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“Most of the events portrayed in Schindler’s List took place in Podgorze and the Plaszow extermination camp, not in Kazimierz,” our guide said. We stood transfixed in the main square of Podgorze, now called Peace Square (Plac Zgody). Around us were 70 empty chairs.
To survive, the displaced Jews needed to work and for that they needed a work permit which the Germans issued at a building that still stands in Podgorze.
We walked over the pedestrian bridge on the Vistula to reach Podgorze in the early evening as the sky was crimson in the aftermath of a rain and hail storm.
The Jewish “Ghetto” which the Nazis created during their occupation was not in Kazimierz. It was in a suburb of Krakow across Vistula River called Podgorze. “The Germans considered Krakow to have been originally a German city which was now being returned to the homeland,” our guide said.
Our guide pointed to a circular structure [74]: “In that building at one time there were 18 bars.” He continued, “Eventually Kazimierz became the place of choice for many.”
... a few yards away from an old house kept as it was damaged during the War. This house “was used in Schindler’s List,” our guide said.
Krakow, however, actively helps the Jews from abroad keep the memory of its Jewish culture alive. Europe’s biggest annual Jewish festival takes place in Kazimierz. The posters of the festival in June were still on the walls when we visited in October.
... and Rubenstein. “Helena Rubinstein’s family once lived here,” our guide said. But those were faux signs. “No business in Kazimierz is now owned by Jews,” our guide said. “The Klezmer music you hear here is not played by Jews.”
“This was the center of the Jewish community. It was used in Schindler’s List.” We noted stores and restaurants here with Jewish names such as Babelstein.
The fabled Jewish cultural life of the pre-War Kazimierz has disappeared. “This was their Broadway,” our guide said as he pointed around to ul Szeroka, a short and wide area that was more like a square.
Our guide pointed to one plaque from two descendants who lived in New York. “Some of those who survived the Nazis went to the United States and Israel. Around 3000 survived. Some went to Warsaw because that is now the financial center of Poland. Those who have left Krakow would not want to come back. Why come back to bad memories?”
The cemetery has been reconstructed since. There were many new memorial plaques by descendants of those buried there.
Behind the Synagogue was the oldest Jewish cemetery in town. The Nazis “destroyed all the tombs here except the tomb of the rabbi.
It was when we arrived in the grounds of Ramuh Synagogue that I saw the only person in Krakow who was wearing a yarmulke.
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