{"id":201,"date":"2010-06-22T18:06:52","date_gmt":"2010-06-22T18:06:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kerstinpur.de\/?p=201"},"modified":"2010-06-22T18:06:52","modified_gmt":"2010-06-22T18:06:52","slug":"east-and-west-and-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kerstinhack.de\/en\/ost-und-west-und-handeln\/","title":{"rendered":"East and West and action"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The city break to Krak\u00f3w 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\u2019s history. It\u2019s staggering how often and for how long this nation was subject to external control and ruled by other powers.
\nThe history of Krak\u00f3w\u2019s Jewish community is harrowing. In the Middle Ages, it was said: \u201ePoland is hell for peasants, heaven for the nobility, and paradise for Jews.\u201c 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.
\nThere were some things I only really understood once I was there \u2013 such as what it actually meant to have to live in a ghetto. 17,000 Jews from Krak\u00f3w 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\u2019s 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 \u201eghetto\u201c with much clearer images and ideas than I had previously.
\nMany people looked the other way. Others helped the town\u2019s Jewish residents.
\n\u2013 A Polish boy who threw three loaves of bread from the tram as it passed through the ghetto, to help the people in need.
\n\u2013 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 \u2013 perhaps \u2013 escape the deportations to Auschwitz.
\n\u2013 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: \u201eGentlemen, would you do me the honour\u2026\u201c
\nWhat is it that causes some people to look the other way\u2026 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 Krak\u00f3w. <\/p>\n


\n\"Share\"\/<\/a>
\n