As part of an investigation he conducted in preparation for writing a book about his family history before the Holocaust, Max Friedman managed to track down his mother’s address in Krakow in one of the archives. When he arrived at 12 Josefa Street (JOZEFA 12), he found out that the house, and especially its beautiful yard, had become an international tourist attraction after it was used as a photo set for the movie “Schindler’s List” by the famous director Steven Spielberg.
Max Friedman in Krakow (photo courtesy of the photographer)
The courtyard of the house at number 12 Giuseppe is sometimes called “the most beautiful courtyard of Kazimierz”. The building in Spielberg’s film served as a central location in the Krakow ghetto, where many Jewish families lived. In the film you can see how the Germans push people from their apartments in the building and send their belongings from the balconies and how a boy from the Jewish police hides a terrified girl in a niche under the stairs.
Friedman shared his personal story as part of a campaign initiated by the World Jewish Organization for the Restitution of Property (ILR) on social media and ends this week in which he calls on Holocaust survivors and their families to share stories about the houses they lived in before the Holocaust. The purpose of the campaign, under the hashtag #MyPropertyStory, is to increase awareness To the issue of private and communal Jewish property that was stolen in the Holocaust and the urgency to return it before it is too late, so far many Holocaust survivors and their families have shared their stories.
The well-known building was built in Kazimierz, the Jewish quarter of Krakow, in 1802 as a two-story inn with an inner courtyard. His mother and her family moved into the building in 1919. His mother and sister were sent to Auschwitz in the second half of 1944 and later to Bergen-Belsen.
“When we visited the building, I learned that the house became a necessary stop on tours related to the history of the Holocaust in and around Krakow following the film. I couldn’t hold back, I sat on the steps of the house and watched Schindler’s List again on my laptop, and it was a very moving moment for me,” Friedman said.
Friedman: “When we went to research my family’s history in Poland, the only place I could recognize that still remained intact and somehow represented my past – was in a building at 12 Josefa St. I finally found something that would tangibly symbolize for me my family’s past in the Holocaust, the stories of My mother is about Josef Mengele and the ramp in Auschwitz and basically shaping my memories. This is the only house my mother had in her childhood and it became a place in a very strange way – I could call it a home.”
Schindler’s List (photo courtesy of the photographer)
Mark Weizman, VP of Operations at the ILR organization, said that “MyPropertyStory# is a unique social media campaign in which Holocaust survivors and their families are invited to share their memories of the lives lost before the war. Behind every property and house that was looted is a story. It is a link and a connection to the history of families and communities Jewishness that was torn apart in the Holocaust,” says Mark Weizman, chief operating officer, at the World Jewish Organization for the Restitution of Property (ILR).
“Max Friedman’s story about his mother’s house in Krakow illustrates exactly the purpose of this campaign – sharing stories about past lives and how the house that was robbed became a symbolic reminder to those who lived in it. As Max Friedman explained, once he found his mother’s house, he finally found a tangible relic that helped him He began to build a more accurate picture of his family history,” Weizman added.