“Schindler’s List was never a cure for antisemitism. It was a reminder of the symptoms of it.”
Steven Spielberg
In The Fabelmans – Spielberg’s stunning autobiography – is revealed how the director’s Jewish origins impacted his life. His relatives in Europe died in Poland and Ukraine during the Nazi regime. Even in America, wherever he went, he was tormented because of his Jewish identity.
This is why Schindler’s List is such an important film to him. It is the only film he cared so much that he became nervous about any judgment and forbade his family and friends from telling him what they thought after watching it. It meant so much to him that he refused any payment and used his earnings to establish the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, an organization that records and preserves testimonies of Holocaust survivors.
Imagine, then, the enormous satisfaction of winning the Oscar for the film, exactly 30 years ago (in February 1994). The Oscars, to be precise, because it won 7 (out of 12 nominations): Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay (Steven Zaillian), Best Cinematography (Janusz Kaminski), Best Art Direction (Allan Starski and Ewa Braun), Best Original Soundtrack (John Williams. Consider that when Spielberg asked him to compose the soundtrack and showed him the film, Williams was so moved that he took a few minutes to re-compose himself. He eventually told Spielberg he wasn’t up to the task and suggested finding a better composer. Spielberg replied, “I know, but they’re all dead,” and so Williams accepted), and Best Editing (Michael Kahn). To this day, it is considered one of the greatest films in cinema history. In 2004, it was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry (a selection of films deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the National Film Preservation Board), and in 2008, it was ranked eighth on the American Film Institute’s list of the top 100 American films (having been ranked ninth ten years earlier, improving its position).
The significance of the film to Spielberg is not only related to the themes it addresses but also because it is a true story, based on the eponymous book by Australian writer Thomas Keneally (the original title of the book is Schindler’s Ark).
In October 1980, Keneally was in Los Angeles and entered a leather goods store in Beverly Hills. The store’s owner was a certain Leopold Page, born Poldek Pfefferberg, one of Schindler’s Jews who had been trying for years to tell Oskar Schindler’s story to screenwriters and writers so that it could be shared with the world. So, when he learned that Keneally was a writer, he immediately told him the whole story, showing him all the documents he had on Oskar Schindler and what had happened. He pleaded him for almost an hour, but in the end, he convinced him to write the novel. He became his consultant, and Keneally dedicated the book to him, writing that “with zeal and perseverance, he ensured that this book was written.” In the film, Poldek is portrayed by Jonathan Sagall.
After the publication, leveraging his acquaintance with Spielberg’s mother, Pfefferberg tried to convince the director to produce the film. Initially, Spielberg was only supposed to be the producer, and other directors were contacted, but they all refused, including Roman Polanski, a Holocaust survivor, who found the subject too personal. Thus, Spielberg took on the direction of the project, and behind the camera, he masterfully directed actors who were still relatively unknown at the time—deliberately chosen by Spielberg so that the actors’ fame would not overshadow the story—resulting in unforgettable performances. Ralph Fiennes immersed himself so deeply in the role of Amon Göth that when the Pfefferbergs saw him, they felt like they were once again in front of the real Göth and were visibly shaken with fear. Similarly, Liam Neeson captures the complexity of a character like Oskar Schindler in all his nuances: flaws, weaknesses, and the changes he undergoes after witnessing the horrors of Nazism firsthand, transforming from a greedy man only interested in money to an altruistic savior of thousands of lives.
The film is set in Krakow and begins in 1939 with the forced relocation of Polish Jews to the city’s ghetto. Oskar Schindler, a member of the Nazi Party of Czechoslovak origin, arrives in the city hoping to make his fortune. He bribes Wehrmacht officers—the German armed forces—and the SS, acquiring a factory for enamel production. To manage the administration and organize funding, he hires Itzhak Stern, a Jewish official with many contacts among black-market operators and Jewish entrepreneurs, who ensures that as many Jewish workers as possible are considered essential to the German war effort thus avoiding their relocation to concentration camps. Meanwhile, Schindler maintains friendly relations with the Nazis and enjoys his newfound wealth, which seems to be his primary interest, along with his status as an industrialist.
SS-Untersturmführer Amon Göth arrives in Krakow to oversee the construction of the Plaszów concentration camp, and once it is ready, he orders the liquidation of the ghetto: two thousand Jews are killed on the streets by the SS, and another two thousand are deported to the new camp. Schindler witnesses the massacre alongside one of his mistresses and is deeply disturbed by it. He particularly notices a girl in a red coat, whom he first sees hiding from the Nazis, and later sees her body on a cart of corpses.
This scene and the girl in the red coat have become symbols of the film. Spielberg made this choice for two reasons: the first is stylistic. The only color in all that black and white is meant to signify the individuality of the victims of Nazism. They are not just “the Jews” but individuals, single people who died due to a monstrous madness.
