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Published: April 6th 2010
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Today was a good day. I met my guide whom I have been corresponding with for a few months. It’s always interesting to meet someone face to face. She was a lovely woman with a sweet story to tell me when I invited her to lunch after my time with her was finished.
She told me her husband was in town for the Easter holiday and would be leaving this evening. He lives in Oslo, she lives in Krakow. They see each other every month depending on work schedules. She told me they had known each other since the third grade. His family moved away and they lost contact. They both married and had children. Six years ago they reconnected and his mother gave her a letter that he had written when he was in the third grade. It said he loved her and wanted to buy her a wedding dress to marry him in.
By the time she finished the story she was beaming and her face transformed when she was talking about him. I was all teary eyed! She declined lunch as he would be leaving this evening. I insisted that we reschedule our tour for tomorrow
so she could spend the last few hours with her husband. I could see that she wanted to do it but she declined and we went on our way agreeing to do half of the city today and half tomorrow. We ended up doing everything today. She is a lovely woman and I am happy I had the opportunity to meet her. Connections like this make traveling a wonderful thing.
Now for a brief history lesson, all errors and mistakes are mine:
Poland had the highest concentration of Jewish people because when Polish Kings were in power they offered Jews special privileges. Before the occupation, there were 3.5 million Jews in Europe and 15,000 in Krakow.
The Nazi’s decided upon Krakow as the location for the central government outside of Germany. This is why Krakow survived the war unscathed and Warsaw was bombed and destroyed during. The city is intact and looks much as it did then.
Krakow was centrally located and had the benefit of being far enough away from the main cities to avoid frequent interruption and outside interference.
The Jewish Quarter was rich in art, architecture, synagogues, schools, vendors and businesses at
the height of the 1930’s. When the Nazi’s came to Krakow, they created the Jewish Ghetto as they had in virtually every other European city. In Krakow, this meant erecting a wall three meters high around a very small geographic area. The 3000 people that lived in this part of the city were stripped of their homes and businesses. The Jewish population of 15,000 was moved to the Ghetto and it was walled in. They were allowed to leave to work in other parts of the city but under strict supervision and with stringent parameters.
Our tour started with Oskar Shlinders factory which is located in an industrial section of the Jewish Quarter. The building would only be remarkable if you have seen the movie. I learned that while in fact Shindler was responsible for saving the lives of approximately 1000 Jewish people, his motives were less than altruistic and more financially beneficial. At some point he even charged Jews to work for him.
From here we walked to the Jewish Ghetto and as I realized what the boundaries were; it was unbelievable. Families had to share apartments with many other families; there simply wasn’t enough room to
accommodate three times the number of people that the space would allow. We saw the two remaining sections of the wall that at one time surrounded the Ghetto. I didn’t know what three meters was but my pictures show how tall it is.
We enjoyed a walk from the Ghetto to the Jewish Quarter which was beautiful, full of old world charm. We saw the oldest synagogue in Krakow which was originally just for men. An addition in later years allowed for women to attend.
We went inside the only remaining synagogue in Krakow. It is very small with a tiny cemetery just outside and there were stones on top of every headstone and grave. There was a service in progress so we couldn’t actually go all the way inside. According to the last census taken in Krakow, only 1500 people claim to be Jewish. I found this amazing. My guide told me that there are basically three reasons for this: people leaving Europe after the war, conversions to Catholicism and people turning away from any kind of religion and proclaiming atheism. I thought this was a very sad thing for this city so rich in Jewish heritage.
My guide took me from the history of the mid-30’s all the way through present times. She lived through Pope John Paul II going from the Cardinal of Krakow to Pope, the communist system in Poland, which is the first of the Eastern Bloc countries where it collapsed, to two years of martial law, rationing, coupons, no goods and endless lines, to Solidarity and the first Democratic election.
My guide is a brilliant woman who was educated as an agricultural geneticist and during the period of communism was unable to work in this field. She decided to become a tour guide and has been doing this ever since. She was a wealth of information and lived through so much of Poland’s history and speaks of it personally. She also spoke with pride of Pope John Paul II and his seven visits to Krakow. She told me the things that were most plentiful during the communist reign were matches and vinegar.
In the Jewish Quarter I saw a plaza where the selections were held for the camps. Today it is a memorial with rocking chair sculptures placed precisely throughout the square. Beautiful and haunting.
Next we walked
to the 14th century Wawel Castle which is where every King in Poland was crowned. Like many old buildings it suffered several fires and has been rebuilt and added to. There are gothic, renaissance and baroque architectural styles. Oskar Schlinder had an apartment near the castle as did Pope John Paul II.
We went on to the Market Square which is the largest medieval square in all of Europe. It is 200 yards by 200 yards and the buildings are beautiful. We saw the opening of the altar at Saint Mary’s Church which was very interesting. We heard the bugler play, as he does every hour, 24 hours a day. There is a legend but I won’t go in to it.
From here we went to the remaining fortified walls of the city, saw the moat, the armory. She dropped me off at a shopping mall and went home to spend time with her husband.
The weather was horrible, very cold, windy and raining but it didn’t put a damper on my tour of the city. I learned so much today.
After checking out the food options I decided on a cappuccino and a blueberry muffin
and people watching. A young Polish man asked (I think) if he could share my table; he read his newspaper and I drank my coffee.
I really, really wanted to take a taxi back to the hotel because it was so cold but I didn’t want to miss out on the chance to see more of the city. So I argued with myself and whined a little bit. Walking won.
I took a quick nap at the hotel, did some reading, went to dinner and ended the evening in the atrium of the hotel listening to a classical pianist, drinking another cappuccino and reading an American newspaper.
Tomorrow is unplanned and I head to Berlin in the afternoon……I think. I need to check my ticket. I have a few options and I guess I will decide what to do when I wake up.
I may have coffee with my guide first thing in the morning since she mentioned she would like to do that. Who knows?
-more to come
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Allan
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Krakow
I never thought that Krakow would be so beautiful - despite the grey skies...and what a great story about your guide!