The heart of the Jewish quarters in Cracow. Part I

A WALK FROM FLORIANSKA TO PODGORZE: Deep into the heart of the Jewish quarters in Cracow.
Following some indications prepared by the teachers involved in the visit to Poland beforehand, it was decided that the students would be in charge of guiding our tour to Podgorze in Cracow, with a previous stop at Kazimierz. 

                                 

The aim of this activity was to get the students to understand a map and give indications to get from one place to another and, at the same time, help them explore how and where the Jewish population used to live in Krakow before the Nazi Regime and World War II, and during that precise period in history, too, and how they are recovering what they were deprived of at that time, as well as how they are fighting for their rights today. 

     

In order to fulfill the task, the students were given a photocophy with some questions which they had to answer along the way. It would serve them as well to find their way along the city and to organise the information for the article we had already planned to write.

Indications: (by the students)
You are at Florianska street. Leave the hostel (Tutti Frutti) and turn left. Go straight ahead until you get to Rynek Glowny.
-‘What can you see?’, a teacher asks.
(Students answer)
‘We’re at Plac Mariacki. You can see a lot of flats, shops, old buildings, cafés and very wide crowded streets that surround you. There are also some carriages thrown away by horses’.

                                      

-‘What can you see in front of you, a little to the left?’, the teacher asks.
(Students answer)
‘There’s a big church. It’s called Bazylika Mariacka’.
We stopped and decided to have a look inside the church. They were in the middle of a mass so, as we didn’t want to disturb, we decided to leave and come back any other moment. We thought it was incredibly beautiful because of the bright blue ceiling and its rich golden ornaments. 

For nice photographs of its interior visit this address: 
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/Church_of_Our_Lady_Assumed_into_Heaven_(St._Mary%27s_Church),_interior-choir_and_organ,_5_Mariacki_square,_Old_Town,_Krakow,_Poland.jpg

Or this other one: http://www.poland.travel/en-us/images/stories/polskatravel/Polska/panoramy/Bazylika_Mariacka_Kosciol_Mariacki.jpg

Outside the church:
‘And, now, we’re at Rynek Glowny again, please, tell me’, a teacher says:
-‘What can you see a little to the right?’
(The students hurry up, looking for signposts or for an answer from any passer-by)
(Students answer)
‘That’s something called Sukiennice. It’s a large very beautiful building. It has some shops inside and it’s crowded because there are a lot of small stalls selling souvenirs and jewelry. It’s so lively and colourful!’

  

-'Do you like the square?', the teacher wants to know.
(Students answer)
‘Yes, we love it. This square is amazing. There are many nice buildings and it’s very wide and lively’. ‘I like the horses and the white carriages’, says one student from the back.'They remind me of ancient times'.
Now, turn a little to the left. Go straight ahead until you see the Hard Rock Café. Turn left at the café.
-The teacher requests, ‘Can you see the name of the street?’
(Students answer)
‘Yes, it’s called Ulica Sienna, and, now, we have to go straight ahead until we get to the Planty’. What’s the Planty?’, the students ask, while we keep on walking.
‘It’s a garden which surrounds all the Old Town. It’s grown on the ground where the walls of the city were located in the Middle Ages. Just a small part of the walls has been kept and our hostel was very near, in Florianska Street. You’ll see it this evening, when we leave for Bierun’, a teacher answers.

 

     


(Photograph on the left taken from: http://visitkrakow.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/800px-Park_Planty_Bia%C5%82ystok_20081.jpg)
 

At the Planty, go straight ahead, take Starowislna Street. Go straight ahead, cross Dietla Street and go straight ahead until you get to Miodowa Street. Cross this street and you’ll be in a small park. Take the side on the right.
-‘Where are you now?’, asks the other teacher now.
(Students answer)
‘We’ve arrived at the Kazimierz district. The name of the place is Szeroka as you can see there (pointing towards a signpost)’.

Now, we’ve decided to stop for a while and ask the students to investigate the place a little bit. They will have to look for 4 synagogues nearby and the old Jewish Remuh Cemetery. They will have to pay attention to strange symbols and to the size of the quarter. To finish, they will have to choose the synagogue that they like the most. These Synagogues can be found in less than a ten minute walk:

-Remuh Synagogue. Right at the heart of Szeroka. It’s small but nice and it’s still active although it was closed when we tried to visit it because of a local festivity. Its entrance is through an arched gate which displays a Hebrew inscription.

 

-Remuh Cemetery (Cmentarz Zydowski Remu in Polish). It’s next to the church. Although it was destroyed by the Nazis, it still keeps some gravestones with Hebrew inscriptions.

-Popper Synagogue (Synagoga Poppera) looks onto Szeroka on one side and onto Dajwor Street on the other. It used to be one of the most beautiful and outstanding synagogues in Krakow but its interior was completely destroyed during the Nazi Regime. It’s still beautiful outside but it’s not easy to recognize the building as a synagogue when you look at it from Szeroka, as it's hidden amongst high trees.  It's a non-active synagogue since the end of Second World War. Nowadays, it is the Old Town Youth Cultural Centre. 