The second reason is to tell a true story. The girl in the red coat really existed: her name was Roma Ligocka, a survivor of the Krakow ghetto, known for her distinctive red coat. She was two years old at the time. Today she lives in Germany, is a painter, and wrote a book about her life in the ghetto titled The Girl in the Red Coat. In the film, she is portrayed by Oliwia Dąbrowska, who promised Spielberg that she would not watch the film before she turned 18. She broke that promise when she was 11. In a later interview, she stated that she realized she had been part of something important but that the director was right—she should have waited until she was older to see the film.
Thanks to his extensive use of bribery, Schindler maintains friendships with the SS and with Göth, who, in the meantime, takes pleasure in brutalizing his Jewish maid and randomly shooting people from his villa balcony, constantly instilling fear among the prisoners for their lives.
Schindler, however, thinks less and less about making money; he starts caring more about saving as many lives as possible. He asks Göth to build a sub-camp in his factory. This is during the period when Germany begins to suffer defeats, and Göth is ordered to send the Jews of Płaszów to the Auschwitz concentration camp. Schindler then asks for permission to transfer his workers to the munitions factory he is building in Brünnlitz. Göth agrees in exchange for a large bribe, and Schindler, together with Stern, prepares a list of people to be transferred to Brünnlitz instead of Auschwitz – a list of 1,100 names that would become known as “Schindler’s Jews.”
The men are immediately transferred to the new factory, but due to a mistake, the women and girls are mistakenly sent to the Auschwitz camp. Schindler is forced to bribe the camp commander, Rudolf Höss, to have them released and brought back to the factory. Once they are all there, Oskar prohibits the SS from entering the production area and encourages the Jews to observe the Sabbath. In the following months, he spends his entire fortune bribing Nazi officials and buying shells from other companies, as he ensures that his own do not produce usable armaments. In 1945, he ran out of money just as Germany surrendered. As a member of the Nazi Party, Schindler must flee the advancing Red Army to avoid capture, but before he leaves, he convinces the SS not to kill the Jews in his factory, as they had been ordered to do, and bids farewell to the workers, ready to head west, hoping to surrender to the Americans. The workers give him a signed declaration from each of them attesting to his role in saving Jewish lives, and a ring with a Talmudic quote inscribed: “He who saves one life saves the entire world.”
The epilogue reveals that Göth was found guilty of crimes against humanity and executed by hanging. In the final scene, in color, many surviving Schindlerjuden and the actors who portray them visit Schindler’s grave, laying stones on his tombstone. At the end of the procession, you see the hands of Liam Neeson (not Spielberg, as many erroneously believe) place two roses.
This last scene was strongly desired by Spielberg to clarify that everything depicted in the film actually happened.
Schindler’s List filming locations in Krakow
Following in the footsteps of the characters from the film shot in Krakow, it’s worth visiting all the significant locations that served as its backdrop. Thanks to KrakowBooking.com, you can book visits to the film’s locations as well as many other excursions in Krakow.
The tour can also be done on foot – with the specifics I explain below – in half a day: just over 3 km (less than 2 miles) long, it takes about 3 hours, including visits inside the locations. Here is a complete map of the itinerary, divided into 5 stops:
I organized the itinerary in the most linear way possible, starting at the site where the Płaszów concentration camp was reconstructed, and ending at the Ghetto Heroes Square.
Why did I mention 3 km (2 miles) and 5 stops when the map shows 6 stops and 5 km (3 miles)? Because the first stop is only included for informational purposes, but it’s a key location from the film: it’s an old, abandoned quarry at the foot of the Krakus Mound (did you know about this unique feature of Krakow?), the Liban Kamieniolom, which Spielberg chose to use for the reconstruction of the replica of the Płaszów concentration camp. It’s a closed, non-tourist area that is dangerous and off-limits. The original camp is nearby (to the right of the map, on the Krzemionki hill), but the production decided not to use it out of respect for the victims. However, it was faithfully replicated with all 34 barracks, the seven guard towers, and the cobbled road. Nearby, Amon Göth’s house was also reconstructed, less than a mile from the original structure located at 22 Ul. Heltmana, which during the war was referred to as “The Red House.”
The actual tour starts at Schindler’s Factory, located at 4 Lipowa Street, the focal point of the story. It was founded under the name REKORD in 1937 by Jewish entrepreneurs, from whom it was confiscated in 1939, eventually falling into the hands of Oskar Schindler, who purchased it at a very low price. It became a museum only in 2010 and houses the permanent exhibition “Krakow during the Occupation, 1939-1945,” inside the factory’s former administrative offices, which tells the story of daily life in the city and the Ghetto during the Nazi occupation and World War II. A whole section of the exhibition is dedicated to Schindler’s story and the people he saved.
A frightening fact from that era? In 1939, Krakow had 68,000 people in the Jewish community. 65,000 fell victim to the Nazi genocide.
The visit is recommended for those over 14 years old.
