With delegations from over sixty countries expected, and all of Cracow's hotels booked solid as a result, it is unlikely that travellers will have much luck in getting to the museum at Auschwitz for the sixtieth anniversary of the liberation this week.
However, if you are in Cracow, and keen to dig deeper into the lost world of pre-war Poland, there are a number of evocative walks through the city that are well worth taking. Make sure you wrap up warm and take a good map.
A Walk Through Jewish Cracow
Starting just to the east of the Old Town Gate, you can walk down Szpitalna street towards the heart of the Old Town. This street was once a sort of colossal second hand bookshop. Virtually all the owners were Jewish, and the square that is now a car-park once served as a venue for open air book markets.
Many famous artists, both Polish and Jewish, got started on Szpitalna street, as the bookshop owners were keen champions of fresh talent.
Head on down through the Maly Rynek (the Little Market Square) and then turn left down Sienna to the Planty gardens - the belt of parkland that rings the Old Town. Head south along the Planty until you are adjacent to Sarego street.
Sarego, coupled with Sebastiana which runs parallel to it, were two grand streets that were by and large inhabited by well-to-do Jewish families. Walk down either of these and you will soon be on the fringe of the area that is most strongly associated with Cracow's Jews (Kazimierz.)
Cross the expansive Dietla avenue and then continue down Sebastiana. Now you are entering Kazimierz (see also 'Guide' section of Cracow Life above).
Before the war, Kazimierz offered an impoverished echo of the thriving Jewish centre that was so famed in the Renaissance and baroque eras. Scores of the houses around you would have housed little Jewish stores, right up until 1939. Very occasionally, fragments of pre-war Jewish lettering can be discerned above the doorways of houses.
Head for the seventeenth century Isaac's Synagogue (ul. Kupa 18) for a glimpse of past glories. The late nineteenth century Tempel Synagogue is also impressive (ul. Miodowa 24). It has a vibrant interior that has been beautifully restored. This was the only synagogue in the district that held services in Polish as well as Hebrew. It was known accordingly as the Progressive Synagogue.
Walk through Szeroka street where the houses still exude a faded air of mercantile prosperity and elegance. It's well worth having a look at the Remuh cemetery at No. 40. It is the only well-preserved Renaissance Jewish Cemetery in Europe (See again 'Guide' Section). Many of the tombstones were smashed by the Nazi's and these have been cobbled together to form a wailing wall on the eastern boundary of the graveyard. This is one of the most powerful sights in Kazimierz today.
Leave Szeroka by taking the turning east by Hotel Ester. Now head south down Dajwor street until you reach the superb Galicia Jewish Museum at no. 18. This is an excellent place to finish the walk. The museum has a revelatory photographic exhibition called 'Traces of Memory' which conjures up the lost Jewish world of the region. A masterpiece. (See 'Culture' Section under Museums).
** For an alternative walk, this time focused more on the destruction of the pre-war world, you could cross the river and begin at 'The Pharmacy Under the Eagles' Museum which is located in Podgorze (See Culture under Museums). Part of this district housed the infamous wartime ghetto. It was here that some of the most horrific crimes were committed.
*** Finally, history recalls the other victims of Auschwitz. The camp itself was originally set up as a concentration camp for the Polish intelligentsia. Thousands of Poles perished alongside Jews, Russians and gypsies. It is also forgotten that thousands of the Jews themselves were proud Polish citizens. The museum at ul. Pomorska, chronicles the trials of the Poles under Nazi occupation, a plight that is often forgotten. 'In Prague, large red posters were to be put up announcing the execution of seven Czechs,' remarked Nazi Governor Hans Frank in 1940. 'If I wanted to put up a poster for every seven Poles that were executed, there would not be enough trees in all the Polish forests to supply the paper. Yes, we had to get down sharply.'
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