East and West and action

The city break to Kraków was well worth it. It was a world I knew very little about. Through encounters, exhibitions and guided tours, I came to understand the many upheavals in Poland’s history. It’s staggering how often and for how long this nation was subject to external control and ruled by other powers.
The history of Kraków’s Jewish community is harrowing. In the Middle Ages, it was said: „Poland is hell for peasants, heaven for the nobility, and paradise for Jews.“ This changed drastically during the occupation from 1939 to 1945, particularly in 1942. More than 50% of all Polish Holocaust victims were murdered between March 1942 and February 1943.
There were some things I only really understood once I was there – such as what it actually meant to have to live in a ghetto. 17,000 Jews from Kraków were driven from their homes and forced to settle in a separate Jewish quarter. This consisted of 320 houses in which around 3,000 Christian Poles had previously lived. That’s about 10 people per house. The houses were small, often just one storey high (see picture; the dormer windows have been added recently). The Christian Poles were evicted and Jews were housed there. Where 10 people had previously lived in a single house, 50 people now lived under one roof. Each person had 2 square metres of space. For me, this has filled the term „ghetto“ with much clearer images and ideas than I had previously.
Many people looked the other way. Others helped the town’s Jewish residents.
– A Polish boy who threw three loaves of bread from the tram as it passed through the ghetto, to help the people in need.
– A Polish pharmacist who remained in the ghetto, smuggling messages and money to the Jews and supplying them with hair dye so that they would look younger and might – perhaps – escape the deportations to Auschwitz.
– An elderly gentleman who, upon seeing Jews being forced to clear snow and having snow and ice thrown at them by onlookers, went outside carrying a tray of tea and vodka and offered it to them, saying: „Gentlemen, would you do me the honour…“
What is it that causes some people to look the other way… whilst others are moved by the plight of others and help as best they can? That is the question I took away with me from Kraków.