August 13, 2013

August 13, 2013

The movie, Schindler's List, was about a German industrialist who came to Krakow during WWII seeking war profits. Instead he lost his fortune aiding local Jews avoid being sent to concentration camp.  His factory is only a few miles south of our hotel.  A museum opened up in the former site a couple years ago.

We take the tram that runs outside our hotel south across the Vistula to Ghetto Heroes Square.  This was the site of the main gate into Krakow's walled Jewish ghetto and its only open space.  The plaza now is a memorial and is filled with seventy empty metal chairs eerily similar to the Oklahoma City bombing Memorial.  We walk east under the rail line to Schindler's Emalia Fabrika (Enamelware) plant.  All that is left of the pots and pans factory is the administration building easily recognizable from the movie.

Some people are disappointed by the museum because it has only a few exhibits directly related to Schindler.  We knew this going in.  It is rather about the whole occupation of Krakow by the Nazis and the suffering that occurred by all the residents.  Aimee and I found it fascinating and ended up spending four hours there.  For a new museum, it was well done. 

When Germany invaded Poland, their intent was to make it an extension of Germany as their Prussian predecessors did centuries earlier.  The Nazis systematically Germanified city names, moved out or killed the Polish and Jews, and settled German citizens in the area.  They went on to destroy any link to Polish history or culture.  Yesterday by the train station we saw a monument to the Polish defeat of the Teutonic Knights at the Battle of Grunwald in 1410.  Today we were shocked by photos of the Nazis destroying it.

After four hours of walking the museum, our feet are sore.  We rested at a little Polish diner across from Ghetto Square.  We had a bowl of barley or rye soup and stuffed cabbage.  It was delicious.

Refreshed we walk down the street to find the last two remnants of the Ghetto Wall.  The wall is shaped like a line of tombstones, and strikingly one runs right by a children's playground.  We then walk north back across the river to the old Jewish district of Kazimierz.  Like many areas of prewar Eastern Europe, Jews made up a quarter of Krakow's population.  We walk by several old synagogues but don't go in any.  Instead we hear traditional Jewish music (think Fiddler on the Roof) being played at a restaurant and decide to sit and listen over a beer.  The musicians are pretty good and we end up buying one of their CD's to remember this rest break.

This is our last night in Poland and Eastern  Europe so we decide to try something a little more exotic for dinner.  Just off Old Town's main square, we find a traditional Georgian restaurant.  Georgia is a former Soviet republic in the Caucasus Mountains.  We had a hot pepper soup followed by stuffed red peppers.