Surprise in Krakow

A surprise for us in Krakow was the Schindler Museum which was only a couple of blocks from our hotel. The purpose of the museum was to show the history of Krakow during WWII. This museum was amazingly well executed as it was highly visual and interactive. As a whole Poland has AMAZING museums. Like the Warsaw Uprising Museum you can see the pride the Polish have of their history. I learned a lot about life under the Nazis. The Poles were looked down upon as a whole and the Germans made every effort to eiradicate Polish customs and culture. Everything was Germanized, and one way the Poles resisted was through educating its people in secret about Polish culture. But Jewish Poles had the worst of it. One thing that struck me at the museum was one account of the building of the Krakow ghetto. On Passover, a time when Jews celebrate their ancestors' freedom from the Egyptians, the Nazis started to build the ghetto walls imprisoning them. Additionally, the walls were formed in the shapes of graves as a foresight to their futures.

Overall this museum was a pleasant surprise as I was not impressed with the city which looked run down. Thanks goodness we went to the old town after the Schindler museum because that was charming and in the end, Krakow was a good place to visit.