Tourism to Jewish heritage sites in Poland, and in Krakow in particular, was boosted after Steven Spielberg’s film “Schindler’s List,” which was filmed in Krakow’s old Jewish quarter, Kazimierz, came out (and won an Academy Award) more than 20 years ago.
The wave of visitors in the wake of the movie had an impact on Krakow’s tourist infrastructure, promoting the development of itineraries and routes, as well as travel organizations and guiding services, not to mention hotels, restaurants and souvenir shops. It all played a key role in helping turn Kazimierz into a positive tourist attraction and transform Jewish travel into Jewish tourism.
Will the Polish movie “Ida” — which explores difficult Holocaust and post-Holocaust themes and won this year’s Oscar for best foreign language film — do the same for elsewhere in Poland?
Krzysztof Bielawski writes a thoughtful post about this on the Virtual Shtetl web site.
After viewing Schindler’s List, he writes, “many people focused their attention on Krakow and in particular, on Kazimierz, its former Jewish quarter. Local travel agencies began to organize excursions to the places used by Steven Spielberg as exterior locations. The tour included also facilities connected with the life and extermination of the Jews of Krakow.”
Will “Ida” generate similar interest? he writes. “There is already an exchange of information about the places immortalized in the film in progress on the Internet fora,” he goes on.
The film was shot, among other places, in Łódź, on Legionów Street (between Żeromskiego and Gdańska Streets), in front of the house at 13 Dowborczyków Street and in a former “Lajkonik” restaurant at 50 Rzgowska Street.
Also Łódź cemeteries “played” in the film: the Jewish cemetery at Bracka Street and the communal cemetery at Smutna Street.
The filmmakers were also working in Zgierz, near the former police station at 18 Dąbrowskiego Street and at the junction of Wróbla and Szeroka Streets, as well as in Pabianice.
The monastery scenes were filmed in the former Zamoyskis’ palace in Klemensów, once a village, presently located within the borders of Szczebrzeszyn.
In following these routes and visiting these sites, he asks; in tracing the settings of famous (and in both cases difficult) films, both filmed in black and white — what will visitors see? What will they take home with them?
[NOTE: Bielawski’s post does not seem to still be online — Ed. 2019]