The Charlotte Jewish News - September 2002 - Page 19
The Irony of History
Travels in Kazimierz and Podgorze,
Krakow
By Susan Cernyak-Spatz
Summer of 2001. We had some
business to transact in Krakow. So
as soon as we had installed our
selves in our favorite room at the
Hotel Erzherzog Rainer in Vienna,
we packed two small totebags and
the next morning we were on our
way to Krakow. Very good con
nections with Tyrolian Airlines in a
37-passenger jet, a trip of not quite
one hour and 30 minutes; a com
plete lunch was served by two very
competent flight attendants.
The Krakow airport had
changed from the year before; it
had expanded considerably. There
were now large jets directly from
Chicago and other Midwest cities
arriving regularly and the whole
layout was quite big-city com
pared to what it had been. The next
morning, having finished with the
lawyer and a few other meetings,
we headed from the Hotel Forum
which lies at a bend in the Vistula
River, to the district of Kazimierz.
The Forum Hotel probably has
the most magnificent view to the
Wawel the centuries old castle of
Krakow that dominates the city.
During the War it had been the pri
vate domain of one of the most
vicious Nazis, Governor Frank, on
whose order Krakow had been
made “judenrein,” free of Jews, as
soon as possible, because he did
not want to breathe the same air as
the Jews did.
We crossed the river at the
Gruenwaldzki Bridge and walked
down the Dietla (the broadest
street in Kazimierz) until we came
to Bozego Ciala street, turned right
there and found ourselves on the
entrance to Miodowa street, where
the comer building, now occupied-
by a bank, used to be the Hotel
Spatz, the property of Hardy’s
grandfather. About 1/2 block fur
ther up Miodowa on the left hand
side we find the Temple
Synagogue. Probably one of the
few conservative synagogues, as
compared to the few existing very
orthodox synagogues. It has been
magnificently restored through the
generosity of the Ronald Lauder
foundation and is a marvel of gold
and stained glass and carved wood
on the inside. Compared to the
other synagogues it is a relatively
modem building. Walking down
three blocks further, Miodowa
intersects with Szeroka, the heart
of Kazimierz.
Kazimierz had been given by
one of the Polish kings as resi
dence to the local Jews; it might
have been a king named Kazimir.
Szeroka is the heart of Kazimierz,
thanks to Spielberg and
“Schindler’s List.” One of the first
things as you enter on Szeroka is
the Landau house with a big ban
ner, “Spielberg filmed here.”
Szeroka also contained the famed
Rehmuh Synagogue, which is
101% Orthodox, and an old Jewish
cemetery. On the right hand side,
almost at the beginning of the
square is a wall enclosing the old
cemetery. About midway up, there
is a sign on the wall which warns
Cohanim to walk on the other side.
They are not allowed in a cemetery
or even near it.
On the left hand side of
Szeroka, which is really more of a
rectangular large square, than a
street, are most of the well-known
restaurants, the most famous being
Ariel, which also has very nice gift
shop, and has outdoor seating in
summer. But the food is really only
so-so.
At the end of Szeroka, almost
closing it off, is the “Old
Synagogue,” which is now a very
interesting museum showing pre
war life in Kazimierz. The houses
on the right side of Szeroka, where
there are no restaurants, are rather
dilapidated. But it seems that the
city has a plan to undertake
restoration of all of Kazimirz,
because it has become one of the
best tourist attractions of Krakow.
Walking down from Szeroka on
Izaaka Street we came to Plac
Nowy, another rather large square.
We. were there on a Saturday and
the most incredible market took
place there. It seemed as if all of
Krakow, not just Jews, milled
around looking for bargains. One
did not ask obviously were the
merchandise came from, but it was
good and new merchandise cloth
ing, shoes, household goods,
everything at very, very low
prices. And since Krakow is not an
inexpensive city, people seemed to
take advantage of the market.
Crossing the market on Plac
Nowy we went down Meiselsa,
where on the left hand side, about
1/2 a block from Plac Nowy is the
Jewish Cultural Center, an old
beautifully restored building,
painted the Habsburg yellow on
the outside. On the inside there is a
totally modem community center,
with a very good bookstore and
gift shop, and an excellent cafe,
the Cafe Sara, serving good pastry.
At the bookstore, we were
selecting some posters, and among
other things I asked whether the
history of Krakow had more than
the bedraggled Jewish figures that
were depicted in the Old
Synagogue Museum. The employ
ee of the bookstore recommended
a book to me, “The Jews of
Krakow,” which depicted the suc
cessful and intellectual side of
Krakow Jewry. We detected an
accent in the young man’s English,
and asked him where he was from.
He was Viennese, an Austrian
Gentile who did his civil service as
conscientious objector at the
Krakow Jewish Center. It seems a
large number of young Austrians
do their civil service at Jewish
organizations, like the Wiesenthal,
the Holocaust Museum, or as this
young man did, in Krakow. We
told him of our past and he sug
gested that we let him guide us
through Podgorze, the walled-in
ghetto of Krakow, the location of
the Schindler story. We made a
date for the following Sunday,
because Saturday night we wanted
to see the Klezmer festival on
Szeroka in Kazimierz.
It is a most astonishing site to
see. In 2001 it was the XI Festival
of Jewish Culture to be held in
Kazimierz.lt is a whole week of
Jewish and Jewish-connected
events all around Kazimierz, in the
synagogoues, at the “Kino Letnie”
where they show films, at the
Jewish Center on Meiselsa and of
course on Szeroka. Theater, con
certs classic readings, lectures,
dance, and what they call
“Klezinologia” (I presume the his
tory of Klezmer).
We went Saturday evening at 6
PM to the final concert in the mid
dle of Szeroka, where a gigantic
stage decorated with Mogen
Davids, and blue and silver orna
mentation, like seven-branch can
dlesticks dominated the center.
The square was wall to wall peo
ple, all cheering the Klezmer
bands who rotated on and off the
stage, with song, and dance and
solos. The names of the performers
showed where they came from,
like Michael Alpert, Frank
London, Gary Lucas, the singers,
and band names like The Krakow
Klezmer Band, Di Shikere
Kapelye, Dave Krakauer Klezmer
Madness, The Klezmatics, and the
All Star Festival Klezmer
Orchestra.
The audience seemed to come
from all over Krakow, hardly a
Jewish face to be seen among
them. One wonders, whether their
grandparents, and/or parents were
not the ones that chased Jews
around Szeroka and herded them
into Podgorze.
The next morning we met our
(Continued on page 22)
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