Historical Kazimierz

From its inception in the 14th century to the early 19th century, Kazimierz was an independent city, a royal city of the Crown of the Polish Kingdom, located south of the Old Town of Kraków, separated from it by a branch of the Vistula river. For many centuries, Kazimierz was a place where ethnic Polish and Jewish cultures coexisted and intermingled. The northeastern part of the district was historically Jewish. In 1941, the Jews of Kraków were forcibly relocated by the German occupying forces into the Krakow ghetto just across the river in Podgórze, and most did not survive the war.

Before WW2 there were about 3M Jews in Poland. After the war it was reduced to about 10k.

March 1943 was especially brutal when the Nazis killed all patients at the hospitals and murdered all the children in the orphanages. The stories make you want to cry.

The area now is peaceful and serene. Filled with tourists, well maintained story boards and plaques, and rebuilt buildings. Krakow has a distributed city museum. Many rebuilt buildings such as Schindlers factory, old temples, people’s homes making up the layout. It’s a testament to the importance of the message of the atrocity of war.Read more