First Day

Our first stop was one of the few remaining pieces of the Krakow Ghetto Wall. The Ghetto was established in 1941 when 20,000 Jews were forced into a walled off section of the city. Jewish presence in Krakow dates to 1306 and throughout history Krakow was center of religious, cultural, and Jewish literary life. On the eve of the war there between 60 and 65,000 Jews living in Krakow, a quarter of the city's population.

From the wall we walke to Ghetto Heroes square which was the deportation point for the Jews of the Krakow ghetto to their deaths mainly at Belzec (where we will visit on Tuesday). There were two major deportation that took place from here in October and June of 1942. The ghetto was finally liquidated on March 13 and 14 1943 as was depicted in the film Schindler's list.

While in the square we learned about Thadeusz Pankiewiesz a Chirsitian whose pharmacy on the square abutted ther gheto and was used to smuggle food and supplies in and sometimes people out. We read 2 entries from Pankiewiesz's diary describing the inhumanity of the ghetto liquidation by the Nazi soliders.