Student and Alumni Poland Trips

Come with us on our tour of Krakow! We went by foot and bus, but you can go by mouse. Just enjoy the photos and click on the links (in bold) for more information.

Our tour started from our Hotel Astoria in the Kazimierz district. Kazimierz was home to the large Jewish Quarter of Krakow. Here you can visit seven synagogues. Only two are in use today. Before the war, Krakow was home to about 65,000 Jews. After the war, only 5,000 remained. Today — only 150.

Our tour guide explained what happened to the Jews of Krakow. In 1940, most of them were resettled outside the city limits. The remaining 15,000 were moved into an overcrowded ghetto. When the ghetto was liquidated in 1943, those who were not sent to the death camps of Belzec or Auschwitz wound up in the labor camp at Plaszow. From here they “commuted” daily to work in several factories. Here is one such factory: This, of course, is the famous Oskar Schindler enamel factory. Schindler managed to prevent the deportation of many of his Jewish employees from Plaszow to Auschwitz. When the 2001 Holocaust Studies Service Learning Project first saw this factory, they were amazed that this deed had not been commemorated there in any way. They raised the money to create a plaque and have it mounted on the outside wall. The factory has just been renovated into a museum. One of the best surprises of our day was to find that our plaque was still mounted in a prominent location.   The quote from the Babylonian Talmud indicates that when someone saves a life, he or she saves not only that one person but also all the descendants that person will have in the future. More than 60 years later, Schindler has already saved a small town.