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Cracow

 

Jewish Life in Cracow Before the Holocaust
Jewish Life in Cracow During the Holocaust
Jewish Life in Cracow After the Holocaust


                     Pages of Testimony

 

Jewish Life in Cracow Before the Holocaust

Historical Background

Cracow, Poland’s third largest city, sits on the Wisla River. One of the oldest cities in Poland, Cracow has been a cultural and intellectual center for hundreds of years. Jewish residents of Cracow are first mentioned in Cracow’s official chronicles from the 14th century. There are, however, indications that Jews began to live in Cracow as early as the 10th century.

Over the years, the Jews of Cracow enjoyed some periods of prosperity as well as cultural and religious productivity. They also suffered from many waves of antisemitic persecution. In the 15th century, Jews were exiled from Cracow. They were permitted to enter the city in the 19th century, and by 1867 Jews were allowed to settle in all parts of the city. In the late 19th century, Zionist activities began in Cracow, as Jews struggled with the conflicts of modernity, the emergence of nationalistic fervor, and ongoing antisemitism.

By 1912 there were 32,000 Jews living in Cracow. Most of these Jews were involved in small industry and trade. Many Jews from the higher social classes attended university and as a result more Jews began to enter the liberal professions.

World War I took a heavy toll on Cracow’s Jews, bringing all public and economic activity to a standstill, and causing a sharp increase in inflation. Cracow also became a haven for many war refugees, which caused overcrowding and disease in the Jewish quarter of the city.

In 1918, anti-Jewish riots erupted in Cracow after the fall of the Austrian empire and the handover of Cracow to the Poles. A self-organized Jewish civil guard successfully defended the Jewish population from the 1918 riots that the local Polish authorities did nothing to stop. In this testimony Emil Reed, who moved to Cracow in 1912 at the age of five, discusses antisemitism in Cracow before World War II:

“Q: And how was it with antisemitism in Cracow?
A: Well, it was there, of course. They used to…you know, there was numerus clauses at the universities and they used to beat up Jewish students and they used to beat up Jews, you know, if they were walking around…We used to walk around the alleys close to the university. They used to beat us up, so we stayed away sometimes. […]
Q: What was your feeling about…seeing antisemitism growing? Weren’t you getting an uneasy feeling? You didn’t get an uneasy feeling, seeing antisemitism getting worse, Hitler getting to power?
A: Well, I had a good job and made a living and I had a good position, so we didn’t think of doing something else.
Q: Hitler being in power didn’t bother you too much in those years?
A: It did. Sure it bothered us…We thought, 'Where are we going to go? Where are we going to go?' And we got letters from Palestine at the time, but you know, at that time it was very hard for everybody. What—am I to go, give away a job like this and here? We had also our mother.”
Source: Yad Vashem Archives O.3/10834

Holocaust survivor Miriam Gubernik, who was born in Cracow in 1919 and studied at the university there until the outbreak of World War II, also describes antisemitism in Cracow before the world war:

“Because of the growing antisemitism in Poland, which was becoming more overt during my childhood, I asked my parents to send me to a Jewish school when I was only six years old. I first felt this antisemitism when I was taken to the park one day. Another little girl wanted to play with me, but first asked me if I was Jewish or Catholic, and this upset me very much. We lived in a non-Jewish quarter, and most of our neighbors were Polish Catholics, although there were also a few Jews living there. My parents still had Polish friends from their younger days, when life was more liberal under the Austrian administration. I don’t remember that there was much socializing during my childhood, apart from our large family, who were all very close. I always felt different from the other children, and I was told by my parents that I asked them if there were also Jews and non-Jews among the birds! I suppose I was deeply affected by discrimination even then.”
Source: Yad Vashem Archives O.3/6330

In the early 1920s about 45,000 Jews lived in Cracow, comprising one quarter of the total population of the city. Most Jews in Cracow led traditional Jewish lifestyles in accordance with the dictates of Hassidic sects. They were, however, involved in secular Polish life, and the Jewish community of Cracow bore many Polish influences. A large proportion of the ultra-Orthodox Jews spoke fluent Polish. Until 1934 the Deputy Mayor of Cracow was almost always a Jew. The number of Jewish students attending state universities was disproportionately high, despite rampant antisemitism on the campuses. In 1921-22, 1,339 Jews attended Cracow’s Jagiellonian University, comprising 31.4% of the student body. Certain faculties at the university, such as medicine and pharmacy, employed a strict numerus clausus that excluded all but a very small number of Jews. The Jewish community also had its own professional and technical schools. In the following testimony, Miriam Gubernik describes her family life in Cracow before the Holocaust:

