Schindler's List: Kraków and Płaszów

Oskar Schindler arrives in occupied Kraków and acquires a factory to produce enamelware. In the film, the factory is where his Jewish workers find work. Spielberg shot the exteriors and the scenes on the factory stairs at the real building, at ul. Lipowa 4; the interiors were filmed at a similar plant in Olkusz. Today the former factory houses a museum on Kraków under occupation, and its tour includes the desk and the stairs from the set of Schindler's List.

Visitor guidance: Museum at ul. Lipowa 4; the tour includes the desk and stairs from the film set.

The Kraków Ghetto liquidation is the film's turning point. In the story, two thousand Jews are sent to Płaszów and two thousand others are killed in the streets by the SS, while Schindler watches and is profoundly affected. In real history this square was the ghetto's central point, and the last selection took place here on 13 March 1943. Today it holds a memorial of 70 chairs, inspired by the furniture carried out onto the square when the houses were emptied.

Visitor guidance: The square holds the chairs memorial.

SS officer Amon Göth arrives to oversee construction of the Płaszów concentration camp, and the film follows life under his rule: he randomly shoots people from the balcony of his villa. Schindler bribes Göth into letting him build a sub-camp at his factory. The real site is now sparsely wooded hills and fields with a large memorial to the victims, and Göth's villa still stands. The pin marks the memorial; the camp's exact layout is not pinned.

Location precision: The pin marks the Płaszów memorial, not a particular building from the film.

Visitor guidance: The memorial grounds are on the hills of the former camp.

The camp you see on screen is not Płaszów itself. Because modern high-rise apartments were visible from the original site, Spielberg had the Płaszów camp reconstructed in a nearby abandoned quarry, the Liban Quarry, which had also served as a labor camp during the war. Principal photography began on 1 March 1993 in Kraków. The quarry is a stand-in: it shows how the film built the camp, not where the original stood.

Location precision: The film's Płaszów camp was built in the Liban Quarry, but no lookup found the quarry, so this stop is not pinned.

Near the end of the story the women and girls are mistakenly redirected to Auschwitz-Birkenau, and Schindler bribes its commandant, Rudolf Höss, for their release. Polish authorities allowed filming on the grounds of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, but after objections the crew built a replica of part of the camp just outside the entrance of Birkenau instead of filming inside it.

Location precision: The pin marks the Auschwitz memorial area; the replica stood just outside Birkenau's entrance.