Exhibition “Kraków under Nazi Occupation 1939-1945” in Oskar Schindler’s Enamel Factory

The exposition, consisting of 45 exhibition rooms, presents Kraków and the life of its inhabitants during the Second World War. It is a story about Poles, Jews and Germans – focused on the history of the war itself and on everyday life of ordinary people. Thanks to this solution, the war will be presented both as an individual and collective tragedy. The exhibition will depict the history of Schindler himself, Righteous Among the Nations who saved about a thousand people, and the histories of the Kraków Jews he rescued.

Oskar Schindler’s Deutsche Emailwarenfabrik is a place visited by tourists from around the world. The story of its owner was brought into the limelight by Steven Spielberg in his 1993 “Schindler’s List” movie. Oskar Schindler was born in 1908 in Zwittau in Moravia. After the German troups entered Kraków, Schindler moved to the Polish city and took over the former enamel factory “Rekord”, converting it into the Deutsche Emailwarenfabrik. The factory also worked for the German munitions industry, which guaranteed its owner special privileges. Schindler employed more and more Jews by the year, saving them from death in concentration camps. In 1944 Schindler evacuated his employees to Brünnlitz in Moravia, where the factory functioned until the Red Army entered on May 8th, 1945. Schindler, who saved over one thousand people, was awarded with the title of the Righteous Among the Nations in 1963. He died in 1974.

The curator of this multimedia exhibition consisting of photographs, film documentaries and eyewitness accounts of the witnesses of the history – is Monika Bednarek. “Kraków under Nazi Occupation 1939-1945” is a chronological presentation of the town’s history. Visitors can see Oskar Schindler’s former office and the symbolic “Survivor’s Ark” made of thousands of enameled pots, similar to those manufactured by Schindler’s employees during the Second World War. At the exhibition, we will also find everyday objects, such as newspapers, photographs and documents, recounting daily life of the occupied town. The character of the exhibition is narrative, so that the visitors could have the impression of “touching history”. Reconstructions of Kraków’s historical city space appear next to artistic installations. The key points in the town’s history are marked by the “memory machines” – stampers, which enable every visitor to get a commemorative stamp connected with the chosen historical event. The exhibition consists of 30 interactive stands, 70 soundtracks and 15 videoprojectors.

The exhibition is open on Mondays from 10 am to 2 pm and from Tuesdays to Sundays from 10 am to 6 pm. The tickets can be reserved on the website of the Kraków’s Historical Museum and in the Museum’s ticket office.