Krakow Schindler's Factory

Historical  Information (source: Wikipedia)

Fabryka Schindlera, better known as the Schindler Factory, is a museum about Krakow during the Nazi occupation period between 1939 and 1945. It is one of the sites of the Muzeum Historyczne Miasta Krakowa.

The museum opened in the autumn of 2008 and is located at ulica Lipowa 4 (Lindenstraat 4) in Zablocie, Krakow's factory district. The museum is named after Oskar Schindler, who owned the factory during World War II. Schindler became famous for his commitment to the Jewish population of Krakow. His story was made into a film in 1993 as Schindler's List, a Steven Spielberg film.


Itzhak Stern (1901–1969), Schindler's accountant, portrayed by Ben Kingsley in Schindler's List.

He was a Polish-Israeli Jewish Holocaust survivor who worked for Sudeten-German industrialist Oskar Schindler and assisted him in his rescue activities during the Holocaust.

Helen Horowitz (née Hirsch, born 1911), maid of Amon Göth, portrayed by Embeth Davidtz in Schindler's List

Poldek Pfefferberg (1913–2001), business owner who inspired Schindler's Ark, portrayed by Jonathan Sagall in Schindler's List

He was a Polish-American Holocaust survivor who inspired the Australian writer Thomas Keneally to write the Booker prize-winning novel Schindler's Ark, which in turn was the basis for Steven Spielberg's critically acclaimed 1993 film Schindler's List.

 

In 1941, he married Ludmila "Mila" Lewison, with whom he later had two children. Mila, like Pfefferberg, would become a survivor of the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp and a Schindlerjude.

Anna Reich was born in Krakow in 1920 to a traditional, though not wealthy, Jewish family. A fruitful youth filled with learning and culture was disrupted by the beginning of World War II.  Anna married Mendel (Mundek) Reich in 1940 in the ghetto in which they lived. On the way to the wedding she was caught by the Germans and made to repair socks, and was consequently late to her wedding.  As things got worse, the destruction of the Krakow ghetto saw the newlyweds transported to Plaszow, a concentration camp, while other family members were sent to Majdanek or Treblinka and never seen again.

 

When Plaszow was liquidated Anna was taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau, and a harrowing period ensued. But with the arrival of Schindler’s list, a miracle happened. Those lucky enough to be on the list were taken to Brunnlitz, in Czechoslovakia, where Schindler’s munitions factory was. To Anna’s surprise and joy, she arrived to discover her husband was there too, having been brought from a different camp. They would remain there until liberation.