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Written in English as Krakow and traditionally known as Cracow, is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 and has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, economic, cultural and artistic life. Cited as one of Europe's most beautiful cities, its Old Town was declared the first UNESCO World Heritage Site in the world.
After the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany at the start of World War II, Kraków became the capital of Germany's General Government. The Jewish population of the city was forced into a walled zone known as the Kraków Ghetto, from which they were sent to German extermination camps such as the nearby Auschwitz. However, the city was spared from destruction and major bombing.
I was incredibly surprised at the beauty of the city. I had been expecting a typical Communist city, and we got a wonderful central European city.
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After Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, the Schutzstaffel (SS) converted Auschwitz I, an army barracks, into a prisoner-of-war camp for Polish political prisoners. The first inmates were German criminals brought to the camp in May 1940 as functionaries. The first gassings—of Soviet and Polish prisoners—took place in block 11 of Auschwitz I around August 1941. Construction of Auschwitz II began the following month, and from 1942 until late 1944 freight trains delivered Jews from all over German-occupied Europe to its gas chambers.
Of the 1.3 million people sent to Auschwitz, 1.1 million died. The death toll includes 960,000 Jews (865,000 of whom were gassed on arrival), 74,000 non-Jewish Poles, 21,000 Roma, 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war, and up to 15,000 other Europeans. Those not gassed died of starvation, exhaustion, disease, individual executions, or beatings. Others were killed during medical experiments.
At least 802 prisoners tried to escape, 144 successfully, and on 7 October 1944 two Sonderkommando units, consisting of prisoners who staffed the gas chambers, launched an unsuccessful uprising. Only 789 staff (no more than 15 percent) ever stood trial; several, including camp commandant Rudolf Höss, were executed. As the Soviet Red Army approached Auschwitz in January 1945, toward the end of the war, the SS sent most of the camp's population west on a death march to camps inside Germany and Austria. Soviet troops entered the camp on 27 January 1945, a day commemorated since 2005 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
In 1947 Poland founded the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum on the site of Auschwitz I and II, and in 1979 it was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
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Jewish Quarter in Cracow.
Kazimierz is a historical district of Kraków. Since its inception in the fourteenth century, Kazimierz has been an independent city, a royal city of the Crown of the Polish Kingdom, separated from it by a branch of the Vistula river. Its northeastern part of the district was historic Jewish, and whose inhabitants were forcibly relocated by the German occupying forces into the Krakow ghetto just across the river in Podgórze in 1941.
The Kraków Ghetto was one of five major Jewish Ghettos created by Nazi Germany during the German occupation of Poland in World War II. The Jewish Ghetto was liquidated between June 1942 and March 1943, with most of its inhabitants sent to their deaths at Bełżec extermination camp as well as Płaszów slave-labor camp, and Auschwitz concentration camp, 60 kilometres distant.
After the Second World War, devoid of Jews, Kazimierz was neglected by the communist authorities. However, since 1988, now a popular annual Jewish Cultural Festival has drawn Cracovians back to the heart of the Oppidum and re-introduced Jewish culture to a generation of Poles who have grown up without Poland's historic Jewish community. In 1993, Steven Spielberg shot his film Schindler's List largely in Kazimierz (in spite of the fact that very little of the action historically took place there) and this drew international attention to Kazimierz. Since 1993, there have been parallel developments in the restoration of important historic sites in Kazimierz and a booming growth in Jewish-themed restaurants, bars, bookstores and souvenir shops. Not only that, there are also some Jews moving to Kazimierz from Israel and America. Kazimierz with Krakow, is having a small growth in Jewish population recently
Today Kazimierz is one of the major tourist attractions of Krakow and an important center of cultural life of the city.
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The Wieliczka Salt Mine , in the town of Wieliczka, lies within the Kraków metropolitan area. From Neolithic times, sodium chloride (table salt) was produced there from the upwelling brine. The Wieliczka salt mine, excavated from the 13th century, produced table salt continuously until 2007, as one of the world's oldest operating salt mines. Throughout its history, the royal salt mine was operated by the Kraków Salt Mines company. Due to falling salt prices and mine flooding, commercial salt mining was discontinued in 1996. The Wieliczka Salt Mine is now an official Polish Historic Monument . Its attractions include the shafts and labyrinthine passageways, displays of historic salt-mining technology, an underground lake, four chapels and numerous statues carved by miners out of the rock salt, and more recent sculptures by contemporary artists. In 1978 the Wieliczka Salt Mine was placed on the original UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites
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We stayed for a week in an Apartment in Marie Curie Street, quite close to the main square at Cracow. The apartment was fairly basic, but perfectly adequate.
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