“I was born on the 6th of June, 1919 in Cracow, Poland. My name then was Maria Fraenkel (today Miriam Gubernik). My family consisted of my parents David and Anna (nee Dunkelblum) and my older bother Henrik; later I had a younger sister Dorotha Danuta. We were a typical Cracowian Jewish family, non-Orthodox, but still traditional. My grandparents on both sides lived in the same city, and there were many aunts, uncles and cousins, so that together with them we celebrated all the Jewish holidays. One side of our family had been nine generations in Cracow, and there was almost no intermarriage.”
Source: Yad Vashem Archives O.3/6330

Holocaust survivor Alexander Finder, who was born in Cracow in 1919 describes his education and various occupations in Cracow before the Holocaust:

“I attended four classes in public school number 36. Then I attended gymnasium-high school. In 1933 the school was closed and I was transferred to a different gymnasium, where on May 10th, 1937, I graduated. In 1937 I entered the Agelonski Universititat, the law faculty. During this study period I performed all kinds of jobs to support myself and to supplement my family income. I tutored students in all subjects. I worked during vacations in a wholesale office supply. I was a salesman in a wholesale pickles-sauerkraut factory. I was a salesman for the macaroni distributors. I delivered newspapers for the Polish Jewish Daily.”
Source: Yad Vashem Archives O.69/60

Miriam Gubernik also describes education in Cracow before the Holocaust:

“Times were very hard financially, and the private Hebrew school my sister and I went to was expensive, even though we paid reduced fees. My brother went to an ordinary Polish school, and managed to become a lawyer and leave Poland for England before the war. I matriculated from high school in 1937, and applied to go to the university. I wanted to study medicine, but there was a Jewish quota, and I was not accepted. I studied biology and chemistry for two years, until 1939 when the war started… I was very conscious of antisemitism during my university days. The Polish students made the Jewish ones sit in a “ghetto” of the last two rows of the lecture room. Of course, we objected, and there were many quarrels and fights. This only lasted the first couple months, until we were all so immersed in our studies that things quieted down. There were very many Jews at the University. Apart from medicine and pharmacology, we could study in all the other faculties.”
Source: Yad Vashem Archives O.3/6330

Zionist activity in Cracow increased between the wars. Dr. Yehoshua Thon headed the Zionist Organization of Western Galicia and Silesia, and he often fought for Jewish rights in the Polish Sjem (parliament). From 1917-1918 other Zionist organizations also in Cracow gained in strength, including: Poalei Zion and its various streams, Merkaz Tzeirim, Gordonia, Hashomer Hatzair, Hamizrachi, and others. In this testimony, Alexander Finder recalls Zionist youth movements in Cracow before the Holocaust:

“When I was ten years old I joined a general Zionist youth organization, Hashomer Hatzair. I joined another Zionist organization, Akiba, where I was a member until the beginning of the Second World War. As a member of Akiba, I edited a bi-weekly paper. I had ambition to become a newspaper-man. I even applied and became just before the war a columnist for a popular daily newspaper.”
Source: Yad Vashem Archives O.69/60

On the eve of World War II, 60,000 Jews lived in Cracow, out of a total population of 250,000. German troops occupied Cracow on September 6, 1939.

Prewar Photographs

Jewish Life in Cracow During the Holocaust

Historical Background

German troops occupied Cracow on September 6, 1939, and immediately began persecuting Cracow’s Jews. After the Nazis made Cracow the capital of the Generalgouvernement (the Nazi’s “racial dumping ground” in Poland) in October 1939, the persecution of Cracow’s Jews intensified. In her testimony, Miriam Gubernik describes trying to flee Cracow immediately after the war broke out:

“In 1939 everything changed almost immediately. In September there was a large exodus of Jews from the city, which was close to the border with Germany. Jewish men were advised over the radio to escape either to the north or to the east. My father and his brothers ran away on foot in a northerly direction, and reached Vilna where we had an uncle. A few hours later, the Jewish community radio also advised the women and children to leave. My mother, sister and I packed a few things in sheets (the men had taken all the knapsacks) and gave our house keys to the doorman. We then started out by foot towards the north, and reached a town called Sandomierz, after ten days. I am not sure exactly how many kilometers we traveled, but we covered a large distance… After ten days, the German army caught up with us. My mother told them that we were Jewish, and they asked her why we were running away. They said that they were not barbarians, and there was no reason to be afraid. That conversation persuaded my mother to return home to Cracow.”
Source: Yad Vashem Archives O.3/6330

