Kazimierz, The Ghettoes and Plaszow
(The) Jews are gone. One can only try to preserve, maintain and fix the memory of them - not only of their struggle and death (as in Warsaw and Auschwitz), but of their life, of the values that guided their yearnings, of the international life and their unique culture. Cracow was one of the places where that life was most rich, most beautiful, most varied, and the most evidence of it has survived here. Henryk Halkowski, a surviving Krakow Jew. Extracted from Upon the Doorposts of Thy House by
- Ruth Ellen Gruber (Wiley). South from Wawel Hill lies the Kazimierz district, originally a distinct town named after King Kazimierz, who granted the founding charter in 1335. Thanks to the acquisition of royal privileges, the settlement developed rapidly, trade centring around a market square almost equal in size to Krakow's. The main influence on the character of Kazimierz, however, was King Jan Olbracht's decision to move Krakow's already significant Jewish population into the area from the ul. sw. Anny district in 1495. In tandem with Warsaw, where a ghetto was created around the same time, Kazimierz grew to become one of the main cultural centres of Polish Jewry. Jews were initially limited to an area around modern-day ul. Szeroka and Miodowa, and it was only in the nineteenth century that they began to spread into other parts of Kazimierz. By this time there were ghettoes all over the country, but descriptions of Kazimierz in Polish art and literature make it clear that there was something special about the headily Oriental atmosphere of this place. The soul of the area was to perish in the gas chambers of nearby Auschwitz, but many of the buildings, synagogues included, have survived. Walking round the streets today, you feel the weight of an absent culture. Yiddish inscriptions fronting the doorways, an old pharmacy, a ruined theatre: the details make it easier to picture what has gone than wandering around the drab postwar housing estates covering the former Warsaw Ghetto. Recent years have seen a marked revival of life and activity in Kazimierz. Long-neglected buildings are finally being renovated, many with financial assistance from the worldwide Jewish community, and the area has seen a marked increase in visitors, in part thanks to Steven Spielberg's film Schindler's List , much of which was filmed in and around Kazimierz, in part to the growing number of Jews drawn to this erstwhile centre of European Jewish culture. Modern Kazimierz is a strange mixture of gentrified tourist suburb and bohemian inner-city area. As well as hotels and restaurants aimed squarely at richer tourists, cafes and bars patronized by sassy young Krakovians are increasingly colonizing Kazimierz's old tenement houses. Above all today's Kazimierz is a place to enjoy, as well as to ponder the more profound aspects of Poland's Jewish heritage. There's a Kazimierz branch of the Krakow tourist information office at ul. Jozefa 7 (Mon-Fri 10am-4pm), and signboard-maps marked with tourist sights are planted at regular intervals throughout the district.
Your Tip for Kazimierz the ghettoes and Plaszow
Help other backpackers! Write your own guides and backpacking tips to Kazimierz the ghettoes and Plaszow - they will appear instantly on this page - Please only write a tip/guide to Kazimierz the ghettoes and Plaszow - visit the main Kazimierz the ghettoes and Plaszow forum to ask a question!
Please do not post links to your site here (they won't work) - please use the Kazimierz the ghettoes and Plaszow webguide section below! Thanks.
| 
