The Jews of Krak贸w
and Oskar Schindler
Greetings and welcome once again to
the latest exciting instalment of Adventures With Harvey, this edition comes to
you from the city of Krak贸w in southern Poland.
We’ve both fallen in love with this country and in particular this city
and have plenty of insights to share, but you’ll have to read on because… as we
all know, chronology is important (or so those in the pink corner remind me). So as usual, grab yourself a nice hot cuppa
or a glass of wine and settle in for an update on our travels, we have a bit to
report!
Our last edition has us departing the
Austrian town of Linz (having accidentally left a lovely big oil stain in the
carpark) and heading east, to visit some smaller towns back behind the former iron
curtain. These days in many places you would hardly
know you were in what was once a communist country – the larger cities are full
of Soviet era apartment blocks which are easily recognisable however the
smaller towns don’t look a whole different from their western
counterparts. Our first stop in Hungary
was the town of Sopron and, although it’s less than 2 weeks since we were there,
your author is struggling to recall anything of significance to report. So let’s not use up unnecessary column inches
and we’ll move swiftly onto the town of Gyor… which, for no particularly good
reason falls into the same category 馃槉. Both
were lovely little towns and as usual, the Woodies enjoyed a most pleasant stroll
around and took a few photos in the town squares etc. The most memorable thing from Hungary was
therefore our dinner in Gyor which consisted of a starter of traditional fish
soup (which was surprisingly good) followed by a plate each of Hungarian dumplings
which looked like macaroni or sp盲tzle and were smothered in goulash (stew) and a sumptuous pork loin respectively.
Absolutely delicious and in such huge quantities that there was enough
to take away for our lunch the next day.
Our route from Gyor to Brno in
Czech Republic took us back through Slovakia, skirting to the western side of
Bratislava which we had visited earlier.
We needed a break from driving so stopped at the small town of Malacky
in a park adjacent to the P谩lffyovsk媒 Ka拧tiel, a
huge old manor house on extensive gardens which these days looks to be mainly
derelict. Although we weren’t lucky
enough to be there on one of the few days it’s open to the public, it was a
lovely wander around the grounds and try to figure out how old it
might be, who might own it or have owned it, what it may have been used for in
the past and who looks to be halfway through fixing it up now (the roof looked quite new but not much else). Google can of course tell you all this
information however it’s fun trying to guess and imagine what such a place was
like in its heyday.
Carrying on to Brno in Czech Republic,
we found this was a much larger city with plenty more going on. Your author was particularly interested in a
cold war nuclear fallout shelter, Bunker 10-Z, however with little interest
being shown from Harvey’s other occupant, off he rode on his bicycle to check
it out for himself. Cut into the side of
the hill underneath Hrad 艩pilberk (which I guess is Czech for large castle overlooking
the city) this is one of the few remaining shelters of its type in Europe. Originally built by the Nazis and used as an
air raid shelter during the WWII, it was converted during the 1950’s into a
fully self-sufficient air-tight fallout-proof bunker which could house up to 600 people for 3 days if required. Throughout the
tour there were videos of elderly folk who sheltered there during WWII relating
their experiences, as well as former employees explaining how the various
components worked, e.g. air filtration, backup diesel generator etc. At the end of the cold war it was sealed up
and not until 2015 was it reopened and converted into a museum (with some accommodation
also available for hardy tourists). Everything
apparently still works and could be quickly resurrected if necessary although
one suspects there may be a few cobwebs to blow out!
Lonely Planet describes the town of Olomouc
as a sleeper, a hidden gem, unknown to many within the Czech Republic and well
away from the usual tourist route. Such
a description is like a magnet for we Travelling Woodies so off we went to
check it out… and oh my goodness, what a treat.
We’re always happy when a Harvey parking spot is found within walking
distance of a town centre, and in this case one felt particularly safe
overnight as our nearest neighbour was the police station. A short walk later and we found the most
delightful town square containing one of the tallest monuments in Europe a baroque beauty reaching 35m into the air, and plenty of little shops and eateries to pique our
interest. The church was enormous as
well, with a wonderful sand sculpture out the front – we stopped for our usual
early evening refreshment and game of cards when we were forced inside by a tempestuous
thunderstorm followed by the most perfect rainbow. Thanks Olomouc, you have been our highlight
of the last few days, on this occasion Lonely Planet was bang on the money!
The next day our drive of 175km was a
quiet and sober affair as we contemplated our next stop, the concentration camp
at Auschwitz-Birkenau. How does one
prepare oneself for a visit to the site of probably the most horrific
mass-murder in human history.
