SUTTON Travels: Poland

Showing posts with label Poland. Show all posts

11 November 2024

Schindler's List Sites Krakow Poland

This post lists some sites in Krakow Poland associated with Oskar Schindler and the film, Schindler's List.

The links take you to posts about the different sites.

Krakow Ghetto

Scenes from the Ghetto including the pharmacy

Krakow Ghetto

Oskar Schindler Factory Museum

The site of the factory and Oskar's desk

Oskar Schindler

Plaszow Concentration Camp

The remains of the camp, the commander's office, and his house

Plaszow Camp Model

RELATED POSTS

Schindler's List - About The film

A review of the film

Street Scene site from
Schindler's List

Nazi Trail of Terror

An extensive index of many sites with text and photos

Auschwitz II-Birkenau

Plaszow Concentration Camp, Poland

The Plaszow concentration camp was a Nazi concentration camp located in the southern suburb of Kraków, Poland.

The camp was established in October 1942 on the grounds of two former Jewish cemeteries.

Initially intended as a forced labor camp, it later became a concentration camp.

Most of the prisoners were Polish Jews, but it also held prisoners from other ghettos and camps. The camp was notorious for its harsh conditions, forced labor, and executions. Mass murder was carried out by shootings, as there were no gas chambers or crematoria.

The camp had two main commanders. Amon Götth was the first commandant, known for his sadistic treatment of prisoners. He was executed by hanging in September 1946. The second commandant, Arnold Büscher, took over in September 1944.

Grey House, Camp Office

Amon Götth Villa near the camp

The Plaszow concentration camp was progressively dismantled starting in the fall of 1944. The Nazis began deporting many prisoners to Auschwitz and other concentration camps, burning exhumed bodies, and destroying installations to erase evidence of the camp's existence. The final group of prisoners left on January 14, 1945, and the Red Army liberated the area on January 20, 1945. After the war, the site was further devastated by the Soviet Army and became publicly accessible, leading to continued destruction.

Today, the site of the former Plaszow concentration camp is a memorial and museum dedicated to the memory of the victims. The KL Plaszow Museum includes an open-air exhibition called "KL Plaszow. A Site After, A Site Without," which features 14 media installations with materials in Polish, English, and Hebrew. The exhibition is accessible 24 hours a day and is free of charge.

The museum also includes the Grey House, which served as the administration building of the cemetery used by the Jewish religious community in Kraków. Additionally, there is a new memorial building under construction on Kamieńskiego Street, which will host a permanent exhibition and serve as a central point for commemoration.

Schindler Connection

Oskar Schindler, a German industrialist and member of the Nazi Party, initially employed Jewish workers from the Kraków Ghetto in his enamelware factory. When the ghetto was liquidated in March 1943, many of these workers were sent to the Plaszow camp, which was under the command of the brutal Amon Göth.

Schindler managed to establish a subcamp of Plaszow at his factory, providing better conditions for his workers. He used his connections and bribes to protect them from deportation to extermination camps. Eventually, Schindler relocated his factory to Brněnec (Brünnlitz) in Czechoslovakia, saving around 1,200 Jews from certain death.

Related sites

Oskar Schindler Factory Krakow

Krakow Ghetto

Index to Nazi Trail of Terror in Europe

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Geoffrey W. Sutton has a PhD in psychology and writes about psychology and culture.

Website: https://www.suttong.com/

Amazon Author: https://author.amazon.com/home

ResearchGate page: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Geoffrey-Sutton-2

Academia Page: https://evangel.academia.edu/GeoffSutton

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10 November 2024

Oskar Schindler Factory Museum Krakow Poland

The Oskar Schindler Factory in Kraków, Poland, now hosts two museums: the Museum of Contemporary Art and a branch of the Historical Museum of the City of Kraków. The museum offers a permanent exhibition titled "Kraków under Nazi Occupation 1939–1945," which provides a detailed account of the city's history during World War II1. The factory is also known for its role in the film Schindler's List.

