Sunday 15 November 2015

Grey day to remember bleak Krakow of the past


I was about 14 years old when I saw the movie Schindler's List for the first time. It was on a history class with one of my favourite teachers: Ana Machado. At such a young age the movie made a big impression to me and I think it was by then I fully understood the importance of tolerance. I was far from imagine that one day I would find myself stepping inside Schindler's Enamel factory in Krakow. I was surprised to discover that the reason why Schindler employed Polish Jews was because he wanted cheap labour to run his factory. I was relieved to found out that he eventually started actively saving as many as he could. The factory now holds an exhibition about Krakow under Nazi occupation, including several photographs taken between 1939 and 1945, Schindler's office furniture, a hairdresser's salon, a conspiracy apartment and many other features of the time. I should not finish by mentioning the Portuguese counterpart of Schindler: Aristides Sousa Mendes, Portuguese consul in Bordeaux (Paris) who provided visas to around 10,000 Jews so they could run away from a Nazi surrendered France.    

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