Krakow Day 3 Sat 10th July 2010

Yesterday we travelled to the old Jewish area of Kazimierz and found the Apartment building where the Penner family lived until they and all Jewish residents were moved by the Nazi's to the Ghetto across the river in the neighbourhood of Podgorze. The house still has the stairs and bannisters the Penner/Scher family would have used to get to and from their tiny flat. Later that day we took a horse and cab ride after eating at the new Hard Rock Cafe.

Today we visited Schindler's Emailia Factory which has recently been converted to a impressive Museum of the Nazi Occupation of Krakow during the second World War. Our visit lasted 2 hours of viewing photos and videos from that era.The most moving part of the visit was to see Celina's family's names taken from the famous list and placed inside the dome-like monument made out of enamelware.

We then wandered the streets until we eventually came to the famous Ghetto square in centre of the now long-gone ghetto. This area of 350 dwellings had to house 17,000 in an area which had previously housed 3,000 Poles. Each person was estimated to have 2 sq metres. We also found the site of the Ghetto hospital on Jozefinska Street.

This afternoon in 35 degree heat we walked up to the historic Wawel Castle area where Celina's family used to go to relax prior to the Nazi invasion. The various exhibitions drive home the loss of almost an entire Jewish Community of 80,000 now reduced to 1,000 of whom only 100 are observant Jews.

This whole visit has a somewhat surreal aspect!