Oskar Schindler's factory was originally called Oskar Schindler's Deutsche Email-warenfabrik (DEF). It was later known as Fabryka Emalia Oskara Schindlera in Polish.

The museum at Oskar Schindler's Factory houses a variety of items from the original factory, including:

Enamelware items made by the factory's workers
Personal items such as Oskar Schindler's typewriter, furniture, and desk
Portraits of Schindler factory employees
Memorial displays with the names of the people saved by Schindler

Oskar Schindler's factory had a significant connection to the nearby Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp. Schindler used his factory to shelter around 1,000 Jews in relatively better conditions compared to the camp. He also convinced the camp's commandant, Amon Göth, to allow him to move his factory in October 1944 to Brněnec/Brünnlitz in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, thus saving his workers from almost certain death in the gas chambers of Auschwitz.

[Link to Schindler's List Film Summary]

The Nazis entered Kraków on September 6, 1939, shortly after the invasion of Poland began on September 1, 1939. Kraków was one of the first major cities to fall under Nazi control during World War II. The factory is now a museum, which tells the story of Poland under Nazi occupation.

We begin the tour with a variety of stereoscopic images. Arrows point the way through various exhibits displaying photographs, narratives on story boards, as well as small and large objects from the occupation.

The images related to Schindler (e.g., desk) are found along the tour.

LINK TO -->> THE NAZI TRAIL OF TERROR

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Geoffrey W. Sutton has a PhD in psychology and writes about psychology and culture.

Website: https://www.suttong.com/

Amazon Author: https://author.amazon.com/home

ResearchGate page: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Geoffrey-Sutton-2

Academia Page: https://evangel.academia.edu/GeoffSutton

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Books

Oskar Schindler: The Untold Account of His Life, Wartime Activities, and the True Story Behind The List by David M. Crowe provides a comprehensive and thoroughly researched account of Schindler's life and actions during the Holocaust. ON AMAZON

Schindler's Ark by Thomas Keneally inspired the film Schindler's List. ON AMAZON

Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally - This novel, based on true events, tells the story of Oskar Schindler, a German industrialist who saved over 1,200 Jews from the Holocaust by employing them in his factory ON AMAZON

The Film

Schindler's List on AMAZON

09 November 2024

A Trail of Nazi Genocide

A Trail of Nazi Genocide

Mass Murder in Europe

This post provides an index of places associated with the Nazis’ reign of terror across Europe.

The Nazis intentionally and systematically murdered about 17 million people identified as enemies of the German people or undesirables. The largest and most targeted group were the Jews but many others were specifically targeted as well.

Suggestion- bookmark this page because I plan to expand the list with additional posts. Request, consider subscribing to this blog.

There are four sections to this post.

1. An index with links to posts of places I have visited associated with the genocide

2. A brief description of the scope of the genocide

3. A timeline of select events by year, month, date.

4. Resources: Books and Films I have reviewed and a selection of articles I have read.

1. An A to Z index of Nazi Terror: Museums, Memorials, Sites

Anne Frank museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Auschwitz 1, Poland; concentration camp

Auschwitz II (Birkenau) Poland; concentration camp

Bergen-Belsen, Germany; concentration camp

Euthanasia Memorial (Aktion T4), Berlin Germany

Hitler's Bunker site, Berlin, Germany

Gleis 17 Memorial Berlin, Germany

Holocaust memorial, Berlin, Germany

Krakow Ghetto, Poland

Nuremberg Coliseum, Zeppelin Field, Courthouse (Nazi trials)

Operation Anthropoid, Assassination of Heydrich in Prague

Oskar Schindler Factory Museum Krakow Poland

Roma & Sinti Memorial Berlin, Germany

Sachsenhausen camp, Oranienburg, Germany

Shoes on the Danube Memorial, Budapest, Hungary

Terezin (Theresienstadt) camp, Czech Republic

Topographies Des Terror Museum, Berlin, Germany

United States Holocaust Museum, Washington, DC

Wannsee Conference Memorial - Likely site of the Final Solution - Murder of the Jews

