The Grey House — Attraction in Krakow

Stayed in Krakow last night.Too shattered to think about travelling overnight on a bus. Mix up this morning the only day of the week a bus doesn't go to my destination at 7am,so again I'm spending another night in Krakow. So, for something to do, I take a walk through the Jewish Quarter of Kracow and across the Vistula River to the Schindler Museum. I came across Schindler's grave unexpectedly in Jerusalem in 2010 Schindler being a one time member of the Nazi Party and an intelligence operative for the Nazis but somehow changed his view and saved so many Jewish lives when he took over the Enamel Factory making pots and pans which was located near the Jewish Ghetto where all Jewish people had to relocate to when the Nazis took control of Kracow.Where walls were built around the ghetto to keep all the Jews in one place ready for the infrastructure to be built to cope with the final solution- their destruction. Schindler built up the factory so more and more Jewish people could come and work there and persuaded the Nazis who trusted him, that it would be more beneficial if all his workers were housed in or near the factory instead of being sent to the concentration camp . Having seen the film and read up a little on the history I believed that when the Jewish Ghetto was dismantled and all Jewish people had to enter the Concentration Camp, I thought that that Concentration Camp was Aushwitz but no, the name Kracow - Plaszow was now being mentioned. Out of the Museum to see where the Jewish Ghetto was located, only a few hundred yards from the factory and where the designers had built and designed the wall to surround them to look like gravestones, knowing fully well what the final outcome would be- macabre Photos showed SS soldiers forcing the Jews onto trucks outside the Ghetto , sometimes throwing young children out of windows to land in the trucks and sometimes the floor.Hundreds were just shot where they were, because they were too old or too young to comply.Some made it to Kracow - Plaszow built on two bulldozed Jewish cemetries, about a mile from the factory. This is where Amon Goth ruled, the sadistic ruler of the camp who shot people for fun and who had torture chambers in his cellar. Perhaps you remember the film when he shot people in the camp from his balcony (Ralph Fiennes). This was Kracow - Plaszow. Walk up from the old Jewish Ghetto and there's basically no signposts to show the significance of this place. There is no one here. It looks like an empty golf course with just some concrete protruding from the earth.Walkways have been mowed but everything else has been left to nature except for 18 boards that stand to testify what happened here. No Aushwitz crowds and no buses. I know now why Aushwitz didn't really affect me . It's the personal writings I find heartbreaking not the buildings. Seeing handwritten diaries from kids caught up in the ghetto. Hearing people's experiences. Seeing the stories of what happened at different locations at Kracow -Plaszow . See the boards ,enlarge them and read them.

Amon Goth, the Camp Commander killed people for fun here, set dogs on prisoners to rip them apart. He was hung here in Kracow in 1946 and his last words were...

Despite being a concentration camp like Auschwitz-Birkenau, it is an underrated area in the city. Since it got dark early in Kraków, we could only come to the campsite at night and there was not a street-lamp. For those who want to visit this place and learn about the history, the municipality or the authorities can put a street lamp, because the roads were icy we were able to walk with our phone light. We got information only through informative signboards. I hope that excavations are carried out in this camping area, and it gains the value it deserves and opens...

We saw all this as part of a walking tour. Our guide was phenomenal. She was so knowledgeable. It was very interesting to see the remains of the concentration camp in Krakow and learn the history. One issue I had was being told the ground we were walking on was full of mass graves. I was quite uncomfortable walking over someone's grave. The tour is definitely worth doing though. We booked the Witness to WW2 walking tour on Get Your Guide prior to going to Krakow. Was a great tour and the best guide we had on...