Alexander Finder describes Jewish persecution in Cracow immediately after the outbreak of World War II:

“It was dangerous for Jews to come out to the street, especially young boys and girls. The German trucks were cruising on the streets and as they saw Jews they started to force them to climb the trucks. They took them to a railroad station to unload coal and all kinds of merchandise. They took them to German hospitals to do all kinds of heavy jobs. They persecuted especially Jews with beards and curls—paious. They enjoyed and loved to shave and cut their hair. Every day it was another announcement of laws concerning Jews. Jews were obliged to wear armbands with the Jewish star. Businesses were taken over by Germans who supervised operations and profits were going to the Nazi party. All male Jews were obliged, wintertime, to spend two days each week removing snow from the street. We received minimum food rations. We weren’t allowed to use public transportation.”
Source: Yad Vashem Archives O.69/60

The Germans established a Judenrat (Jewish Council) in Cracow on November 28, 1939. In early December 1939 the Germans carried out a terror aktion in Cracow. Several synagogues were burnt down and Jewish property was seized.

In May 1940 the Germans began to expel the Jews of Cracow to nearby towns, in an effort to clean the capital of the Generalgouvernement of Jews. By March 1941 about 40,000 of Cracow’s Jews had been evicted from their homes, with only 11,000 Jews remaining in the city. During the expulsions the Germans stripped Jews of all their property. In the same month, the German authorities established a ghetto in the southern part of Cracow. On March 20, 1941, the ghetto was sealed with a wall and a barbed-wire fence. The Jews who remained in Cracow were forced inside the ghetto, together with several thousand Jews from nearby communities. By late 1941 about 18,000 Jews were imprisoned in the ghetto. The ghetto was overcrowded and conditions were unsanitary. The Germans installed several factories inside the Cracow Ghetto, thereby exploiting cheap Jewish slave labor. Alexander Finder describes moving into the Cracow Ghetto:

“Then came an edict that the Jews have to resettle into the ghetto. They picked the oldest and most crowded section of the Jewish quarter. They built walls around and it had two exits only to the outside world. In one apartment were living four to five families. We were lucky to get an apartment consisting of one kitchen and a room.”
Source: Yad Vashem Archives O.69/60

Emil Reed also relates to moving into the Cracow Ghetto:

“I know that many times I had to go to work and on the way they kept catching us, to shovel snow, or to do some work for the Germans. Sometimes we couldn’t reach our business because they caught us on the way there. But I don’t remember when we left our apartment and we had to move to these streets, where they concentrated all the Jews. When they concentrated all the Jews, they came in the middle of the night. First they looked for weapons, and then they took gold, silver, money, merchandise, whoever had, because when we moved there, whoever had a store or something, they brought whatever they could save. They took everything away. They robbed everybody. The pretenses were ‘weapons-looking.’” Source: Yad Vashem Archives O.3/10834

Several Jewish organizations were created to help improve the awful conditions in the Cracow Ghetto, such as ”The Jewish Social Self-Help Society” and “The Federation of Associations for the Care of Orphans.” In this excerpt from his testimony, Emil Reed discusses food in the Cracow Ghetto:

“Q: How was the food situation? Was there enough food to be obtained? Could you buy enough food or was there a shortage?”
A: No. It was a shortage. We had to buy only wherever we could. We could not help ourselves because they gave ration cards. They gave to Polish people, but not to the Jews. The Jews had to do whatever they had to buy, wherever they could, and pay high prices, in order to survive. That’s the way it was.”
Source: Yad Vashem Archives O.3/10834

On March 19, 1942 the Germans initiated the “Itelligenz Aktion,” a terror operation aimed against the ghetto's intellectual class. In this operation, fifty well-known Jews from Cracow were deported to their deaths at Auschwitz-Birkenau. On May 28, 1942, the Germans began a widespread operation in order to deport the rest of the ghetto’s population to the extermination centers. This operation was carried out by the Gestapo, the regular German police, and German army units. During this operation, which lasted until June 8, 1942, 300 Jews were killed and 6,000 were deported to the Belzec extermination center. Among the Jews deported was the chairman of the Judenrat, Artur Rosenzweig, who had refused to expedite the Germans’ orders.