Westerbork Transit Camp, Netherlands

Museums with Related Information

Imperial War Museum, London, UK

World War II Museum - Road to Berlin, New Orleans, Louisiana USA

2. A Brief Description of Nazi Genocide 1930s to 1945

The Nazi worldview identified groups of people unworthy of life in the German Reich. As they rose to power in Germany in the 1930s and throughout their war, they systematically dehumanized targeted groups and passed laws to discriminate against them. In the 1940s, Nazi terror increased. Millions were brutally terrorized, tortured, and murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators. The nazis focused most of their efforts on the extermination of the Jews, who were identified as the primary enemy of the German people. By 1945, the Nazis and their collaborators had murdered some 6 million Jews. Although the term holocaust can mean the systematic murder of a group of people, it is commonly used to mean the extermination of the Jews most evident in the large-scale gassing and burning in the death camps.

I use the term genocide to include all people murdered by the Nazis and their sympathizers, which has been estimate at around 17 million (O’Neill, 2024, August 9). Additional groups of people murdered by the Nazis and their supporters included those in the list below (see the Holocaust Encyclopedia).

Africans or Blacks

Homosexuals (the older and insulting term for gays)

Jehovah’s Witnesses

People with disabilities

Poles

Political enemies and members of the resistance

Roma and Sinti called gypsies

Social outcasts identified as asocials, professional criminals

Soviet POWs

The Nazis murdered millions by shootings, lethal injections, mobile gas units, starvation, brutal beatings, nontreatment of diseases, deadly experiments, and life-threatening work assignments. In 1941 to 1942, they built killing centres where Nazis and their collaborators gassed and burned Jews.

3. A Timeline of select events

1933

January 30: Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany.

March 22: The first concentration camp, Dachau, is established.

Law passed to sterilise unfit people (Law for the prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring)

1935

April 30: Jews cannot display the German flag.

May 12: Antisemitism increases in Poland after dictator Pilsuduski died

June 26: Law amendment requires abortion of unfit fetuses up to 6 months.

September 15: Nuremberg Laws are enacted, stripping Jews of their citizenship and rights.

November 15: Christian churches cooperate to identify Christians.

1936

February 4: Polish Cardinal August Hlond advocates discrimination against Jews.

September 7: Jewish assets taxed at 25%

September 23: Sachsenhausen concentration camp opens.

1937

April 24: Pastor Martin Niemoller "it is unfortunate that God perimitted Jesus to be born a Jew." (HC, P. 117)

July 15: Buchenwald concentration camp established

1938

January 21: Romania Jews lose their citizenship

March 12: German laws govern Austria after the troops arrive

April 23: Jews in Vienna rounded up and forced to eat grass

May 3: Concentration camp at Flossenburg established

June 4: Dr. Sigmund Freud left his Vienna home for London with his wife Marth and daughter Anna.

July 25: Germany cancels licenses of Jewish doctors

August 10 destruction of The Great Synagogue, Nuremberg

November 9-10: Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass), a violent pogrom against Jews in Germany and Austria.

1939

September 1: World War II begins with the invasion of Poland.

September 6, Nazis enter Krakow, Poland

September: Murder of people with disabilities began (T4 Programme)

October 8: Establishment of the first Jewish ghettos in Poland.

1940

May 20: Auschwitz concentration camp is established.

October 12: Warsaw Ghetto is established.

1941

June 22: Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union, begins.

September 3: First mass murder at Auschwitz using Zyklon B (c 600 Soviet, 250 Poles)

September 29-30: Babi Yar massacre, where over 33,000 Jews are killed in Kiev.

December 8: Chelmno extermination camp begins operations.

1942

January 20: Wannsee Conference, where the "Final Solution" is planned.

