Welcome to the Wyatt Exploration trip for 2010! Our theme is "Poland Between East and West." On May 3rd, 12 UM-Flint students, 3 faculty and I are headed for Krakow, ancient capital of the kingdom of Poland (before the Crown joined with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Warsaw seemed a more logical location). We'll be in Krakow May 5 to 17. We have a great itinerary planned and I really excited and curious to see how students enjoy Poland!

Friday, May 7, 2010

Day 3: Center for European Studies and Prof. Edyta Gawron


Friday, May 7---We headed out early to Garbarska street, a short walk from our hotel for a lecture at the Center for European Studies by Prof. Edyta Gawron on the history of Jews in Poland and Krakow. This Center is part of Jagiellonian University, founded in 1364, and the most famous educational institution in Krakow. You can see The Center website at http://www.ces.uj.edu.pl/index.htm

Seated around a large seminar table, with powerpoint up and our notebooks out, we listened for nearly 2 hours as Prof. Gawron described the earliest traces of Jewish life in Kalisz, Wroclaw, and Krakow, town privileges, and the Sejm czteriech ziem or Parliament of the Four Lands.  By the 19th century (Prof. Gawron's specialty), Jews faced the challenges of national independence, the progressive Haskalah, and the mystical movement of Hasidism.  Although by the end of the 19th century, hope in Zionism and emigration replaced assimilation, the Jewish population in Poland grew dramaticallly; by 1939 Jews constituted a large minority, 10% or more of the interwar Second Republic.   With German Nazi occupation in 1939, ghettos were immediately established; the Einsatzgruppen, fewer than 400,000 killed 2 million people. Prof. Gawron dealt with many other 19th and 20th cen. issues and questions: Jewish political parties, the "new Jewish man," Pilsudski, the immigration act of 1924 and the British White Paper, the fear of those few who survived and returned after the war.  Today Krakow has 160 Jews in the single active congregation, out of 65,000 (1/4) of Krakow's population in 1939.

After a coffee break in the cafe downstairs, we walked along the Planty gardens that ring the Old Town to the Jewish quarter in Kazimierz.  We stopped at the Reform Tempel synagogue in Miodowa St., built in Austrian times, and now renovated, where we viewed its beautiful Moorish revival interior.  After walking Szeroka St. and viewing the Remuh and Old Synagoues, the mikvah (ritual bath), and old slaughterhouse, we had a late lunch at Nova, a large modern restaurant. Some of the students walked on with Edyta to the ghetto area in Podgorze and Oskar Schindler's factory. Others dispersed and walked back to Atrium---still drizzle and rain.


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