Day 107 1st June 2017
After two previous attempts – one not being able to find the museum in our time out and then another day deciding not to go in because of the queues which would also impact our time away from Benny. Today was the day – all booked and tram itinerary planned.
We have found that both of us are attracted to historical information that may give a clue to the richness of the culture of the country we are in, so the museum in the Oskar Schindler factory was a natural destination.
On entry we immediately saw the benefit of purchasing online tickets as we went straight to the front of the queue.The museum was in the style of the others we have been to in Poland – amazing recreation of environments and innovative displays of the collection of memorabilia and original films and photos.
Chris –
One of the standout presentations was a documentary film describing the factory, Oskar Schindler and his work practices, and the experience of working there. Based on interviews with employees who provided a view of how the whole operation centred on the building we were in.
As a result of the visit we came away with a deeper knowledge of Schindler than we had before. He was a German spy, a Nazi party member and a business person who saw the advantage in using Jewish labour because it was free.However the evidence was irrefutable that he went out of his way to support and save the Jews that worked for him.Support by getting a camp built adjoining his Krakow factory where the conditions were much improved on the existing camps.And then actually moving them out of Krakow via the Auschwitz and Gross-Rosen concentration camps a new factory in Czechoslovakia where he was able to protect the ill the war ended.Schindler’s famous list contained 1200 names of the workers that he obtained the right to move to the new factory.The protection was provided through judicious bribing of the the Nazi SS. He is also credited with obtaining additional protection for 3000 women by having them transferred from concentration camps to textile factories
See Schindler Factory details here
Mel
Like many records of the Holocaust this museum is difficult to witness. It is exhausting in the horror, terror and the realisation that in every story and event people were once just everyday people who are now in extraordinary circumstances.
One of the last exhibitions was an art installation showing some of the deeds people did to save or enhance the lives of others. Hopeful but also challenging – I constantly find myself questioning what I would do in similar circumstances. Could I show the courage to stand up? Could I show the courage to survive? No answers possible,
In one interview I watched the interviewer pushed the woman who had worked for Oscar Schindler (and who had been in the Plazstow Nazi Concentration Camp). He pushed her to talk about the good or evil of the wife of the camp commander. She replied with empathy that she was not good or evil, people do inhuman things to survive.
In this same interview when asked how Jewish woman could be recognised and arrested on the streets late in the war she stated quite simply that is was the fear in their eyes.
For me in these stories, it is always about the personal. How can a person do this – or that? How does one person stand up to the bullies of the world while others are not able? Today a prompt was the simple story of the Number 3 tram continuing to travel through the Krakow getto but not allowed to stop. From the windows people witnessed all kinds of brutality. How would I be – what would I do in the face of such fear and terror. Oscar Schindler probably embodied all of this – an ordinary man with ordinary foibles and it would seem fingers in many pies – yet he saved many lives.
