Kazimierz, Krakow & Plaszow

We felt the vibrancy of Jewish life that existed here when Kraków’s 60,000 Jews represented a quarter of the city before the Shoah. We also felt the pain as we walked across the Vistula River from the historic Jewish quarter of Kazimierz to the neighborhood of Podgorze, where the Nazis established a ghetto in 1941. We then followed yet further in the experience of Krakow Jewry, driving to the Nazi Labor Camp of Plaszow on the city’s outskirts. Today, Plaszow is open and park like, but 80 years ago it was a place of imprisonment and murder for thousands.

It was a lot to take in, but the students were terrific and many have expressed gratitude for all that they are learning. It is we who are actually grateful to them and their interest in understanding better the joys of Jewish life here for generations, as well as the pain of the Shoah and the degree to which Jews have been largely absent here since. In the past thirty years, though, there has been a revival of Jewish life in Krakow, some of which we will see tonight as we join the JCC Krakow community for Shabbat dinner tonight!