Krakow is the second largest city in Poland and has over the centuries been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural and artistic life. It has the largest medieval market square in Europe complete with old Cloth Hall, a chapel and a cathedral (St Mary's). Curiously the cathedral has two spires of unequal height. Don't ask brothers to build two spires - it will only lead to unhealthy competition and an unhappy ending. Underneath the market square there is an extensive underground museum where they have excavated the hundreds of years of former habitation.
This is the city of the Krakow Jewish Ghetto, The Jagellonian University where Copernicus studied before going to Padua, the home of Helena Rubenstein, Roman Polanski, Schindler's Factory, Wawel Castle and the mound built to remember Polish General Tadeusz Koscuiszko 1746-1817 (yes Mt Koscuisko is named after him). We had to practice for some minutes to pronounce his name correctly.
Re-read Thomas Keneally's Schindler's Ark in the days before we arrived in Krakow which made the sights that much more real. The site of Schindler's factory is now a museum mostly about the general Polish suffering under the Nazis.
KRAKOW CITY
This is the city of the Krakow Jewish Ghetto, The Jagellonian University where Copernicus studied before going to Padua, the home of Helena Rubenstein, Roman Polanski, Schindler's Factory, Wawel Castle and the mound built to remember Polish General Tadeusz Koscuiszko 1746-1817 (yes Mt Koscuisko is named after him). We had to practice for some minutes to pronounce his name correctly.
Re-read Thomas Keneally's Schindler's Ark in the days before we arrived in Krakow which made the sights that much more real. The site of Schindler's factory is now a museum mostly about the general Polish suffering under the Nazis.
KRAKOW CITY
JEWISH QUARTER OF OLD TOWN. Krakow had a thriving Jewish population for centuries. When the Nazi's arrived there were up to 80,000. This was quickly reduced to about 15,000 who remained as slave labour. The population was forcibly removed from the town proper and sent across the river to the new Jewish Ghetto "for their own protection". From there either via deportation, summary execution, slave labour or transport to Auschwitz a short train ride away they were removed. About 3000 survived the war and the population is currently about 400.
JEWISH GHETTO ACROSS THE WISLA RIVER
We visited both the Schindler factory and the famous Pharmacy. The pharmacy was situated on Plac Zgody and was run by Tadeusz Pankiewicz. He was the only proprietor to decline the German offer of relocating to the aryan side of the city when the "ghetto" was established. He was given permission to continue operating his establishment as the only pharmacy in the Ghetto, and reside on the premises. Pankiewicz and his staff, Irena Drozdzikowska, Helena Krywaniuk, and Aurelia Danek, risked their lives to undertake numerous clandestine operations: smuggling food and information, and offering shelter on the premises for Jews facing deportation to the camps.
Kościuszki
Andrzej Tadeusz Bonawentura Kościuszko was a Polish military engineer who fought in the Polish struggles against Russia and Prussia, and on the American side in the American Revolutionary War As Supreme Commander of the Polish National Armed Forces, he led the 1794 Kosciuszko Uprising
In 1796, following the death of Tsaritsa Catherine the Great, Kościuszko was pardoned by her successor Tsar Paul 1 and emigrated to the United States. A close friend of Thomas Jefferson, with whom he shared ideals of human rights, Kościuszko wrote a will in 1798 dedicating his American assets to the education and freedom of U.S. slaves. He eventually returned to Europe and lived in Switzerland until his death in 1817. He deserves a hill to two!
In 1796, following the death of Tsaritsa Catherine the Great, Kościuszko was pardoned by her successor Tsar Paul 1 and emigrated to the United States. A close friend of Thomas Jefferson, with whom he shared ideals of human rights, Kościuszko wrote a will in 1798 dedicating his American assets to the education and freedom of U.S. slaves. He eventually returned to Europe and lived in Switzerland until his death in 1817. He deserves a hill to two!
