{"id":27,"date":"2004-09-23T02:55:48","date_gmt":"2004-09-23T06:55:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/jackstriptoeurope\/2004\/09\/23\/poland\/"},"modified":"2004-09-23T02:55:48","modified_gmt":"2004-09-23T06:55:48","slug":"poland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/jackstriptoeurope\/2004\/09\/23\/poland\/","title":{"rendered":"Poland"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

We have been in Poland
\nsince Monday and it is mixed.  Krakow is unbelievably charming, so
\nmuch so that I am very pleasantly surprised even though I had already
\nheard how great it is here.  But it is also very sad.  This
\nplace had 70,000 Jews in 1939 and only a few dozen now.  In fact,
\nthere are now only a couple thousand Jews in the whole country. 
\nMy Bubbie (grandmother) hated this place and was never interested in
\nreturning.  And of course Auschwitz, which we visited today, is only an hour away.
\n<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/p>\n

Krakow is a beautiful city that’s
\nover a thousand years old.  It is hard to explain how picturesque
\nand quaint it is.  There’s a town square with a market hall in the
\nmiddle and the obligatory huge, breathtakingly ornate cathedral. 
\nCobblestones, the clippity-clop of horse-drawn carriages (for tourists,
\nbut still…), the crooked streets, a castle – it’s like a fairy tale
\ntown.  It’s also small and easy to get around in.  And it’s
\npretty cheap.  <\/span><\/p>\n

And the people are really nice! 
\nIf you are ever in Krakow, I suggest you make sure and stay at the
\nHotel Sienacki.  Charming rooms, excellent restaurant, and
\nfantastic staff.  (And high-speed internet access in each room!)<\/span><\/p>\n

But as I said, it’s also a terribly sad place.  There is an entire neighborhood <\/span><\/font>called Kazimierz <\/span><\/font>just
\noutside of the old town that used to be the Jewish neighborhood. 
\nThere are like six or seven synagogues in a 3-block radius, one of
\nwhich is the oldest standing Jewish structure in Poland.  
\nOnly one of these is functioning, the tiny 500-year-old Remuh synagogue
\n(not the oldest one though).  <\/span>
\n<\/font><\/span><\/font>
\nLast night we went to a Jewish
\nrestaurant in this district, which in recent years has become the
\nbiggest Jewish tourist destination outside Israel.  (Bigger even
\nthan Zabar’s or Katz’s!)  The place felt like something
\nmanufactured especially for tourists – and I’m pretty sure, not by
\nJewish folk.  For example, they had matzo in the basket with the
\nbread that they brought to the table.  (I never thought matzo
\ncould be blander than what we get back in the states, but I was
\nwrong.)  And when the klezmer band started up, the proprietress
\nfired up a menorah.  What?  <\/span><\/p>\n

None of this was offensive to me — it just wasn’t authentic, and it underscored how few Jews remain in Poland.  <\/span><\/p>\n

The “Jewish music” band was also a
\nmixed bag.  They were Poles, not Jews.  The singer was an
\nopera singer, and he sang “Hava Negila” and other chestnuts standing
\nrigid in a deep bass voice.  No soul, man.  None. 
\nAgain, this wasn’t offensive to me in the least – but it felt weird and
\nsad to have my people’s music fed back to me by another nationality
\nbecause all of my own people, who should have been playing that music,
\nhad been murdered.  <\/span><\/p>\n

But you know, the violinist was
\ngreat, and played with real joy.  Overall, the music wasn’t
\nbad.  It turns out there are many klezmer bands in Krakow, all of
\nthem Polish.  These aren’t all for tourists.  There is some
\nappreciation for Jewish culture in this place at this time.  In
\nthe face of all this sadness, that’s something.  <\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font>All of this is complicated by our visit today <\/span><\/font>to
\nAuschwitz.  It’s difficult to describe.  Massive. 
\nGrotesque.  I’m sure it hasn’t hit me yet, actually.  At this
\npoint, the best description I can come up with is that it was
\nhorrifying to the point of incomprehensibility.  <\/span><\/font><\/span><\/font>There’s
\na lot to say about this, and fascism, and Germany, and anti-Semitism. 
\nI hope to post about these things within the next few days.  <\/p>\n

\n<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We have been in Poland since Monday and it is mixed.  Krakow is unbelievably charming, so much so that I am very pleasantly surprised even though I had already heard how great it is here.  But it is also very sad.  This place had 70,000 Jews in 1939 and only a few dozen now.  In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1155,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1453],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jackstriptoeuropestories"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/jackstriptoeurope\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/jackstriptoeurope\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/jackstriptoeurope\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/jackstriptoeurope\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1155"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/jackstriptoeurope\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/jackstriptoeurope\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/jackstriptoeurope\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/jackstriptoeurope\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/jackstriptoeurope\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}