Films often shape the way we understand history before we encounter it directly. For travelers preparing for a heritage journey to Poland, certain movies provide not only background knowledge but also an emotional entry point. They allow us to glimpse daily life in Jewish Poland before and during the Holocaust, and they make the sites travelers will later visit feel more vivid and immediate. Three films in particular: Schindler’s List, The Pianist, and The Zookeeper’s Wife, are especially powerful companions to such a journey.
Schindler’s List has become one of the most recognized portrayals of the Holocaust. Shot largely on location in Kraków, it gives life to the Jewish quarter of Kazimierz, the wartime ghetto, and the Plaszów camp. Visitors to Kraków who have seen the film often find themselves walking with new awareness through its cobblestone streets and synagogues, recognizing places that once held Jewish life and hearing echoes of the community that lived there. A visit to Schindler’s Factory Museum or the memorials at Plaszów resonates more deeply when travelers can connect them to the faces and stories brought to the screen.
The Pianist offers a more intimate perspective. It follows the true story of Władysław Szpilman, a Jewish pianist who survived the Warsaw Ghetto. The film shows not only the devastation of the ghetto but also the fragments of normal life that persisted amidst its destruction. For those visiting Warsaw, it makes the ghetto wall remnants, the Ghetto Heroes Monument, and the city’s memorials feel intensely personal. What might otherwise seem like quiet stone or empty space becomes alive with the memory of Szpilman’s struggle, and through him, the struggle of thousands of others.
The Zookeeper’s Wife tells the story of Jan and Antonina Żabiński, who sheltered Jews in the Warsaw Zoo during the Nazi occupation. Unlike the other films, which focus on tragedy and destruction, this story highlights the moral courage of individuals who resisted in ways both simple and profound. The zoo still operates today, and the Żabiński villa is preserved as a place of memory. For travelers, visiting after watching the film makes the site far more than a family attraction, it becomes a story of bravery and humanity lived in the midst of darkness.
Together, these films prepare travelers for a heritage journey by grounding the history in individual lives and recognizable places. They show that the Holocaust was not only vast and anonymous but also personal and specific, unfolding in streets, homes, and institutions that still exist. Watching them beforehand helps travelers arrive with a sense of familiarity, ready to connect what they see on screen with what they will encounter in Poland.
Films cannot replace the experience of standing in Poland’s cemeteries, synagogues, and memorials, but they can open the heart and mind to receive those encounters more fully. They help transform travel into an act of memory and witness. For families, communities, and educators alike, beginning the journey with these stories on film ensures that when they walk through Poland, they do so with deeper eyes, prepared to honor not only the loss but also the courage and humanity that remain part of the Jewish story there.