Today I went to Oskar Schindler’s old enamelware factory that’s now a museum. It was by far the best museum that I’ve been to so far on this trip. The exhibits, explanations, (real) photos, all worked together to give a snapshot into what was life was like in Continue reading “Site 169: Kraków-Płaszów Concentration Camp”
Wawel Hill seems to be on every visitor’s list when visiting Kraków, and one of the most important structures on top of the the hill is Wawel Cathedral. The first iteration of the cathedral was built and destroyed in the 11th century, a second built was destroyed Continue reading “Site 168: Kraków’s Wawel Cathedral”
Just north of Kraków’s main station lies a large cemetery known as Rakowicki. Before coming here I had never heard of it, I guess in part because so much of Kraków’s history is more tied to WWII and the Holocaust. On a very changeable morning (from rain Continue reading “Site 166: Kraków’s Rakowicki Cemetery”
This is a hard one to write about. What do you write about the most infamous concentration camp in history? Over 1.1 million people died here. Most of them were Jews. In fact, one out of every 6 Jews who died in the Holocaust died here. Continue reading “Site 167: Auschwitz-Birkenau”
After visiting Remah Cemetery, I headed over to theNew Jewish Cemetery which was only a couple blocks away. Unfortunately, when I got there it was clear that some kind of reconstruction work was going on and the gates were locked. I couldn’t read the Continue reading “Site 165: Kraków’s New Jewish Cemetery”
Remah (or Remuh) Cemetery, also known as the Old Jewish Cemetery, is an old 16th-century cemetery which was named after Rabbi Moses Isserles, who was also known as Remah. He was eventually laid to rest in the cemetery and his gravestone Continue reading “Site 164: Kraków’s Remah Cemetery”
After visiting the Jewish cemetery in Lublin, I wasn’t sure what to expect here. Would it be the same, overgrown with weeds and leaves and mostly in a neglected state, or would it be like some of the others I’ve been to, crowded but well-maintained? In a way, Continue reading “Site 163: Warsaw’s Jewish Cemetery”
Like the Lutheran Cemetery next door, this Calvinist one was also founded in 1792, and saw lots of fighting during various uprisings over the centuries since (cemetery walls make good defences for fighting). It too, sustained a lot of damage, but has been repaired Continue reading “Site 162: Warsaw’s Protestant Reformed Cemetery”
Warsaw’s Powazki and Jewish Cemeteries are large and well-known, but there are several other, smaller cemeteries right next door to them as well. One of them is the Lutheran Evangelical-Augsburg Cemetery, established just two years after Powazki. Continue reading “Site 161: Warsaw’s Evangelical-Augsburg Cemetery”
In my research for Warsaw, the one cemetery that kept coming up was Powązki Cemetery, one I had never heard of. I’ve never seen it in a top ten or twenty list, I don’t recognize any of the statues that come up in Google searches. And I don’t know why. Continue reading “Site 160: Warsaw’s Powązki Cemetery”
Back when I was a second-year university student, I did a year-long course called the History of Antisemitism. Out of all the history classes I took over the course of my studies, that one probably affected me the most. The first term focused on history Continue reading “Site 159: Majdanek Concentration Camp”
Back in the 19th century, the Polish city of Łódź flourished. Immigrants were invited from all over Europe, and soon the city was a mix of Polish, German, and Jewish inhabitants. The textile industry was the mainstay of the city, and many of the former Continue reading “Site 158: The Jewish Cemetery of Łódź”
stone and dust 