After visiting the factory, you cross the Vistula River to reach the old Jewish district, Kazimierz, where Spielberg chose to shoot most of the scenes.
This is the area where Jews lived before March 3, 1941, the day the Nazis established a ghetto “for public health and safety reasons,” where all Jews had to move by the 20th of the same month: it was Podgorze, the area beyond the Vistula, which we will see in the next stops.
To the north of the area is Oskar Schindler’s apartment at 7 Straszewskiego Street, the real building where the entrepreneur lived (on the third floor), which was also used for filming. Nearby is Ciemna Street, where in the film, Poldek Pfefferberg encounters Amon Göth and saves himself from death by declaring he had orders to clear the street.
The main street used for filming is Szeroka Street, which in the film served as Zgody Square, the setting for most of the outdoor scenes in the ghetto. On this street is also the Remuh Synagogue, the smallest of the seven synagogues in Krakow (until 1939, there were twenty), which also houses the old Jewish cemetery. Built in 1553 – the date is uncertain because the permit from King Sigismund II for its construction arrived only in 1556, and, strangely, it could have been built before obtaining the permit – during the Holocaust, it was seized by the Nazis, stripped of its ceremonial and valuable objects, and used as a warehouse, with the gravestones used to pave the roads of the concentration camps.
Also, look for 12 Jozefa Street (Mrs. Dresner’s house, one of the film’s most touching scenes) and Beera Meiselsa Street, the inner courtyards used for the scenes of the ghetto’s liquidation.
To move to the Podgorze district, you need to cross the Marshal Józef Piłsudski Bridge. During the 1941 exodus, when the Nazis forced Jews to move to a different area to be confined in the ghetto, they had to cross two bridges to cross the Vistula River. The first was called Krakus and was destroyed during the war, later replaced by the more modern Powstancow Slaskich Bridge. The second is the Piłsudski Bridge, built in 1933 and severely damaged by the Germans during their retreat; it was restored in 1948. The film crew obtained permission to shoot on the bridge, temporarily blocking vehicular and pedestrian traffic, thus recreating the scenes of the mass exodus of Jews. At the time, however, many modern buildings had already been built in the Kazimierz district, so they had to reverse the perspective, and the shots were taken from Podgorze towards Kazimierz.
After crossing the bridge, you reach the Podgorze area, where the Nazi regime created the real Ghetto on March 3, 1941. This is where the events depicted in the film actually took place. One of the most significant locations in the area is the “Pharmacy beneath the Eagle” (Apteka pod Orlem), which has been transformed into a museum.
In 1941, when the ghetto was established, the pharmacy’s owner was Tadeusz Pankiewicz, who had inherited it from his father. Facing Plac Zgody — today Ghetto Heroes Square — the Nazis tried to close it down, but he managed to stay open with a more than convincing reason: he told the SS that a pharmacy would be useful in case of an epidemic. Thus, it remained open 24 hours a day and hosted clandestine meetings, serving as a contact point, shelter, and a place to distribute food, medicine, and fake documents. Tadeusz witnessed the ghetto’s bloodiest moments: the liquidations and the March 1943 clearance, when all the remaining inhabitants were gathered in the square in front of rows of SS and Gestapo officers, who divided people between those able to work, who were sent to the Płaszów camp, and those who were not: 1,500 people who were shot on the spot, including the elderly, the sick, children, and the mothers who wouldn’t abandon them, and doctors who chose to stay and watch over the victims. Pankiewicz wrote a book titled “The Pharmacy in the Krakow Ghetto,” which today forms the basis of the exhibit hosted by the Pharmacy.
The final stop on the tour is Ghetto Heroes Square (Plac Bohateròw Getta), in memory of the Jews who lost their lives. Sixty-eight chairs have been installed here, symbolizing the 68,000 Jews who lived in the ghetto and their personal belongings that were abandoned or destroyed in the square during the liquidation.
A 10-minute walk from the square is 62 Limanowskiego Street, near one of the remnants of the ghetto wall. Climbing up from here on a rough path, you will find the spot where Oskar and his secretary/mistress watch the ghetto’s liquidation (where they see the girl in the red coat). The exact spot where they stood is now overgrown and difficult to reach, and it may not be worth venturing there, but I wanted to mention it anyway.
Schindler’s List filming locations in Cracow: bonus stops
Moving towards the Old Town, visit the Basilica of St. Mary (Bazylika Mariacka), where, in the film’s early scenes, Oskar meets the Jewish black market operators, including Pfefferberg. Remember that photography is prohibited inside.
Moving a bit away from Krakow, visit the Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp. Spielberg was only allowed to shoot outside the camp, not inside, so for the interiors, he used the same quarry where he reproduced the Płaszów camp. However, the events that actually took place in the story occurred here, and it is difficult to fully understand them and grasp the horror without visiting Auschwitz. A visit that is due to memory, history, and conscience.
