Kraków: Schindler’s Story from Ghetto to Kazimierz
Trace Oskar Schindler’s story on a guided walk starting outside Schindler’s Factory, continuing through the WWII ghetto in Podgórze, and ending in Jewish Kazimierz, visiting authentic historical sites and filming locations from Schindler’s List.
Discover the true story behind Schindler’s List on a guided walking route through authentic locations where Kraków’s Jewish history and cinema intersect. This immersive experience takes you through real streets, courtyards, and neighbourhoods that witnessed both everyday life and extraordinary acts of courage.
Highlights:
• Start outside Oskar Schindler’s Factory, where real history meets cinematic storytelling
• Explore Podgórze, site of the Nazi German ghetto during WWII
• Walk through Kazimierz, the heart of pre-war Jewish life
• Learn the true story of Oskar Schindler and how he saved over 1,000 Jewish lives
You won’t just hear history — you’ll walk through it, understanding how ordinary places became silent witnesses to persecution, survival, and moral choice.
Itinerary:
Podgórze Ghetto / 1h / walk by
The tour begins outside Schindler’s Factory on Lipowa Street. Without entering the museum, your guide explains how Oskar Schindler transformed his enamelware factory into a place of refuge, using employment as protection against deportation and death. This introduction lays the foundation for understanding both the historical events and their portrayal on screen. Walking deeper into Podgórze, you explore the former ghetto area. Along Tarnowskiego Street, see where the iconic girl in the red coat scene was filmed — a powerful moment that opens discussion about symbolism, Schindler’s moral awakening, and the role of cinema in Holocaust remembrance.
Crossing the Piłsudski Bridge, once a boundary between freedom and imprisonment, your guide explains forced relocations, smuggling, and the brutal separation between Jewish life in Kazimierz and confinement in the ghetto.
Kazimierz Jewish Quarter / 1h / walk by
The experience continues in Kazimierz, once the vibrant center of Jewish life in Kraków. Beginning on Szeroka Street, surrounded by historic synagogues, you’ll learn about the prewar community and why Steven Spielberg chose Kazimierz to recreate ghetto scenes destroyed during the war.
Walking through preserved streets and courtyards, discover how Kazimierz was emptied of its Jewish population — and later transformed into a cinematic stand-in for loss and memory. At the junction of Dajwór and Na Przejściu Streets, see the location of the symbolic ghetto gate built for the film.
On Ciemna Street, hear the dramatic story behind the filmed escape of Poldek Pfefferberg — a moment of fear, survival, and quick thinking. The route continues to Józefa Street 12, where scenes of resettlement, hiding, and liquidation were filmed in original courtyards and passageways.
The tour finishes in Kazimierz, the historic center of Jewish life in Kraków, with its final stop on Szeroka Street. Among the district’s historic synagogues, your guide presents the story of the pre-war Jewish community and explains why Kazimierz was chosen by Steven Spielberg as the setting for scenes depicting the wartime ghetto.
End point: Szeroka 24, 31-053 Krakow
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