March 01: Auschwitz begins operation

March 17: Belzec extermination camp begins operations.

May 4: SS selection/ murder begins at Birkenau

May 27: Czechs attack Reinhard Heydrich, he dies soon after

July 23: Treblinka extermination camp begins operations.

July 29: Edward Schulte, informs allies 499 Jews murdered at Auschwitz, Himmler present

April 19: Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

September: Dr. Viktor Frankl began four-camp imprisonment at Theresienstadt

October 14: Sobibor extermination camp uprising.

1943

February 26: Gypsy camp set for "Gypsies"

1944

February 28: Corrie ten Boom arrested (The Hiding Place story)

May 15: Deportation of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz begins.

May: Hungarian Edith Eva Eger deported to Auschwitz (later became a psychologist; published The Choice in 2017)

July 10-12 Nazis murder 7,000 Jews at Theresienstadt

October 7: Auschwitz-Birkenau Sonderkommando uprising.

December 31: Corrie ten Boom released

1945

January 17: Death march begins c 60,000 from Auschwitz

January 21-26: Nazis blow up gas chambers and crematoria at Birkenau

January 27: Liberation of c 7,000 at Auschwitz-Birkenau by Soviet forces. January 27 is Holocaust Memorial Day

February: Approximate date, Anne Frank died from Typhus, age 15

April 15: Liberation of Bergen-Belsen by British forces.

May 5: Liberation of Mauthausen by American forces.

May 8: Germany surrenders, ending World War II in Europe.

June 26: London Conference-decisions on procedures for Nazi trials

November 20: Nuremberg trials begin for 24 Nazis

1946

October 1: Nuremberg trials end

1947

April 30: Karl Rahm, commander of Theresienstadt found guilty, hanged

4. Resources

Books and Films

Inheritance: A Legacy of Hatred and the Journey to Change It (film)

Man's Search for Meaning by survivor, Victor Frankl

Schindler's List (film)

The Choice: Embrace the Possible by survivor and psychologist, Edith Eger

The Light of Days

The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness, by Simon Wiesenthal

Articles

O’Neill, A. (2024, August 9). Number of victims of the holocaust and nazi persecution 1933-1945, by background. statista.com. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1071011/holocaust-nazi-persecution-victims-wwii/

Stone L. (2019). Quantifying the Holocaust: Hyperintense kill rates during the Nazi genocide. Science advances, 5(1), eaau7292. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aau7292

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About me...

Geoffrey W. Sutton has a PhD in psychology and writes about psychology and culture.

Website: https://www.suttong.com/

Amazon Author: https://author.amazon.com/home

ResearchGate page: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Geoffrey-Sutton-2

Academia Page: https://evangel.academia.edu/GeoffSutton

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Notes

HC The Holocaust Chronicle ON AMAZON

26 October 2024

Auschwitz Concentration Camp Poland

Auschwitz Concentration Camp was created by the Nazis in 1940 to house prisoners taken following the invasion of Poland. The site was previously an army barracks. The first transport arrived from Tarnow 14 June 1940.

Early on, most prisoners were Poles.

We entered Auschwitz into a dark grey cement tunnel where a large steel door banged shut behind us. We did not know what to expect.

We emerged into an outdoor grey cement corridor with tall walls that make you feel small. Only the blue sky looked inviting.

At first, the brick buildings don't look so bad.

But the barbed wire reminds us--this is a prison camp.

A local guide explains life in Auschwitz. Were are in Auschwitz I known as the main camp, which houses some 15,000 to 20,000 prisoners. Later we will visit Auschwitz II known as the Birkenau camp.

Collections of objects remind us that real people occupied these spaces.

Thousands existed side by side.

Pictures of the past...haunting memories

1941

The first people murdered by gas occurred on 3 September--about 850 Soviet prisoners of war and Polish prisoners who were sick. The Nazis used Zyklon B to kill them in block 11.