Poland-Day 1
After crossing the border last night, we reached a hotel in Poland around 3:30 AM. We slept until about 10, had a nice Polish breakfast, and then drove another 2 1/2 hrs. to Krakow. We had a Polish guide named Ava who stayed with us for the 3 days in Poland. The scenery in Poland depicts the trouble in the country; it is very brown and drab looking at this time of year and many of the buildings look decrepid, but Poland is a relatively new country and has only been recovering from Communism for 15 yrs or so. First we visited the old Jewish quarter of Krakow and saw 3 synagogues. It is interesting to see the remnants of Jewish restuarants and companies around with a few Hebrew letters on buildings. There we saw the Altnoy Synagogue, the New Synagogue which is the first synagogue where there is a place for women at all, and the Isaac Synagogue. At the New Synagogue, we also saw the cemetery where the Ramah is buried. He is a kabbalist from the 16th century who decides to condense Jewish Law and writes the Mapah.
We then walked in silence from the Jewish Quarter to the Krakow Ghetto, tracing the exact steps of tens of thousands of Jews. More than 20,000 Jews were concentrated inside the ghetto by March 22, 1941 and a year later the deportations to death camps began. We learned about the Judenraht, a 'committee' of Jews appointed by Nazis who were in charge of the Jews; i.e. decided the lists of names to be deported. By March 14, 1943, the final liquidations in Krakow occured. It was very sad to see the remaining walls of the Krakow Ghetto; it is shaped with semi-circles on top, like gravestones, to symbolize that the people inside would die before leaving. We also went to the Schindler Factory (Schindler's List), where Oscar Schindler saved the lives of 1200 Jews. Today there are only 100-150 Jews left in Krakow! At the factory, Baruch our principal and the son of Holocaust survivors, told us the stories of Schindler and a few other brave and courageous people of the Holocaust. Before the Holocaust, there were 3.5 million Jews in Poland and today there are 3-4,000 left.