The numbers are incomprehensible,
around 1.5m people murdered of which around 1.1m were Jews, the remainder being
made up of Russian POW’s, Gypsies, Poles, Slavs and anyone else the Nazis didn’t
like. The industrial scale and efficiency
of it all are astonishing and tragic in equal measure, there were around 6
different gas chambers built, each being larger and more ‘efficient’ than the
last. The final 2 models in use at the
time the camp was liberated could each suffocate and cremate almost 1500 people each per day. To stand on the very platform
where the trains arrived and people were selected for either immediate death,
or in the case of around 20% of arrivals, being assigned to a work party (there
were several dozen sub-camps nearby for the supply of slave labour to local
industries) where you would be worked and starved to death over the following
weeks or months. Or if you were even
unluckier still, you may be selected for medical experimentation by Dr Josef
Mengele and Co. There aren’t enough
adjectives or expletives to describe the horror of this place, it can only be
described as one of the lowest points in the whole history of mankind. Our guided tour took us through several of the
barracks and other areas of the camp – poignantly, there are rooms showing
massive piles of shoes, suitcases, glasses, prosthetic limbs etc but the most
sobering relic was the hair. All inmates
had their heads shaved and the hair was baled up and sold for the manufacture
of such items as carpet underlay. When
the camp was liberated by the Red Army, there remained some 7 tonnes of baled hair
of which 5 tonnes were burnt but the rest (yes, 2 tonnes of hair!) remains in
the camp which out of respect for the victims is unable to be photographed. Walking
through the camp your author had the feeling of needing a shower to wash the
place off and that feeling has returned in writing this account.
And this is only one, albeit the most
well-known, of over 10 camps in Poland and many others throughout the Third Reich. Names such as Treblinka (900,000 deaths), Sobibor
(200,000 deaths) and Belzec (600,000 deaths) are also in Poland within a few hundred kilometres.
All of which brings us to a larger
question – was Hitler successful in exterminating Jews from Europe? The answer is, tragically, largely yes. Prior to the war there were more than 16m
Jews worldwide of whom 57% lived in Europe.
Even today, the worldwide population hasn’t recovered to pre-holocaust
levels and sadly fewer than 10% of those now live in Europe. Part of the reason is that very large Jewish
communities and populations were concentrated in Eastern Europe, places like
Hungary, Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania etc and following the war these all became
communist. Which although certainly less
problematic than the aforementioned regime, there was little tolerance for religion
in general, and certainly nothing attracting the Jewish communities to
return. So they never did. These days you see only a smattering here
and there - in fact the only town I can remember seeing Orthodox Jews in any
numbers on this entire trip is in Antwerp.
Krak贸w is our new favourite town for reasons
I shall shortly describe, and your author promises that the tone of this blog will
shortly lighten, however not before we hear the story of Oskar Schindler. Made famous by the 1990’s Spielberg movie,
Krakow is the setting and Schindler’s factory is still there, these days
converted into a museum as these things often are. This one is enormous and extensive and
includes not only the story of the famous list, but also Polish history in
general and in particular what happened to that nation during WWII. Those with the best memories may recall my
report on my visit to the WWII museum in Gdansk last October and the fact that at
the outbreak of war in September 1939 the Russians invaded from the east almost
simultaneously, the split of Poland having been earlier agreed in secret between
Messrs Molotov and Ribbentrop from Russia and Germany respectively. My goodness what a hard time the Poles have
had over the centuries, almost being continuously occupied and/or invaded from
one side or the other. And just yesterday I
read in the newspaper than the Polish army have deployed troops to the border with
Belarus (thankfully many hundreds of km away from us) due to tensions in the
area. Sometimes I’m glad we live in New
Zealand, the contrast right now couldn’t be more stark!
We did a walking tour of Jewish Krak贸w
which was led by the wonderful Tomasz or Big Tom to his friends (being more than 2m
tall) which included the old Jewish
suburb of Kazimierz which at one point had over 200 synagogues. Beginning with their expulsion from England
in the 12th century which many other countries followed, Jews were
forced east over the following few hundred years, settling in Poland in large numbers. There were about 70,000 living in Krak贸w in
1939 out of a population of 260,000. In
the space of a week after the German invasion they had their assets frozen, were
marked as being Jewish, and were forced out of their homes in large numbers. By 1941 there were only 17,000 left, and they
were forced into a ghetto across the river into an area which previously housed
3,500. With ration cards Jewish adults
were entitled to buy 350 calories worth of food a day – the recommendation for
an average man today is 3,000 calories so of course many died of malnutrition. We walked through the ghetto and stood on the
square where selections were made, the chair memorial was just so sobering. Tomasz told us several stories of survivors
from the ghetto, one being the future film director, an 8 year-old Roman
Polanski and another being Poldek Pfefferberg, who later opened a suitcase shop in
the US. One of Pfefferberg’s customers was
Thomas Keneally to whom he told the story of being saved by Oskar
Schindler. Keneally went on to write Schindler’s
Ark which would then be made into the famous film.
