The Jewish Plight: Krakow

While Warsaw saw the most physical destruction during WWII, Krakow's Kazimierz district and its Jewish history is probably the most familiar. It's proximity is not only the closest to well-known Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp, but it was also home to the Jewish savior made popular Steven Spielberg: Oskar Schindler.

Schindler's enamel factory, now a museum, lies just outside Krakow's Jewish district. Here, hundreds of Jews were employed
under the auspices of "necessity to the war effort" and saved from the gas chambers. As depicted in the film, Oskar Schindler's original motivations were monetary. But as the war went on and more Jews were employed, his loyalties shifted to his workers despite their Jewish ethnicity. Taking a walk in the Kazimierz district, you might encounter scenes where Schindler's List was filmed. (These pictures are from the scene where mother is separated from daughter while trying to hide from the Nazis, then reunited under these stairs.)
But more disheartening than the extermination of the Jews and the risk Schindler took in their protection is the lack of a Jewish community here today. After the war, anti-semitism continued to thrive through the late 1960s. Following the Six-Day War between Israel and the Egypt/Jordan/Syria region (in which Israel came out victor), anti-semitic tensions continued to escalate in Poland and finally culminated the following year. Massive student protests, sparked by censorship of Poland's national poet of Jewish heritage, ended with more than 2,500 arrests. Jewish organizations were shut down, Yiddish was banned, and most Jews by then had emigrated out of Poland.

Though anti-semitism does not thrive overtly, the residual effects are still apparent. The Jewish population was decimated by discrimination and people still hide their Jewish heritage. In fact, it is not uncommon for daughters and sons to discover their true heritage only as a final revelation by their parents on their death beds. Even today many Jewish Krakovians feel compelled to hide who they are.