There’s more than Schindler’s factory to Podgórze’s World War II story. At the Eagle Pharmacy, Tadeusz Pankiewicz helped save thousands of Jewish lives; on Ghetto Heroes’ Square, thousands more Jewish people awaited the trains going to Auschwitz; elsewhere, a remnant of the ghetto wall still stands, preserved for posterity.
Today, however, this industrial neighborhood is modernizing rapidly. It’s now home to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow (MOCAK), as well as bars and clubs. Besides World War II tours and Jewish history tours, you can explore Podgórze by bicycle, or see it from a river cruise in a typical Vistula barge.
Podgórze is a must-visit for anyone with an interest in Jewish or World War II history, as well as industrial architecture and modern art.
You could easily spend half a day or more exploring Pódgorze.
MOCAK is fully wheelchair accessible, and Oskar Schindler’s Factory has reasonable wheelchair access, with elevators between floors, but access to other Podgórze sights may vary.
Podgórze sits on the south side of the Vistula, opposite Kazimierz (Krakow Jewish Quarter). It’s about a 1.5-mile (2.5-kilometer) walk from Rynek Glowny (Main Market Square), or you can catch the #3 tram from the main post office to Ghetto Heroes Square. From Krakow Glowny Railway Station (the city’s main rail station), you can catch a suburban train to Krakow Zablocie, by the Schindler factory.
Podgórze’s nightlife is more locally centered and considerably better hidden than either the Kazimierz or the Krakow Old Town scene, so most travelers visit during the day to take in the historic and cultural sights. If you’d like to see Oskar Schindler’s Factory, note that it’s closed the first Tuesday of the month and other days throughout the year, so check the schedule in advance.
Jewish people had been living in Krakow for more than 700 years when the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939. In 1941, the Nazis established a walled and fenced ghetto in Podgórze, and forced 15,000–20,000 Jewish people to live there. The Germans set up factories using Jewish people as forced labor: Oskar Schindler was one entrepreneur in whose factory they worked. Ultimately, he saved more than 1,000 Jewish people from deportation to concentration camps by listing them as vital to producing armaments—the list that inspired Schindler’s List.
