Krakow - Cracked out

From Majdanek we traveled to Krakow, which is incredibly preserved because the Nazis used it as a regional seat of government instead of destroying it. In the morning we visited the old Jewish Quarter (synagogues, cemeteries, etc). In part, we visited Oscar Schindler’s factory…I have to say that the sight itself was not particularly impressive, but having watched “Schinedler’s List” on the bus the day before, I still found it particularly touching. Even though he was sometimes of questionable character, this single man saved approximately 1,000 Jews; it is astounding to put this in perspective when you consider how many bystanders there were during WWII, people who idly let their neighbors be taken away, who turned away people (not only Jews) seeking food or shelter, etc. There are few, if any, words for the kind of blame one can place on inaction. As I have quoted before, Dante (D!!) has said that “The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.”

Let’s consider that, in Bulgaria, the church clergy resisted the arrest and deportation of Jews by following the Metropolitan en masse (he literally laid down on the train tracks); as a result, not a single Jewish citizen of Bulgaria was killed during this period. Amazing, but rare. Renowned conservative commentator Dennis Prager (whose stepson is on this trip) once mentioned in a talk he was giving that, as a Jew who interacts with many gentiles on a daily basis, he occasionally cannot stop himself from wondering, even if for only a second, if this person would have been (or would be, if needed) a Righteous of the Nations, if this friend, colleague, stranger would risk their own life to do the what was morally correct. As somewhat anachronistic as that statement may seem, there is a truth that reverberates in its logic: even today, too many of us excuse ourselves from upholding the kind of standards that should come from our individual responsibility to those around us. It’s not really enough to sign up for a Save Darfur campaign because it is in fashion, if you are only going to forget it once it crosses into the real of kitsch and is replaced by a new cause in the general public consciousness. In the end, I guess all we can do is try….one of our nights in Poland, one of our speakers quoted a rabbi as saying (this is a paraphrase), “Do the right thing, the difficult thing, and your heart will follow.”

The afternoon in Krakow was wonderful because we spent it exploring the Old Town, including the church were Pope John Paul II first served when he was just an (ordinary) priest. Old Town Krakow is a romantic, beautiful city at dusk, and we finished the night with a delicious traditional Polish dinner in some cavernous basement restaurant!