The most popular tourist attraction in
Poland is the Wieliczka Salt Mines just out of Krak贸w and there was no way we
Woodies would be missing that! Salt was
first mined in the area more than 750 years ago and the site only ceased
operation as an active mine in the 1990’s although tourists have been visiting
since 1722! These days there are over
3000km of tunnels and 2350 separate caverns – the tour involves walking around 3km of them so under 1% of the total.
Not for the first time this edition, your faithful correspondent is
struggling for appropriate superlatives – immense, gargantuan and eye-popping
spring to mind, some of these caverns reach as high as 35m and are home to the
world indoor records for the likes of bungy jumping and hot-air ballooning! Almost everything you see is
carved out of rock salt, there are statues and other carvings everywhere and there are also 42 chapels – it’s a proper city down there. The largest cathedral defies description, you’ll
have to take a look at the photos and video – even the multitude of crystals on
the many enormous chandeliers are made entirely from rock salt!
Finally let me tell you about the town
of Krak贸w where we have spent the last week. With a population of around 1 million people,
it has many universities and other tertiary institutions giving it the feeling
of youth and vibrancy. We’ve done a couple
of walking tours here which explained how in the opening week of WWII the Polish
army vacated the city in the face of certain defeat by the oncoming German forces
meaning, at least initially the city was largely unscathed. There was a small amount of damage during
liberation at the tail end of hostilities however fortunately it was repairable
and there was nothing like the level of destruction experienced elsewhere in
Poland, particularly Warsaw which was virtually razed to the ground. At 200m2 the central plaza is the largest in
Europe and is dominated not only by the cathedral but also the enormous Cloth
Market which has been there since the early 14th century.
In 2005 the square between Cloth
Market and Cathedral was being renovated which was a good opportunity for the archaeologists
to get stuck into their work. And my
goodness, what a treasure trove! That
area has been a hive of activity for at least 1000 years and during their dig,
many different layers of civilisation were uncovered so let me tell you what
they did. Once the digging was completed,
they erected a load of concrete columns, then covered them with a ceiling/roof
which was at the level of the current square, then paved it over to look like any other. Now, entering through the Cloth
Market, you can descend and explore almost 1000 years of history right there
underneath the paving stones – it’s a massive site, truly enlightening and
fascinating and something unique in your author’s experience.
The town’s two culinary claims to fame
here are pierogi (dumplings) and vodka, both of which are delicious, plentiful
and cheap. Your author and his lovely travelling
companion have enjoyed a couple of evenings out sampling said delicacies and we
really don’t want to leave!
Are any of you still with me? It’s been a long one, but just so much of
interest to report and this correspondent seems to have got quite a roll on! From here we’re heading west again in the direction
of Wroclaw and then either back through Czech or maybe straight into Bavaria,
we haven’t quite decided yet.
With much love and hugs to you all, this
is the Traveling Woodies bidding you farewell for another edition.
NB: For those who are interested, here
is one final story retold by Tomasz during our ghetto tour. A 13 year-old girl named Rena Finder was standing
in the line for selection and cradling a pair of young puppies, the outcome of
her selection would certainly have seen her end up at Auschwitz and not
surviving the war. When she arrived at
the front of the queue, she offered the puppies to the soldier who accepted
them and told her she needed to go away and live. This meant she was selected for a
concentration camp instead, and later worked at Oskar Schindler’s factory,
therefore surviving the war.
The Nazi in charge at Krak贸w was named
Amon Goeth (pronounced Gert) one of the most sadistic of all those in charge of
eliminating the Jews and nicknamed the Butcher of P艂asz贸w.
Goeth himself was in fact the soldier who met Rena at the front of the
queue and chose her to live. A couple of
generations later a young lady by the name of Jennifer Teege who had been
adopted out as an infant wrote his biography after having discovered this man
was in fact her grandfather. Jennifer
was of mixed race so would undoubtedly have been a victim of her own
grandfather had she lived in Krak贸w a couple of generations earlier.
On a
book signing tour an old lady came up to her, retold her story and explained
that although Goeth was undoubtedly a monster, he had in fact chosen her to
live so must have had at least the tiniest amount of humanity somewhere deep
within.
As always, an interesting and comprehensive blog and pictures. Thanks for taking the time to communicate.,
ReplyDelete