Krakow - July 15, 2010

Torah Ark - Remuh Synagogue, Krakow

Kazimierz

Gates to entrance to Remuh Synagogue, Krakow

Interior of Tempel Synagogue - Krakow

Synagogue Doors - Krakow

Jews Forbidden - photo of sign in Krakow History Museum

Nazi insignia tiled floor - Krakow History Museum

Our day in Krakow begins with a trip to the Krakow History Museum. The museum is housed in what used to be the administrative building of what used to be the Oskar Schindler Factory. The museum shows the history of the factory in a broad historical context and provides visitors the opportunity to learn more about the history of Krakow under German occupation. After a brief lunch at Szara's, we began our walking tour of Kasimierz. It is best known for being home to a Jewish community from the 14th century until WWII. The town was founded in 1335 by King Kasimierz where it once thrived as a community of tolerance between Christians and Jews. Through the years, Kazimierz became a town with walls separating the two religions and in 1791, it lost its status as a separate city and became a district of Krakow. The death knell of Jewish Krakow was sounded in 1939 when the Germans invaded and occupied Poland. After the war, Kazimierz was mostly deserted by its pre-war Jewish population and became a poor and dangerous neighborhood. Many old buildings were not repaired after the war devastation. Since 1988, a popular annual Jewish Cultural Festival has drawn Krakovians back to Kazimierz and re-introduced Jewish culture to a generation of Poles who have grown up without Poland's historic Jewish community. A Jewish youth group now meets weekly in Kazimierz and the Remuh Synagogue actively services a small congregation of mostly elderly Jews.
Our next stop was the Galicia Jewish Museum which commemorates victims of the Holocaust and celebrates the Jewish culture of Galicia. It hopes to educate Poles and Jews about their own histories. It is home to the internationally acclaimed permanent photographic exhibition, Traces of Memory.