-Stara Synagogue. It’s at the end of Szeroka and, unlike the previous one, it’s very easily recognizable as it’s not hidden behind anything and it looks onto an open little square. It’s the oldest synagogue in Cracow, dating back to the 15th century,  and it’s used as a museum nowadays, after undergoing a deep reconstruction. It is a division of the Historical Museum of Cracow, payig special attention to Cracow's Jews.

-Wyzoka Synagogue. It’s the highest in Cracow.

-Izaak Jakubowicz Synagogue. It’s a large synagogue with a rich interior decoration. Probably, it’s the most important from the point of view of architecture.

-Kupa Synagogue. It's small, a bit hidden amongst trees and bushes and enclosed in a little garden where children play.

                                        
 
The students chose Stara Synagogue as their favourite one. They liked it because it is the oldest.
                                         

After gathering some of the previous information, we started our walk again. So the students started guiding us once more: Leave Szeroka. Take Bartosza Street, on the right of the Stara Synagogue, and go straight ahead until Swietego Wawrzynca. Turn left and go straight ahead until you reach Starowislna. Turn right and go straight ahead. Cross the bridge over the river. Go straight ahead until you get to Plac Bohaterow Getta.
Stop and think.
-‘What do you think this is? What does it represent?’, asks one of the teachers, remarking, ‘Remember that, now, we are at the ghetto during  the Nazi Regime’.
(Students answer)
-‘I don’t know…there are a lot of chairs on the square… It may represent a lot of people waiting…’ , ‘or a lot of people tired…’ another student adds.

                      

At this step, the teachers suggested the students should go and ask somebody in order to get an answer. There was a group of people in the square (Plac Bohaterow Ghetta). They looked like foreigners and, when we got there, apparently, they were recording some kind of performance as they were moving slowly and gently, as if dancing.
(In the students words)
‘A group of young people were dancing while some cameras were recording their performance and a photographer was taking some photos. When we came and asked what they were doing, they answered that they were a group of teachers and students from the USA who had come to Cracow for a visit and they added they were recording some kind of memorial to honour the victims of the Holocaust because ‘the world mustn’t forget it’, nor can mankind let something like that happen again. We were chatting to them for a while as they looked really nice and we were amazed to learn that people come here from so far away for this reason.
This way, our students learnt that the square is a symbol of all the victims who died at the Nazi hands. They were gathered there before being distributed to the extermination camps, like Auschwitz, which we would visit a few days later.
At the bottom of the square, on the right, there was a little...shop...?

                                   
 

We asked the students to go and get information about what it was.
(Students answer after a little time)
 -‘That’s the Apteka Pod Orlem. It’s a museum now. It was important in the past because the pharmacist who worked there helped a lot of Jews to try and save their lives’.
At the end of our tour, we also learnt that during the Nazi Regime, the Jewish Synagogues were destroyed inside, and, many times, outside, too, and the buildings were used as storehouses for military equipment as well as for storage in general.

We agreed that it's good to see how these quarters which were once destroyed, today are full of life with shops, restaurants, many museums and civic centres and a lively culture.

RETURN.
After lunch, we started our way back to the hostel to get our luggage and depart for Bierun.
But we still found some other nice monuments which we’d like to talk about.
 

TEMPEL SYNAGOGUE, in Miodowa Street.
It’s a very beautiful large synagogue with a richly decorated interior. It is one of the active synagogues today. Many concerts are organized there too. It is the youngest in Cracow.

                  

Next to it, at its back, we could see a small spot in the courtyard where the Jewish community invites you to come and get to know their culture, as shown in the photographs at the beginning.
                                        

FLORIAN GATE.
This was our entrance gate to Poland.

  It is one of the fortified gates which used to defend the city and, in fact, the most important entrance to the city by the end of the 13th century. It was later connected to the circular barbican by means of a long bridge. It is still a very popular entrance today and, just as you pass it, you’re at Florianska Street, one of the most lively streets in the Old Town, which takes you straight ahead to Rynek Glowny.

THE BARBICAN.
It’s a defensive building, made in red brick by the end of the 15th century. It’s round and it’s crowned by seven turrets.  Originally, a covered passageway linked it to the city walls. It's just in front of Plac Matejki, where we took our minibus to Bierun, or, to be more precise, it's between Plac Matejki and Florian Gate.
                         

This peculiar article has been written with the help of the students in 4th A and 4th DC partcicipating in the project: Laura Ramos Martínez, Mario García Barca, Raquel Iglesias Botana, José M. Álvarez Medín, Paula Fernández Fernández, Iván Castro Couce, Irene Ramos Bogo, Pablo Loureiro Cela, Irene López Álvarez, Daniel Seoane López and Rubén Suárez Díaz, and the collaboration of their teachers, Alfonso Prieto Pita and Mª del Carmen Torres Rodríguez.