Jeannie's Travel Addiction

May 11, 2015

Another interesting   neighborhood in Krakow was Kazimierz . It was the home of the former Jewish community long before WWII.  At the time of WWII , 65,000 Jews lived in Krakow.  Only a few thousand survived the war and even a fewer number live in Krakow today.  Kazimierz has 2 Jewish Cemeteries.  The Old Cemetery was used for burials from 1552 to 1880. The New Cemetery opened in 1880. WWI I   started in Poland in 1939. The Nazis desecrated both cemeteries, even using gravestones as pavement in their concentration camps.  Both cemeteries were repaired in the 1950’s and the gravestones that had been shattered by the Nazis was made into a wall around the Cemetery.

Schindler’s Factory , where he worked and  where much of the movie was filmed, has now been made into a Museum . The Museum explains the war’s affects on Poland and about Schindlers story.  Photos of   many of the Jews that Schindler saved were hanging in the front of the museum. To say the museum’s contents were disturbing is an understatement.

The Old Cemetery

The mosaic wall made from shattered gravestones at the Old Cemetery.

The New Cemetery

Some  signs at the Cemeteries can bring tears to your eyes.

Schindler’s Factory with photos of some of the people he saved in the window.

Recreation of Schindler’s desk.

There were rooms and rooms of photos of  Poland during the war and of how the Jewish community was treated and tortured and murdered.  Also many photos of the war equipment used during that era.  This real tank from WWII struck  my emotions the most of the equipment.   As you can see by the man in the back of it, the tank is small and looks like a tin can.  Hard to imagine it was of much protection.

Thanks for reading!