Schindler's Factory - Histories of the Place

The Museum of Krakow will show how the former administrative building of Oskar Schindler’s factory on Lipowa Street became one of the city’s most visited museums. It will also recall what happened on the site before the war, after it and after 1989.

Museum of Krakow on the exhibition (our translation of the Polish original):

But this is not the only story tied to this place. The exhibition shows different threads and the fates of specific people, and also tries to sketch the wider context of the events connected with Schindler’s Factory. The story begins with the rise of industry in Zabłocie at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, closely tied to the development of the railway in the area. Before Oskar Schindler came to Krakow, this was the site of the First Lesser Poland Factory of Enamel and Tin Products “Rekord”. Schindler took over its grounds and turned them into the DEF company, which produced, among other things, for the German army. The history of the place is also tied to the crash of a British “Liberator” aircraft, flying to help the Warsaw insurgents in August 1944 and shot down over Zabłocie. It is also the post-war history of the Krakow Electronic Works “Telpod”, the birth of “Solidarity” and the strike of the “Telpod” workforce during martial law.

What to expect

The exhibition will cover the building’s history from before the war, through the occupation and Schindler’s factory, to post-war industrial production and the events tied to the democratic opposition. It will complement the permanent exhibition “Krakow - Time of Occupation 1939-1945”. Per the museum’s announcement, the threads include industrial Zabłocie from the late 19th century, the post-war “Telpod” plant, Solidarity at the site and the survivors’ efforts to commemorate Schindler. Alongside them stands the story of Schindler’s list itself and the workers he saved.

The museum says the story will be told through photographs, documents, original objects and, above all, witness accounts. A separate thread covers a British bomber that was flying to aid the Warsaw Uprising in August 1944 and was shot down over Zabłocie.

Context

The building at ul. Lipowa 4 originally housed “Rekord”, a small enamelware factory founded in 1937 by Jewish entrepreneurs, which went bankrupt two years later. Oskar Schindler, a German industrialist, took over the plant that same year and ran it as the Deutsche Emailwarenfabrik. He eventually employed more than a thousand workers, most of them Jews subjected to forced labour, and protected them from deportation to concentration camps. Their story is told in Steven Spielberg’s 1993 film “Schindler’s List”. After the war the buildings housed the state-owned electronics plant “Telpod”. In 2005 the city of Krakow bought the site, and in 2010 today’s museum branch opened here. It stands next to MOCAK, which occupies part of the same former factory.

Tickets and time

On the exhibition page the Museum of Krakow gives the show its own price list: 22 PLN standard, 16 PLN reduced and 44 PLN family. The family ticket covers two adults with one or two children under 16, or one adult with two or three children. The general branch ticket costs 60 PLN, reduced 45 PLN, and also admits you to the Eagle Pharmacy and Pomorska Street within 7 days. The museum does not say whether that ticket also covers “Histories of the Place”.

On Mondays the branch is open 10:00-15:00 and admission is free. Free passes are limited in number and cannot be booked in advance. The museum’s free-day rules refer to the permanent exhibitions and do not say whether the free Monday covers this show.

Tuesday to Sunday the branch is open 9:00-20:00, with last entry 1.5 hours before closing. It is closed on the first Tuesday of every month and on some public holidays, including 1 and 11 November. The current list of closed days is on the branch page . If you buy a named ticket online, bring the original of your ID.

If you combine the show with the permanent exhibition (45 rooms), allow an extra 20-30 minutes to see it properly rather than rush through. It is aimed mainly at visitors who already know the Schindler story from the film or the permanent exhibition. It will show them what happened to the site itself before the war, after the war and after 1989.

English on site: guided tours in English run Tuesday-Sunday at 10:00, 12:00 and 16:00 (branch-wide, not exhibition-specific).

Events

The opening takes place the day before the exhibition opens to visitors, and admission is free. Curator-led tours are included in the exhibition ticket, with groups capped at 20 people. Tickets are sold at the branch ticket desk, online at bilety.mhk.pl and at the Visitor Service Centre in the Krzysztofory Palace (Rynek Główny 35).

• 15 October 2026, 18:00 - exhibition opening, free admission - details
• 18 October 2026, 12:00 - curator-led tour, included in the exhibition ticket, 20 places - details
• 22 October 2026, 17:00 - curator-led tour, included in the exhibition ticket, 20 places - details
• 26 November 2026, 17:00 - curator-led tour, included in the exhibition ticket, 20 places - details
• 10 December 2026, 17:00 - curator-led tour, included in the exhibition ticket, 20 places - details

Updates

• 2026-10-07 - between 23 September and 7 October the museum published the exhibition’s own price list (22 PLN standard, 16 PLN reduced, 44 PLN family) and four curator-led tours on the exhibition page. It also stated that the opening on 15 October is free to attend. Exhibition dates unchanged (source: exhibition page ).

See also

• Schindler’s Factory - Museum of Krakow - the branch profile, with the full permanent-exhibition description, hours, and visitor tips.
• MOCAK - Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow - neighbour in the same former factory complex.
• Eagle Pharmacy - five minutes on foot, the story of the pharmacy that operated inside the Krakow ghetto, a good companion piece on occupation-era Zabłocie.

Tickets, opening hours, and current details are on the Museum of Krakow website .

Museum profile: Schindler’s Factory - Museum of Krakow .