Fabrica de Oskar Schindler de Cracovia

Oskar Schindler's factory - the factory established in 1937 as a place of production of enamel and brass products. Leased and later acquired by German entrepreneur Oskar Schindler in 1939, as German Enamelware Factory - Deutsche Emailwarenfabrik (DEF), conducted by Schindler to 1945.

The factory is located at Linden 4, in Krakow Zabłocie. Schindler employed in the threatened extermination of the Jews, then inscribed in the so-called Schindler's list, and saved from extinction. After World War II the factory took over the state, and from 2005 belongs to the city of Krakow. Since 2007 the factory was divided between two institutions: the Historical Museum of Krakow (who created the permanent exhibition: Kraków - time of occupation 1939-1945) and the Museum of Contemporary Art. Schindler's factory is one of the buildings on the route of Kraków Technology Trail.

The plant produced enameled dishes, and since 1943, also launched a department producing bowls for the Wehrmacht, shells and fuses for artillery and air forces. At the beginning majority of employees were Poles, but over time more and more manpower were Jews. When in March 1943 the ghetto in Krakow was liquidated, part of the Jewish survivors were located in the Plaszow camp, and there forced to inhuman work. Thanks to the efforts of Schindler, his workers were placed in barracks camp in Zabłocie.

Number of employees in 1944 was around 1100. When the Germans as a result of the approximation of the Eastern Front, began the liquidation of the camps and prisons, Schindler evacuated his arm factory to Brünnlitz (today Brněnec) in the Czech Republic. To rescue the prisoners, he (together with his accountant Itzhak Stern) developed the famous "Schindler's List" which let him to buy and transport to a new plant more than 1100 people - saving them from the extermination. The prisoners worked there until May 8, 1945 when the camp was liberated.

The history of the factory and its owner has been described in the novel Schindler's Ark (Schindler's Ark) by the Australian novelist Thomas Keneally. Steven Spielberg directed and based on that facts a film called Schindler's List, which was filmed mainly in Poland.