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July 3, 2009
Seeing light and dark in Poland
The revitalized European nation has much to offer the Jewish visitor.
EVA COHEN
A trip to Poland is a very meaningful one, both for those who have never been before and for return visitors. The range of places to visit is so wide that one trip to the country can evoke extremely different emotions from the next.
Jewish life in Poland extends for centuries before the Holocaust and the light of this life can be seen when visiting the old synagogues and places of learning that still stand. Krakow is a perfect place to start.
The old Jewish quarter in Krakow is filled with modest hotels. One, the Eden Hotel, is right around the corner from a couple of synagogues that get minyans each Shabbat, and each has its own mikvah. There are only about 200 Jews currently living in Krakow, but Jewish groups go through there all year. The old Jewish quarter is now very quaint and tourist-centred. There are several kosher and kosher-style restaurants and a number of tours with translation into several languages. There are several sites, including the old Jewish hospital and its adjoining synagogue, the cemetery and schools. The area stretches about three streets in each direction and it holds a plethora of stories about how Jews once lived there and what was important to them.
The old quarter remains mostly intact. The Jews were forced to move across the river into another section of the city, so the structures where they used to live remain in relatively good shape. The main square – where the Krakow Jewish ghetto was during the Holocaust – is a huge monument to those who lost their lives either in the square or were sent on trains to death camps from that spot. Just around the corner is Oscar Schindler's factory. Although tourists can no longer go inside the gates, it's still quite a sight from the outside. Many of the scenes from Steven Spielberg's film Schindler's List are in places around the old ghetto that have been preserved.
Poland's capital, Warsaw, does not have as much of its Jewish quarter remaining. There are two sections of the ghetto wall that remain as testimony to what stood during the Holocaust. However, these are very small sections and are not as tall as they once were. Even still, it is almost overwhelming to be there and to see how the Jewish area was cordoned off from the rest of the world at that time.
The areas surrounding the remainder of the wall are quite moving. At one place, there is the bunker where the Warsaw resistance fighters hid; around the corner, there is a large memorial in the spot from where the trains to the camps departed. The large synagogue in Warsaw still functions and there is also a Jewish community centre with a restaurant. Among the must-see attractions in Warsaw is the Warsaw Uprising Museum, a world-class facility built in 2004 that chronicles Polish resistance during the war through photographs, artifacts and a film.
Aside from Krakow and Warsaw, there are smaller cities and towns throughout the country, each with amazing histories. Lublin, in particular, has a large yeshivah that makes for a rewarding visit. Yeshivah Chachmei Lublin was reopened in the city in 2007 and is the first synagogue to be renovated and dedicated in Poland since the Second World War solely through funding from Polish Jewry, without government or other charitable support. Prior to the Holocaust, the yeshivah was Europe's largest. It is currently being renovated into a hostel for young Jewish travellers.
If transportation is not an issue, and you want to see Poland on your own and not on an organized tour, look up and try to fit in small towns that used to have Jewish populations. There are many stories about the rabbis and populations who used to live in places that were 90 per cent Jewish and in which not a single Jew now lives. Poland is also the birthplace of Chassidism and the graves of some very influential rabbis, including the Ba'al Shem Tov, can be visited.
While only a part of your journey, a trip to Poland is not complete without a visit to at least one of the Nazis' death and concentration camps. Auschwitz-Birkeneau, Majdanek and Treblinka are the most common to visit. Auschwitz was actually a compilation of dozens of camps, but the one most Jews were taken to was Birkeneau, or Auschwitz II. The camp is extremely large and at least a full afternoon is recommended though it is easy to spend an entire day at the camp. Nearby, Auschwitz I has been turned into a museum full of items confiscated upon arrival to the camps. For many, what they see in this museum is the hardest part of the trip.
Eva Cohen is a Canadian freelance writer who is currently based in England. She visited Poland in May with an Aish U.K. trip for young professionals.
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