Schindler's Factory

I made my way through the industrial section of Krakow to find Oskar Shindler's enamelware factory. Schindler, as most know, saved over 1200 Jewish people by employing them in his factory. Schindler was able to negotiate a special label for his factory that gave his workers near immunity from concentration and death camps. Many people come to Krakow to visit Auschwitz and Birkenau, two of the most notoriuos concentration/death camps that the Nazis formed. I passed these up in favor of visiting Schindler's factory. I was much more interested in the better parts of human nature than the atrocities we are capable of.

I made the two mile walk to the factory only to find that it is closed on Mondays. Shit. It was still moving. There is a plaque that says "Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire." The quote is written in English, Polish, and Hebrew. The factory itself is nothing much to speak of. It is interesting that tucked into this dark corner of the industrial district (there is a car junkyard on one side and a textile factory adjacent) is a building that saved hundreds of lives. The walk back into town was interesting as well. Like I had said before, Krakow has not changed much, definitely not since the 40s when Schindler's factory would have been in full swing. I could not help but think of how terrifying it must have been to walk home from work for those employed by Schindler.

Krakow really can feel like a time warp in some areas as well. If you find the right street where there aren't any cars parked (not even on the sidewalk) and there are a scarce amount of people, it feels like you are in a movie from the 30s.

The rest of the day I spent with a couple of guys that I met at the hostel and we went antiquing at the flea market. As un-manly as that might sound, they have all sorts of crazy stuff there. For 2 euro you could buy a 6 inch tall bust of Stalin or Lenin, a must for any classy mantle. I do not understand some items in flea markets. Why would one want to buy a photo album of other peoples family pictures? It is beyond me.