Weekend Adventure in Krakow

After our teaching assignments on Friday, we took the train from Siedlce to Warsaw Wschodnia station to connect to the Inter City train to Krakow. I have taken transfer trains through this station several times, but this time it was very, very difficult. I approached someone who looked like a business man looking at the wall schedules and asked for help. He told me Peron 2, so we got there. But much to our surprise the 1st class station car was packed. We had seat reservations thankfully, but people stood in the aisles all the way through the 3 hour route. Most unusual!
In Krakow we got to the hotel easily and then went out for a light supper.

Saturday morning we went to the Shindler's List Factory Museum. This truly is located in  a factory area, not an area where there is or was housing and shops. 

One of my team members suggested we sit and watch the documentary film about this. I'm so glad we did. The film is a collection of interviews of three individuals who worked in the factory during World War II. I don't think I would have truly understood all I saw had we not done this. For example, I never realized the factory made enamelware pans.

The above are replicas, not real products from the factory.

The first part of the museum displays the build-up to World War II through the use of posters and pictures.

Then the war begins and we see how fast Poland was overwhelmed through digital maps for each day in September 1939.

We see how Krakow was changed. One of the first actions of the Nazi invaders was to knock down the Grunwald monument.

Street signs were changed and the Polish people were prohibited from riding certain trams.

Yet at the same time there was an attempt to maintain normal life. Children went to school, the University opened, and people went to the beauty shop.

But one feels the oppression of the war by walking through the area which is in black and white and shows some the increasing restrictions on the Polish people and particularly the Jewish people. Whereas the Polish people were required to work six days per week, 10 hours, the Jewish people were required to work 7 days per week and 12 hours per day,.

The people in the film we viewed said working in Shindler's factory was paradise compared to the other options. They received their noon day meal at work and earned enough money to buy decent housing and the meals required outside of work.


We get to the point of the Shindler's List when we find he took 700 workers to the Wielicska Salt Mine ( which is a good place to visit) and gave them a great day and then at the end of the day, he dismissed them. Thus they were gone when 2 days later the Nazis came to round up those 700 people for transport. It is stunning to know I've been in this place where all of this happened.


The museum trek ends on a happy note. One walks into a version of a synagogue. The walls are covered with signs of kindness, perhaps combined with courage.

From here we went to the Kazimierz area. We had lunch there, and then walked through a flea market with really interesting items.

We further explored this area and then took a taxi back to the hotel.

From there I went to the Galleria shopping center and was amazed to find a jazz band and swing dancers. What fun on a Saturday afternoon!

One another thing going on was an exhibit of old cars but that will be a topic for another day.

Later in the evening we walked to the Rynek and had a lovely dinner while looked at all the beautiful buildings there.

While I've been in the Rynek many times, the Shindler's Museum and Kazimiercz was totally new to me, so I'm continuing to work on my goal of doing new things in Poland.

More later.