ghetto Jews with news of what was happening outside so they had an understanding of the war.

His Rightious Amongst the Nations medal is on the wall of the Pharmacy. 

It was in Zgody Square that selections would be made; decisions that for the residents of the ghetto meant life or death. Those selected to leave the ghetto were boarded onto trains and sent either to Płaszów, Belzec, or Auschwitz. Some would not even make it to the train; the elderly, sick and young were often executed in the streets, in their homes, or even on the square itself. An order to empty the ghetto completely would soon be given. This troubling chapter in the Square’s history is captured in Stephen Spielberg’s Schindler’s List. Most of the residents would meet their end in the gas chambers of Auschwitz Birkenau, or worked to death in the camps of Płaszów and Belzec. The square nonetheless, would be rendered painfully empty following this order.

The Ghetto was surrounded by Nazi built walls in the shape of Jewish headstones, some of the wall still visible that we walked around with our guide. The numbers held in the ghetto was huge & Oskar Schindler's factory is not far from it. 

Oskar initially used Jewish labour because it was cheap labour, however, in time he came to realise the reality of the cheap labour & his attitude changes in dangerous times. Once he decided to help the ghetto population, he saved thousands of lives. The Ghetto was liquidated on the 13 March 1943 when the Nazi's murdered 8,000 of the 15,000 Ghetto Jews, others were transported to camps. 

The factory is timed entry & the various rooms & floors showing the war as it moved across Europe. There were so many interactive things along the way, parts of which had visuals & sound effects - a very immersive & interesting experience. 

To stand in Oskar's office was humbling, it was from that space that they plotted how to keep their Jewish workforce safe at great personal peril. 

   The desk in Oskar Schindler's office where they worked out how to make their workers 'irreplaceable' & how to keep them from being transported as the Ghetto was cleared. It was dangerous times to stick your head above the parapet when the whole city was under Nazi control. 

As with all these holocaust experiences, it can   overwhelm & at one point on the undulating, trench like floors with barbed wire & sounds, my friend became overwhelmed & started to hyper ventilate. As a teacher, I went with my first instinct & took her arm, found the exit with fresh air & helped her to calm her breathing. 

 We know the story of the factory from the graphic Schindler's list, so the reality was intense. A cool drink & chocolate in the little café helped while we waited for all our group to join up again. 

Walking along the tombstone like ghetto wall is a reality check, how fortunate we are to live freely now. The wall looks like the gravestones it is meant to be, 

Our next stop was the area so familiar from Schindler's list - the Plaszow concentration camp. 

It is surreal to pass the house shown in the film where Amon Goth, the brutal Austrian camp leader, ruled with terror & violence, often shooting people from the balcony of his home that overlooked the camp. His time as camp leader is shown in graphic detail in Schindler's List - someone who wrought untold misery, violence & death to the incarcerated camp inhabitants.  Commandant Goth (Goeth) oversaw the liquidation of the Krakow Ghetto, some of the inhabitants moved to Plaszow or transported to Auschwitz. Those deemed unfit to work were shot on his orders at Plaszow.  

"Evil may well be nearer the surface than we like to admit" (Ralph Fiennes as Emon Goth)

To stand on the very ground of Plaszow camp was humbling because you knew you were standing on the ground where so many had lost their lives, had their lives & spirit shattered by an ideology. Many were shot for simply not working hard enough or for other minor reasons. 

If someone tried to escape, 10 prisoners were shot as reprisal. This camp was brutal & both men & women guards were known for their violence towards those there. 

 

This earth is soaked in historical blood, of terrible violence & suppression ... 

The historic Jewish district of Kazimierz was our last stop for the afternoon with its Synagogue, old Jewish cemetery that had been destroyed & the buildings looked familiar because they had been used in Schindler's List. 

Musicians played along the square, Jewish tunes familiar from my early life in Johannesburg with its large Jewish population & influence.  

We enjoyed this historic setting that belied its recent dark history. 

We relaxed over supper at the many cafe's on the square, enjoying the Autumn sunlight, the music, vibe & atmosphere of this pretty place,  its dark past within sight all the time if you know where to look.  The Jewish culture is very much part & parcel of this space today as it always had been.

An excellent short youtube video explains more about Krakow & The Holocaust 

Thank you for taking time to read this & to possibly reflect on it .... 

Dee