The Jewish Quarter's Re-birth

Kazimierz – also known as Krakow’s Jewish Quarter – is a 15-minute walk from Krakow’s Old Town.  For over 500 years, Kazimierz was a place of peaceful coexistence between the ethnic Polish and Jewish communities and was the centre of Jewish life until the Nazis took control of Poland.

When the Nazis took control of Krakow, newly appointed Governor General Hans Frank declared that Krakow would become the most “racially pure” city in all of Europe and expunged all but 15,000 Jews from the city.  These remaining individuals were forced from their homes into to the Jewish Ghetto located in the industrial area on the other side of the river, far enough away to keep the rest of the population “clean and safe”.   One of the notable residents was Roman Polanski who recounted his experiences there many years later. 

The Ghetto was physically very small, with room for about 3,000 individuals versus the 15,000 that lived there.  Without enough space inside the homes to house everyone, many ended up living on the streets and, much like in Warsaw, disease and illness ran rampant.

In the centre square of the Ghetto – now named Ghetto Heroes Square – are 33 iron/bronze chairs – bringing to life a haunting photograph that captured the Jews moving to the Ghetto and being forced to carry all of their possessions – including chairs – on their person.  Approximately 33,000 Jews perished in the Krakow Ghetto. 

When all of the Jews had been moved to the Ghetto, a wall was erected around it.  In a symbolically cruel gesture, the wall was designed in the shape of tombstones…and the construction began right at the start of Passover, a time when the Jewish community celebrates their liberation from slavery in Egypt.

There are some stories of the Gentile resistance in Krakow, such as Polish Roman Catholic pharmacist Tadeusz Pankiewicz, who obtained permission from the German authorities to run the "Under the Eagle Pharmacy" and treat the community living in the Ghetto.  And others, like Oskar Schindler, who although a controversial figure, is also recognized with fighting for and saving the lives of 1,200 Jews by employing Jews in his enamelware and ammunitions factories and paying off Nazi guards in order to house them close to the factory and keep them safe.  Schindler’s old factory is now a museum tracing the horrors of WWII in Krakow.

After the war ended, the Jewish Quarter fell into disrepair under Communist rule and became one of the city’s dodgiest districts.

In the 1990s, however, Steven Spielberg filmed Schindler’s List in the Quarter, bringing new attention and life to the area.  Tourists came from all around the world to reflect and learn more, helping it to re-emerge as a bustling, bohemian neighbourhood full of historical sites and atmosphere.

The Jewish Quarter was easily our favourite area of Krakow, with quaint houses and uneven streets, innovative (and vegetarian!) restaurants and an overwhelming feeling of warmth and authenticity.  

And we are not alone.  Many believe that Kazimierz is the European city that conveys the most genuine sense of what pre-war Jewish and Polish life was like, with synagogues and Jewish cemeteries still intact and houses similar to what would have existed before the Nazis invaded. 

While in the Jewish Quarter, we did our best to embrace Jewish culture, eating at many Jewish-inspired restaurants and listening to a live Klezmer performance, which was haunting yet warm and much more enjoyable than we had anticipated.  But in the back of our mind, we knew this district wasn’t completely authentic – of the 60,000-80,000 Jews living in the city before the War, there are now only 700 that remain, far smaller than the Quarter can accommodate and making the tragedy feel even more real.