Krakow is a beautiful city. It wasn’t nearly as crowded or full of tourists as the cities in Italy are sometimes. The architecture and atmosphere was completely different. I really enjoyed my time in the city. The main square is really charming, especially at night. I never envisioned myself visiting Eastern Europe when I left home at the start of the semester, but I am glad that I had the opportunity to go. I have heard many people say that Krakow is the next Prague, and although I haven’t been to Prague, I would have to say that it was a pleasure to visit Krakow. I am glad that I was able to see another European country besides Italy while I was studying abroad.
Today Krakow has a very small population of Jews, but before the war it had a large Jewish community. Poland had the largest Jewish community in Europe. In Krakow, I toured Kazimierz, the Jewish quarter. We went to a cemetery that the Nazis had destroyed, so as to use the tombstones in construction. The tombstones had all been painstakingly found and put back in the cemetery. All the tombs that were in pieces were used to make a wall around the cemetery.
We visited the Krakow ghetto as well. The invasion of Poland by Germany in September of 1939 started World War II. This was the first country that was taken by blitzkrieg lightning war and was occupied by the Nazis. The Jews of Krakow were slowly subjected to more restrictions and abuses by the Nazis and eventually had to move into the ghetto that the Nazis built. Life in the ghetto was miserable. The area had been home to roughly three thousand people before it was turned into the ghetto. Fifteen thousand Jews lived in that space afterwarads became a ghetto. Anyone who left the ghetto was punished with death and food in the ghetto was scarce. The walls that were built around the ghetto were in the shapes of tombstones.
Today, the ghetto can barely be distinguished from the rest of the city. Most of the wall is gone and businesses and apartment buildings fill the area that was once the Krakow ghetto. There is one square filled with statues of chairs that was constructed as a memorial. There are empty chairs because after the people were moved from the ghetto to concentration camps, there were only the empty buildings and furniture left in the ghetto.
We visited the brand new Schindler’s factory museum in the ghetto where we learned how Oskar Schindler had saved the lives of many of the Jews living in the ghetto. The museum was very interactive. One minute we were in a living room, the next a jail cell. The museum walked us through the invasion of Poland. Poland was invaded on both sides, first by Germany and second by Russia. Polish citizens had to adjust to life in an occupied country. Polish troops were displaced and many went to Persia to train. Then, they fought with the Allies in Italy. The Polish troops won an important victory at Monte Cassino before the front was able to move north to Rome. By the end of the war, sixteen percent of the pre-war population of Poland had died. This was the highest percentage of any country that was involved in World War II.
After the war, Poland was not given freedom and autonomy, but became a communist country under the control of the Soviet Union. Even at the time I was born, Poland was still under the control of communism. Its modern history is so recent. I probably couldn’t have traveled to Poland at the time I was born, but today Poland is a member of the European Union. Many people there speak English and I was able to get through the weekend only knowing one Polish word, dziękuję, which means thank you.
I enjoyed spending time in Krakow and meeting students from other countries. We ate some Polish food, which was a nice change from Italian for a few days. One of the dishes that I had several times is pierogi, which is a Polish dumpling filled with meat, vegetables, or even fruit. I also had a glass of black currant juice, a regional specialty. On our last night in Krakow, we splurged a little on dessert at a café facing the main square. We could see the Krakow cathedral from our table.
Traveling to Poland was a true test of our travel skills. It takes a full day of traveling to get from Sansepolcro to Krakow. Everything went smoothly until the very end. Our train from Rome to Arezzo suddenly stopped in the middle of a field of sheep. It stayed in this sheep field for about two hours, and got to Arezzo three hours late! However, we were on the train with some nice Italian women who patiently tried to understand us when we asked questions in Italian. We missed the bus back to Sansepolcro, but Dr. Webb kindly called us a taxi and we were back to Sansepolcro in no time.
I decided to save my experiences in Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II Birkenau for my next travel journal because I just got back to Italy yesterday and I want to have more time to write that entry. Check back in next week to read about my experiences there.
Ciao,
Meredith
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