I know that this is not the first time I have said this, but here comes my warning...I am writing this having had very little sleep. We arrived at the hotel at 7 a.m. and had a long breakfast. The travel took a toll on us and the group was tired. The rooms were not ready so we set out to see the main square in town. We then went on a guided tour of the Jewish section of town. I have to say that it was so profoundly sad.
I cannot do justice to the Jewish history of Crakow. I found this amazing website that I highly recommend. What I can say about Poland is that 3.5 million Jews lived in Poland before WW2 and 90% were murdered during the Holocaust. At the end of 1947 only 100,000 Jews remained in Poland. From 1958 to 1959 50,000 immigrated to Israel. In 1968 to 1969, the last mass migration left Poland, leaving very few Jews left in Poland.
To say that Poland is a Jewish cemetery is extremely accurate. All of this was hard for me to digest today, as my family is all from Poland. Walking around the streets I heard Polish, which is a language that although I do not speak--it speaks to me. I can hear my grandmother (ZL--of blessed memory) in all of the streets. I tried to picture what the streets looked like when my parents were born here in Poland. I am the first generation born in Israel and my children are the first born in America. Today was extremely moving (my mom was right
, it was a difficult day
).
Wonderful web site about the Jewish history of Kracow:
Interesting article about Jewish revival in Kracow:
Jews lived in a suburb of Cracow called Kazimierz, when they were expelled from Cracow in 1495. I am not doing justice to the story--there was a long history of Jews being expelled from Cracow.
 |
| Map of the Jewish Section |
 |
| Fence in Jewish section had Magen David |
 |
| Windows from Temple Synagogue, Jewish synagogues in Poland are being restored |
 |
| Jewish Cemetery in Cracow |
We had a lovely afternoon walking around looking at amber, tasting the wonderful chocolate and taking in the local city life.
A few highlights from the afternoon...
We also enjoyed a gourmet dinner at a local restaurant.
No comments:
Post a Comment