Cracow

You can only imagine that after our visit to Auschwitz, it was a much-subdued trip to our second destination in Poland, Cracow. I never thought I would be in Poland. Honestly, it’s just not a country I thought much of visiting and I was a little confused when I got the Verizon text message, “Welcome to Poland. For roaming support, call yada yada yada.” However, soon we would embrace more about the Poles than we ever would have expected.

We arrived to Cracow shortly before seven, checked into our hotel, got dressed and sped off to a traditional Jewish dinner complete with live music. It was a pretty great meal, and comforting to be around friends and to see Jewish culture being appreciated after our visit before. The dinner went well and we all inhaled the delicious food in front of us before heading home for an early night to sleep. We had another long day on Saturday for a tour of traditional Cracow.

Cracow is the second largest city in Poland and probably the most popular for tourists. From early 7th century Wawel Hill and medieval castles to the center of the General Government for the Nazis to a site of communism, Cracow is a city of history. And, we were lucky to be able to spend two days seeing the history of the city and the unprecedented future.

We had a special tour guide for the city, who accompanied from site to site. The first stop was the old Gestapo prison and an exhibit about Cracow’s role in the war. The prison was interesting and sad, with some of the cells having writing on them in all languages, some of the inscriptions the last thing prisoners would ever say. However, while we there we got shocking news. On his way to honor the anniversary of the massacre of Poles in the Soviet Union, the president of Poland was killed in a plane accident, along with his wife and other top government officials. We were shocked to hear the news, but not as shocked as the people of Poland.

Obviously, it was weird being in the country of Poland while in underwent such a shocking part in its history. Poland is rarely front line news, but while we were there it was all over the major news stations. It was weird. We saw a country while it got the news and the reaction of the people.

At first we were surprised because it seemed like no one really cared. Our tour guide told us how he was not a very popular president, and was very conservative and not well liked amongst the young people. While we continued our tour of the city, we saw the sites of mourning for the anniversary of Pope Benedict’s death (six years ealier) and there were flowers everywhere and people mourning. At the same time, there did not seem to be this type of mourning for the president who had died that day. However, as we toured churches, we saw more people in mourning, with large portraits of the president on display surrounded by flowers and candles. It was interesting to see the reaction of the general population and the conservative Catholic population.

Despite the depression set in by the death of the president, we attempted to continue our tour of the city. Cracow was beautiful, despite wet and cold weather. We saw it’s old university where there was an old globe that attempted to show where America was (it was south of Africa and only South America existed). We also saw the city square filled with horse drawn carriages and decorated cathedrals. The park around the Cracow circles the entire city and was beautiful as well. We were not, however, able to go into a lot places due to the national tragedy.

One of the more important places we saw was the site of the old Jewish ghetto, the Jewish ghetto used by the Nazi’s, and Oskar Schindler’s factory. The ghetto in Cracow was created to house all of the Jews from the city, where they were forced to move and then walled in. Part of the wall was still remaining, with the top of it resembling the tops of gravestones. In the Cracow ghetto, the Nazi’s divided those who were able to work from those who were unable. 15,000 Jews were forced to live in a place that would normally hold about 3,000. The Nazi’s eventually liquidated the ghetto, systematically sending the residents to death and concentration camps, many being sent to Auschwitz. Now, at the site there is one chair statue representing one thousand Jews deported. Also at this center square where the memorial is is the site of a pharmacy where a pharmacist did what he could do to save as many Jews as possible, helping provide medicine and aid to those who’s lives were in jeopardy. It was lightening to see the site of such a hero.

From the Cracow ghetto, we went to see where Oskar Schindler’s factory had been where he had saved Jews by putting them on a list to provide them work at a factory and save them from the death camp. We had watched Schindler’s List (highly recommended) on our way to Auschwitz, and it was fascinating and relieving to see that such a place was real. While in Cracow we also saw a lot of the places where the movie was filmed, again making it feel more real.

We also saw old synagogues in the old Jewish district, which the Nazis used as stables or dumping grounds. We viewed cemeteries where the Nazis had knocked down the gravestones and used them to pave roads. As I mentioned in my previous entry, it was shocking to see how in every way the Nazi’s attempted to destroy the Jewish people.

Overall, Cracow was a wonderful city, although surrounded by so many depressing events. The base course really allowed me to see the places we had been studying and apply what I had learned to reality, something really special to my education.