II World War in Krakow

Anita Stanislawska - a licensed Krakow City Guide. Nr/Card No: PM/93/07, as well as an English speaking tour leader. Nr/Card No: PW/256/09.

Booking of a licensed tour guide to Krakow and its vicinity, speaking Polish, English, Ukrainian, German, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Danish, Dutch, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Hungarian, Croatian, Romanian, Turkish, Greek, Czech, Slovak, Belarussian, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Hebrew, Arabic, Russian and so on…

Contact number: +48 602 388 200. E-mail: 
anita@cracow-guide.net

https://www.facebook.com/anita.krakowguide

It is my program for special tour in Krakow. Which is very interesting, absorb and very good introduction to the Holocaust, Shoah and Auschwitz / Birkenau subject. The most interesting tour and the most horrible time for Krakow city and people which they have had to live during Nazi occupation, Poles and Jews together.... See these places on your own...

I. Visit at Jewish district Kazimierz [2-3 hours] 
the Remuh Synagogue
the Remuh Cemetery
Hellena Rubinstein's house
the Old Synagogue
the High Synagogue
the Isaac Synagogue
Nowy Square [Jewish Square] - 
The New Square ( so called ‘Jewish square’) – ‘Alchemia’ Café - the extraordinary decor inside – coffee time 
Ritual Slaughterhouse
the Reform Synagogue [Tempel]
Courtyard at ul.Jozefa 12 [pictures from the Schindler's List]

II. Retracing the Holocaust.
the Ghetto Gate
the Ghetto Heros Square
the Pharmacy Under the Eagle 18 PLN - National Remembrance Museum

After coffee time, rest of the tour by private car:
The Ghetto in Podgorze district visiting
The Eagle Pharmacy Museum in Ghetto visiting [ticket 18 PLN]

The last remains after the ghetto walls

Oscar Schindler's factory 300 PLN - the original building ‘D.E.F’ [ticket 32 PLN]
Plaszow - the former Nazi concentration camp- the monument of the camp's victims
come back to your hotel by a car


The Jewish District in Krakow - Kazimierz
If you are still full of enthusiasm, we will see one more important place, which in distant times was a separate town and it was called Kazimierz. In this town where 2 cultures were worn away: Jewish and Christian. It exerted an incredible influence on climate and life of the people who lived there. There had not been quietly always and not always people agreed with each other. Both cultures wanted to exhibit their religions and life according to their rules. Thanks to that, today, walking through Kazimierz we are entering different world. The magic of Kazimierz affects on everybody. I will show you Jewish and Christian Kazimierz. We will visit synagogues and churches and we will walk through the beautiful streets full of cafés, where the cracowian bohema has moved. We will visit galleries full of antiques and modern art. Kazimierz had also sad moments which happened here during Nazi occupation. Local tenements were the scenery for :'The list of Oscar Schindler' filmed by Stephen Spielberg (about life of cracowian Jews during the II World War. They were saved by a German who has founded a factory). We will see authentic places from this film and the factory. I will tell you how it was exactly... 

Jews on Podgórze – There was a time, when Podgórze was resided mostly by Jews. They led there their life and interests but during the II World War occupant has founded the ghetto, where displaced Jews from Cracow and Kazimierz. 
There, on the square of Ghetto from 1941 to 1943, Jews were living and from where they sett off to labour and extermination camps… Today on this place there are especially arranged, varied of form and size chairs, which are the symbol of Jewish gathering and the displacement of them from Cracow. 
On the square there is also a small museum commemorating those past times – "Eagle Pharmacy”. 
In Cracow there was also a Nazis labour camp not far away from Pogórze quarter. It was called „labour camp Plaszów”. People were dying there… 
It also served as the photographic plan in the film 'The list of Schindler'. 

With tracks of the list of Schindler - 'The Schindler's List' is a film based on story of eyewitness of those events in cracowian ghetto, Mr Leopold Pfefferberg-Page, who was a boy then. After years he persuaded writer Thomas Kenneally to write down this story and that is how the book 'Schindler’s Ark' came into existence. On the basis of this book, world famous director Stephen Spielberg made a film showing events of those tragic days. The film was rewarded with Oscar. Stephan Spielberg came to Cracow and was delighted with places, that has remained unchanged since those days. I will show you places where the film was directed, especially places of the best shots. I will also tell you something about the controversial personage of Oscar Schindler . 

"Krakow under Nazi Occupation 1939-1945" museum 
My favourite, recently opened, wonderful, multimedia museum full of ‘talking to you’ objects. I have been there many times, but each time I find something really new. The great introduction or a development of Second World War. Live history lesson for schools. I invite individuals and school trips from many countries. Shortly speaking: ‘amazing, already not existing interwar Cracow world seen by the eyes of Poles and Jews' and Cracow in the period between 1939 - 1945. 

Visiting Schindler Factory lasts minimum 1,30 h [in a big group]. The Factory is divided into a few thematic exhibitions. It can be seen individually, but in my opinion, visiting with a guide is the best solution, as accumulation of exhibits and items can be hard to understood, while a guide will show the most important motifs. That is why I recommend visiting the factory in small groups, so everyone could see, hear and if need, ask a question. 

You can share the Factory tour with the Cracow ghetto visit.We can enter the local museum - 'Eagle drug store' on the main square. Approach to the ghetto walls, which remained and have been renovated, thanks to the support of Mr Edward Mosberg foundation, who, was living in prewar Cracow together with his wife, at Straszewskiego street, survived Cracow ghetto, Płaszow labour camp and then European camps, and today he is back here often with a visit and misses Cracow... 

This and other stories I will tell you at the trip, as I had a luck to meet Mr Mosberg, his wife and other people, who survived the war and Holocaust... 

We can also visit Kazimierz-Jewish part of the city with synagogues. It all depends from your interest and time. 
Contact me, Invite you :) anita@cracow-guide.net
 

Oscar Schindler' Enamel Factory
'Krakow under Nazi occupation 1939-1945'

[the factory visiting at the end of the tour, 2 hours visiting  300 PLN, ticket 32 PLN]

*In relation to website you are visiting: all rights to the layout, photos, design and text are reserved. Prohibition of copying and imitation.

Krakow during Nazi occupation tour:
• Krakow as a capital city of the Nazi General Governorship, governed by Hans Frank.
• Nazi terror in Krakow
• Wawel Hill – headquarters of Hans Frank.
• The Main Market Square – as Adolf Hitler Platz.
• Building of Academy of Mine Engineering – as a place for the GG government.
• The Palace under the rams on the Main Market - headquarters of GG governor of cracowian district.
• A fate of the most precious monuments, valuable paintings, altars and other things, during Nazi occupation...
• Jewish district "Kazimierz" – Jews were settled out...
• Ghetto in Podgórze – porch of death...
• Extermination and Labour camp „Plaszów”

*In relation to website you are visiting: all rights to the layout, photos, design and text are reserved. Prohibition of copying and imitation.