After this operation, the Germans abolished the Judenrat in Cracow and established a Kommissariat in its place. The area of the ghetto was decreased by a half, although there were still 12,000 Jews living there. In late October 1942, following the refusal of the Kommissariat to cooperate with the Germans’ orders, the German authorities began a second operation during which they shot 700 Jews, and deported 7,000 to Belzec and Auschwitz-Birkenau. The Germans once again reduced the ghetto's area, dividing the remaining ghetto into two, one part for the working Jews, and the other for the rest of the prisoners. This is how Alexander Finder describes the deportations from the Cracow Ghetto:

”Then came the liquidation of the ghetto. And the night the ghetto was surrounded by SS and Ukrainian henchmen. Whoever didn’t have a permit to work was assembled in the city square and loaded on trucks to be shipped to labor camps, as the Nazis were saying. In the meantime they were killing old people, shooting babies, pregnant women and emptying mental hospital patients. Then came another liquidation, as it was called, and each time the Nazis cut the living quarters. Now we were living in a big apartment with many families. We occupied a small kitchen where everybody has a right to come and use it. We were still glad to have the corner where to live… Now it came the time to liquidate the ghetto completely… Everybody who was left in the ghetto was shot regardless of age, sex. My mother was killed that day.”
Source: Yad Vashem Archives O.69/60

In March 1943 the Germans transferred 2,000 working Jews to the Plaszow concentration and labor camp, and then proceeded to liquidate the rest of the ghetto. They murdered 700 Jews and deported 2,300 to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Only a few hundred Jews transferred to Plaszow survived the war. Emil Reed remembers life in the Cracow Ghetto during the evacuations to Plaszow:

“We did nothing. We were hungry and afraid because we knew that at any time there could be an evacuation and we could be taken away. And we knew what ‘taken away’ meant. Never seen again… When they liquidated the ghetto, everybody had to go outside—Whoever didn’t go out, you know, whoever didn’t stand straight…they were killing a lot of people right there.“
Source: Yad Vashem Archives O.3/10834

Alexander Finder discusses his activities with the resistance movement in the Cracow Ghetto:

“In the meantime the youth from the Zionist organizations, like Akiba, Hashomer Hatzair, Gordonia, organized cells to fight Nazis. There were a couple of cases of attacks on Germans. We didn’t have weapons, because of lack of support from the outside world. Our work was mostly to falsify documents and send out our members out of the ghetto to contact out people who worked with the partisans or people who lived as Aryans under assumed names.”
Source: Yad Vashem Archives O.69/60

Miriam Gubernik discusses how she managed to survive in Cracow under an assumed identity:

“I remained in Cracow because of the courier work I was doing. We couldn’t have managed without the money I earned. I had a room with the wife of a Polish officer; she didn’t know that I was Jewish. I would leave every morning as though I was going to a regular job, and because I was afraid to be seen too much in the streets, I would go and sit in the churches. Most of my meetings with people took place there. I was afraid to look for proper work. Once I met someone I had seen each day at the University, and he kept turning round to look at me. I ran away as fast as I could, so that he could not follow me.”
Source: Yad Vashem Archives O.3/6330

One of the most famous stories of rescue during the Holocaust is the story of the hundreds of Jews who were saved by working for Oskar and Emelie Schindler in the Cracow Ghetto.

Photographs: Cracow During the Holocaust

Jewish Life in Cracow After the Holocaust

Shortly after the end of World War II, about four thousand Jewish survivors of ghettos and camps settled in Cracow. Most of these people were former residents of Cracow and its vicinity. In 1946 thousands of Jews who had fled to the Soviet Union before the war returned to Poland, and made their home in Cracow. The Jewish population in Cracow rose to 10,000 at this time. Between 1947 and 1951 nearly all of these Jews emigrated from Poland, as a result of antisemitic waves throughout the country.

Postwar Photographs

Pages of Testimony

Pages of Testimony serve as symbolic gravestones, providing a unique memorial for victims of the Holocaust. The following are five Pages of Testimony that were submitted to Yad Vashem, in memory of individuals from Cracow who were murdered during the Holocaust:

Page of Testimony for Beinish Leser
Page of Testimony for Jerzy Itzhak Wein
Page of Testimony for Joshua Emoch
Page of Testimony for Ester Bosak
Page of Testimony for Henryk Sperber
(For more information about Henryk Sperber, see The Stories Behind the Names.)

You might want to print these Pages and take them with you on your journey to Poland. When you visit Cracow, you can read the names and stories that are recorded on these Pages of Testimony.
For more Pages of Testimony, search the Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names.

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