Krakow is a beautiful city with a fascinating history. I don’t know if I could say it is my favorite city but I had a lot of fun walking around the city, looking at the history, and exploring its past. As with the theme of this trip, we focused a lot on its Jewish history. Unlike Warsaw, much of Krakow was not destroyed during the war and so much remains of old Jewish Krakow in the part of the city called Kazimierz. Prior to the war, 65,000 Jews lived in Krakow and even though there are significantly less today, the remnants of their past exist today. One way is through it’s cemeteries. They aren’t in as bad a shape as other ones but they need help. A lot of them go back hundreds of years with each grave telling a story. In some way, that’s what is so amazing about cemeteries. They help preserve memory. They of course aren’t perfect at that but nevertheless they help. The sad part is that when the Germans occupied Poland, they pushed all the Jews into a ghetto to later be deported. This severely damaged Krakovian Jewry.
But, the light shines on today. In Krakow, exists a Jewish Community Center that is now 10 years old. I had the privilege of having dinner at the center. My favorite part of traveling is conversation over food and drink. One thing that people would love to see happen is the community rebuild itself to what it was prior to 1939. I don’t know if that is possible. What I do know is that there is a growing community that exists there and they’re doing amazing things in Krakow. It isn’t fair to judge the community based on its past, so rather help it for the future.
Krakow is a great city with ancient history existing in the present. The sites of the city are beyond gorgeous. Museums and monuments are everywhere to see and worth it.
~Noah Goldman
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