Schindler's Factory and Former Ghetto Small-Group Guided Tour Krakow

Schindler's Factory on Lipowa Street

The enamel factory at 4 Lipowa Street in Podgorze was taken over in 1939 by a German industrialist, whose name it still carries. During the occupation he employed Jewish workers from the nearby ghetto and later from the Plaszow camp, and by registering them as essential to the war effort he protected around 1,200 people from deportation, finally moving them to a factory in Moravia in 1944.

Today the former administration building is a branch of the Museum of Krakow. Is Schindler's Factory worth visiting? It is one of the most important museums in the city, but it tells a much larger story than one man's: the fate of all of Krakow, Polish and Jewish, during the war years. This Schindler's Factory tour gives you that wider picture with a guide who knows the collection well.

Inside the Exhibition: Krakow under Occupation, 1939 to 1945

The permanent exhibition, opened in 2010, leads you through a sequence of rooms that recreate the city as it was: a street corner, a tram, a photographer's studio, a ghetto apartment, the cramped spaces where people hid. Original photographs, posters, letters and objects tell how German rule changed daily life, from the first days of September 1939 to the arrival of the Soviet army in January 1945.

Highlights include the restored office of the factory director and an installation filled with enamel pots, one of the most striking spaces in the museum. Visitors move along a fixed route with timed entry, and Schindler's Factory tickets often sell out in high season, so having your ticket included with a guide saves effort. Plan on about 1.5 to 2 hours inside the museum.

The Former Krakow Ghetto in Podgorze

After the museum, the tour continues on foot through Podgorze, where in March 1941 the German authorities forced the Jews of Krakow into a small walled area of a few streets. Around 15,000 people were crowded together, several families to a flat, and the walls were built with a top edge shaped like tombstones. Between 1942 and March 1943 the ghetto was cleared in brutal deportations.

Your guide shows you where the gates and walls stood, the buildings that served as hospitals, orphanages and offices, and a surviving fragment of the ghetto wall on Lwowska Street. Hearing the stories in the streets where they happened makes them real in a way no museum can. This Krakow ghetto tour section takes around an hour on foot, at a calm and respectful pace.

Ghetto Heroes Square and the Pharmacy under the Eagle

The walk reaches Ghetto Heroes Square, once Plac Zgody, where residents were gathered before deportation. In 2005 it became a memorial: oversized empty bronze chairs are spread across the square, recalling the furniture and belongings left behind. On one side stands the Pharmacy under the Eagle, the only pharmacy inside the ghetto, whose Polish owner stayed and helped residents; it is now a museum.

The factory museum and the square are a short walk apart, south of the river from Kazimierz. If you are wondering how to get to Schindler's Factory, trams stop on Ghetto Heroes Square and at Zablocie, a few minutes from Lipowa Street, and the walk from the Main Market Square takes about 30 minutes. The museum is open daily with seasonal hours, so check Schindler's Factory opening hours when planning the rest of your day.