Jewish Kazimierz District Krakow Poland

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The Jewish Kazimierz District in Cracow Poland is a wonderful place to visit.

If you could remove all the cars and vans you could be stepping back into days gone by.

It has a picturesque wide street square and a labyrinth of surrounding streets and low-rise houses.

It is a marvellous place for just strolling around at any time of the day or night.

Once a distinct town in its own right it was founded by King Casimir the great in thirteen thirty-five and was a centre for various trading activities.

The center for the Jewish population was Szeroka Street. The oldest Synagogue in Poland is situated at the southern end of this street and it houses a very comprehensive museum. Other Synagogues are located nearby and the one in Miodowa Street is renowned for its outstanding acoustics.

Because of this it has become the traditional venue for the inaugural concert of the annual Festival of Jewish Culture. The festival ends with a great open-air concert in Szeroka Street that highlights Klezmer music.

During the Nazi occupation in the Second World War the Kazimierz district was emptied of its Jewish inhabitants by relocating them to the infamous Ghetto and onwards to the devilish hellholes of the Auschwitz concentration camps.

If you want to see what the area was like before the war then a visit to Isacc’s Synagogue will reveal a film made in 1936 about the district. There are also pieces of a German documentary made in 1941. If you take a walk along Jozef’s Street you will observe all the little shops and workshops that would have existed before the war. This will give you some idea as to the make up of the area at that time.

Up until as recently as the year two thousand much of the Kazimierz district was in ruins with many of the buildings on the point of collapse and others in a state of total disrepair. The area was a magnet for squatters, drug addicts and alcoholics. Since then it has seen a renovation and a Jewish repopulation. Szeroka Street or square is now filled with many Jewish restaurants most of which offer some kind of klezmer music.

To the northern end of this small square there is a small grove of maple trees. Among them you will discover a small monument set in a large rock. The monument is a place of meditation to remember the sixty five thousand Polish Jews from Cracow, who were martyred by the Nazis.

Why not stop by to honor them.

The Corpus Christi church serves the Christian element of this district and King Casimir or Kazimierz the Great founded this in thirteen forty-two. Inside the huge high altar and stalls date back to the first half of the seventeenth century.

The history of this place of worship is that the church was built on the very spot where a miraculously recovered stolen sacred relic was found. Added to over the years it is today one of Cracow's largest and finest religious buildings.

The Jewish Kazimierz district of Cracow is a unique place that shows off the merger of Polish and Jewish life and culture. It will leave you with very pleasant memories.

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