Children of War

From 12 September 2025 to 30 August 2026, Oskar Schindler’s Enamel Factory told the story of the Second World War through the eyes of children - those who were no more than eleven years old when the war broke out on 1 September 1939. Through the micro-stories of more than a dozen protagonists of differing backgrounds, faiths and social standing, curator Beata Łabno presented wartime childhood as a many-sided experience, and the children themselves not only as victims but as active subjects of those events.

The Museum of Krakow on the exhibition:

The Children of War exhibition will be presented at Oskar Schindler’s Emalia Factory, a place of living memory, immensely important to the history of Krakow during World War II.

Organized by the Museum of Krakow (Oskar Schindler’s Factory Branch), the exhibition faces the difficult challenge of trying to show the war and occupation from the perspective of children who were no more than 11 years old when the war broke out on 1 September 1939.

The micro-stories of more than a dozen characters - who differ in terms of their cultural background, national affiliation, religion, social and economic status - form a broad landscape of personal experiences and behaviour of children of war.

With the exhibition, we want to change previous perceptions of children - so that we see them not only and exclusively as victims, but also as active subjects and addressees of adults’ actions. We want to show their role in those cruel times, their agency - even if it was dependent on the agency of adults. We also want to show their mutual relations with adults, closer and distant family, and finally strangers. Out of respect for the characters and to provide a full picture of their wartime fate, we will also show, albeit in an abbreviated form, their pre-war and post-war stories.

What to expect

The exhibition leads visitors through the interwoven fates of more than a dozen children - Poles, Jews and members of other communities in occupied Krakow and the surrounding region. Alongside personal objects, documents and photographs, it reveals the children’s relationships with adults and their own agency under the conditions of war. Pre-war and post-war threads round out the portrait of each protagonist.

The exhibition was accompanied by a children’s book, “Szkatułka. Pierrot. Piłeczka” by Joanna Rudniańska - three stories illustrated by Igor Kubik, based on the fates of two of the exhibition’s protagonists.

Context

The archival materials and artefacts on show came from state archives and private collections in Poland, England and Israel. The exhibition was divided into parts: From Playing to Clandestine Activities, Normal Life, Home as a Shelter, Home as Threat, On the Aryan Side, Prisoners of Camps, Deportees, Traces of Life and Memory (children who did not survive the war), and Children Document.

Tickets and time

A normal ticket cost 22 PLN, reduced 16 PLN, family 44 PLN (two adults and one or two children under 16, or an equivalent combination); guided tours of the exhibition (an extra 120 PLN) could be booked by phone or email through the branch.

After the show

The exhibition closed on 30 August 2026. The museum’s page does not state whether the show is touring elsewhere or list a catalogue for sale in the museum shop.

Opening on 16 October 2026 at Oskar Schindler’s Enamel Factory:

• Schindler’s Factory - Histories of the Place - the next exhibition at the same branch, on view until 8 August 2027.

Museum profile: Oskar Schindler’s Enamel Factory .