SUNSHINE!!!
Hooray, the sun is out.
We feel like going to the square for some sort of dance of
celebration. Breakfast is cheerier this
morning. We again compare notes with
Richard and Roz to glean any information that might be helpful. They went to the Schindler museum yesterday
where we are going today and it was jammed.
We better get moving to be there early.
It is a 35 minute walk (mile and a half) to the Schindler
Factory Museum which is on the other side of the Jewish Quarter from our
hotel. There is a short line for tickets
and we seem to have gotten ahead of most of the tour groups. The museum itself is not a replica of the
original factory nor does it limit itself to the Schindler experience. It is rather a history of Poland in general
and Krakow in particular during the war years.
You follow a corridor which branches off into displays, recordings,
films and thousands of photographs from 1938 through 1945. We started with a 35-minute movie which gave
us an overview of those years including interviews with a number of people,
both Christians and Jews, who lived in Krakow and worked for Schindler.
Following the route through the museum takes at least a
couple hours but you could spend days if you were an historian from this
period. Schindler comes off as a pretty
slippery sort. He was the son of a Czech
factory owner and early on he saw his greatest chance for success lied with the
Germans and he became an agent for the Nazis dealing with commerce in defeated
countries. When the Germans overran
Poland in 1939 Polish factories were recommissioned to provide war materials
and Schindler was placed in charge of an enamel factory in Krakow. They later expanded to the manufacture of
fuses for bombs. Schindler was a thief and
a womanizer and an all-around con man who nevertheless took great care of his
workers and those close to him. When the
Jewish ghetto in Krakow was all but eliminated, he built barracks for his
Jewish workers adjacent to the factory and refused to allow the Gestapo to
enter. He was arrested by everyone at
one time or another and he always managed to be forgiven and released and got
back to work. Friends in high places. He looked the other way when his employees
took a few extra pots from the enamel works to sell in the market to make ends
meet. He was doing the same thing to get
enough cash to provide meals and reasonable living conditions for his
workers. He seems to be a kindly knave
who knew how to game the system and bring along those who are loyal to him. There was a brief mention of Krakow’s
favorite son and WWII resistance participant, the future Pope John Paul
II. He has his own museum and memorial
elsewhere in Krakow.
It’s after one when we emerge. Mary thinks Jewish and then thinks bagels. There is a place called Bagelmama a few
blocks back across the Vistula into the Jewish Quarter. This Polish Jew is from Illinois and has been
here since 2001 running this little business.
John and Pat both have the John McInroe which is a bagel with turkey and
all the trimmings. Mary does the basic
with cream cheese. We chat with a lady
from Rhode Island who travels around the world as a member of a walking
club. It is international in scope and
they schedule walks in all fifty states as well as dozens of countries. Interesting for her.
We spent the rest of the afternoon in the Jewish Quarter. Today begins the Sukkot season and no work is
allowed beginning at sundown today through Tuesday. All of the synagogues are already closed and
the vendors in the square are closing up at 2:30. It appears to be a small but vibrant
community where the residents realize that they are carrying on the tradition
of Jewish Poles. Wish we had more time.
After a brief rest-up it is dinner tonight with friends
Jeffrey and Jacque Schubert, Californians who are here on a bike tour through
southern Poland. They are bon vivants
and who enjoy good food and wine and who are we to argue. Jacque’s ancestry is Polish and Jeff’s is
Belorussian which means their DNA is tingling.
We picked Restaurant Starka in the Jewish quarter many months ago and
are anxious to give it a try. We make a
couple wrong turns trying to walk to the Schubert’s hotel but find it a couple
minutes late. We’re still on time for
the restaurant and when we walk in it is perfect. Just the right size with plenty of staff, a
great menu and plenty of homemade vodka.
Our server is great fun, the food and drinks are plentiful,
the quality is top notch and the prices are Polish high which means U.S.
cheap. We have vodkas all around, beer,
2-bottles of a really good Italian wine, more glasses of wine, bacon wrapped
prunes (delicious), John has a Polish sausage soup and Jeff has the potato
soup, John has a plum stuffed pork loin (unbelievable), Jeff and Jacque have
the pork knuckle, Mary has a stuffed chicken while Pat has the pierogis and she
and Mary share both. There is another
round of vodkas at the end of the meal.
Jeff and John split the bill and each pay $55, or about $22 per person
for the five of us. We’re going to move
here. We do some drink-dialing to try to
harass Brother Joe in San Diego but he is gone so poor Dana has to take the
brunt of it. Sorry Dana.
We all waddle back past Jeff and Jacque’s hotel and we’re
back into old town. I think we will be
done for the evening. This was a really
good day, but most are.
What did we learn today? When faced with adversity
individuals can make a difference by doing what they can, even on a small
scale.
No comments:
Post a Comment