Fact Vs Fiction: Schindler's List
6. FACT: Roads Were Paved With Jewish Tombstones
During the Third Reich, the euphemism for the annihilation of the European Jewish population was called The Final Solution. Using Jewish people as a scapegoat for all the wrongs in European History, The Nazi Party aimed to murder over 11,000,000 Jews in an attempt at genocide.
With the eradication of businesses, forced labour, and extermination in Concentration Camps, the Nazis displayed utter contempt for living Jews. This disdain was also exhibited towards the dead. The Third Reich hoard Jewish treasures and stole money from bank accounts.
In Schindler’s List, as the construction of the Plaszow camp begins, there is a scene where Jewish slave workers are digging up headstones from a local cemetery. Adorned with the Star of David, these tombstones are stolen from the graves of members of the Jewish faith. The concrete headstones were used to pave the road leading to the new work camp in a display which spat on deceased Jews as well as the living.
While the Paszlow Camp is no longer standing, the road paved with tombstones which once led there remained until the 1950s. The tombstones were dug out of the ground and assembled in a memorial statue in the New Jewish Cemetery in Krakow.