Krakow Pilgrimages: Auschwitz-Birkenau, Oskar Schindler and Kazimierz
A very sad, sobering day spent visiting the considerable Jewish Heritage sites in and around Krakow. It was important to us to spend the day honoring and remembering the many people who died here, not just Jews. Kazimierz, was the old Jewish quarter of Krakow, founded by King Kazimierz (Casimir) the Great in 1335 as a separate town. This became the center of two cultures, Christian and Jewish by the turn of the 15th century and they lived for centuries with tolerance and peace. Twenty-five percent of Krakow's Jewish population lived here before World War II.
The suggested route through Kazimierz began at the Center for Jewish Culture where we booked a Schindler's List walking tour for later today. From here, we walked into, and past, the many Synagogues. The Old Synagogue (Alte Schul) is Poland's most ancient Jewish structure and dates back to the 15th-century. There is an exhibition in the Old Synagogue devoted to the history and culture of Krakow Jews. Next to the Renaissance Remuh Synagogue (mid-16th century) is a cemetery dating back even earlier with the ancient headstones leaning in all directions. Most of the headstones date from 1553.
This area was devasted by the extermination of the Jews and World War II and it wasn't until the 1980's that renovation and revitalization of Kazimierz started. Today there are remnants of Jewish history, boutiques, little workshops and a flea market on Sundays all in this almost exclusively Catholic area.
Auschwitz was an important pilgrimage for us because our daughter-in-law's parents both survived Auschwitz along with many other concentration camps and lost every member of their respective families. Just think about what it means not to have one single living relative anywhere in the world.
Auschwitz-Birkenau is open daily, admission is free and trains and buses from Krakow run frequently.
We got off the train on a sunny, blue sky day and walked through the barbed wire gates of Auschwitz. You can take guided tours or just walk around yourself, our choice. Auschwitz is basically divided into two parts. Auschwitz I was the first Nazi camp. This is where they carried out experiments, murdered mass transports of Jews and carried out most of the executions.
We visited Block 11 and the Death Wall where the SS shot thousands of people. The Nazis dismantled the wall in 1944 and continued the shooting and killing inside the gas chamber/crematorium. The Museum rebuilt the Death Wall after the war.
The gas chamber and Crematorium 1 incinerators were rebuilt after the war by the Museum using original components. The Nazis started destroying huge portions of the camps in 1944, trying to hide evidence of the atrocities.
The Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp was the second part of Nazi Germany's beyond horrific plan. This is where they murdered approximately one million European Jews along with Poles, Gypsies and others.
We walked through the existing barracks, crematorium, museum and out into the fields along the railroad tracks that brought over 1.1 million people, packed in railroad cars to this place and thought, like so many others, "How could the people around the area not know what was taking place?"
Back to Krakow for a walking tour honoring "One of the righteous." Oskar Schindler. Schindler did his best to save as many Jews as he could and personally intervened when 300 of his workers were deported to Auschwitz. If you haven't seen the movie, do watch it, a classic for all times. Our little non-Jewish guide who had an encyclopedic memory of history, walked us through Kazimierz first. The narrow streets of Kazimierz were used for part of the set in Spielberg's movie "Schindler's List" as was his factory, still standing, at 4 Lipowa Street. We also visited the actual ghetto in the Podgorze district. To create the ghetto, the Nazis moved the entire Jewish population from Kazimierz into this area, displaced the Christians who then moved into Kazimierz.
A lot to reflect on and process...
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