Kazimierz

Kazimierz is currently a district of Cracow in Poland, but of the 14th century until the beginning of the 19th century it was a new city, but also a village located apart from the limits of the city to lodge the Juif S of Cracow so that they do not cohabit with the Christian . It is today a tourist district with the mode by its art galleries, its monuments, its restaurants and its nightclubs, as well for the foreign visitors as local.

Until the Second world war, Kazimierz remained the Jewish district of the city, gathering the major part of the 65.000 Jews on the quarter of million inhabitants of Cracow of pre-war period.

History of Kazimierz

On the grounds forming the district of Kazimierz today villages as of the top Moyen-âge were created, on the edges of the the Vistula, benefitting from the proximity of the capital of the duchy of Small-Poland, Cracow. The district owes its name to the king Casimir III which founded the city in 1335. The intention of the king was to reinforce defenses of the capital of Poland of the southern part. For this reason the city was quickly equipped with walls and keeps. Four churches were also built, the village extended to north towards Cracow (district of Stradom), beside the castle of Wawel.

In 1495, the history of the city changed radically when the king Jan Olbracht decided to create in the east of the Christian village of Kazimierz, on the marshy grounds of the village of Bawół, a Jewish village ( oppidum iudaeorum ) in order to install there, for political reasons and economic, the Jews which lived in Cracow.

The Jewish district of Kazimierz, surrounded by a wall, developed thus in an autonomous way during the centuries, beside the Christian quarters. Jewish tradesmen and bankers were made there build increasingly important houses.

Like many Polish cities, Kazimierz suffered much from the foreign invasions as from the 17th century. After their departure, the village was rebuilt quickly, of new churches, out of the Jewish district, being built. The towns of Cracow and Kazimierz becoming joint, the diet of 1788-1792 decided that Kazimierz would be integrated into the town of Cracow. In spite of the opposition of the municipality, the city becomes district of Cracow in 1801. At the same time the Austrian capacity forced the Jews to live the ghetto, while two local catholic parishes were removed. It is during the period 1815-1846 when Cracow was a independent free city which were cut down, in 1822, the walls of the Jewish district, which made it possible to the Jews to be gradually established in the Christian quarters. In 1860, the prohibition made to the Jews live elsewhere than in the ghetto was officially raised.

Under the Austrian occupation (1846-1918) the meander of the Vistula will be filled which then separated Kazimierz from the remainder of Cracow (today street Józef Dietl).

It is especially during the 19th century that Kazimierz became an arts center and religious important for the Juifs of Central Europe. Many a synagogs was built, as well as schools, yeshivas and heders.

The occupation Nazi was the blackest period of the history of the district. After having driven out many Jews of the city as from May 1940, the Nazis made build in March 1941 a ghetto in the south of Kazimierz, on the other side of the Vistula, in the district of Podgórze, where were piled up to 45.000 Jews of the city and the surroundings. It is in this ghetto that the Nazis made build several factories where Jews were employed. The factory of Oscar Schindler, which managed to save part of its workers ( the list of Schindler ), was located however at the east, apart from the limits of the ghetto. At the end of 1942 was open the camp of work of Płaszów to the south which became concentration camp in 1944. The first arrests and deportations towards the death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau took place in March 1942. It is during second half of 1942 that were off-set and exterminated with the camp of Belzec the majority of the Jews of the ghetto which is definitively destroyed mid-March 1943. The survivors were directed towards Auschwitz or Płaszów.

After war, approximately 3.000 Jews returned to Cracow. They found there their houses destroyed or occupied, were victims of violence, scattered in the city without reforming true community. To avoid other confrontations, some agreed to settle in the new provinces incorporated in Poland, the Silesia and the Poméranie from where the German had been driven out, but following the Pogroms in Poland of post-war period, emigrated. It remains today only less than 200 Jews in Cracow.

Monuments of Kazimierz

Seven synagogs remain in Kazimierz including one (Remuh) still opened with the worship. The majority of the others are opened with the tourist visits, some are in the course of restoration, others are used as showrooms.

Kazimierz of today

Forsaken during the communist period, the district reappears starting from the Années 1990. Place of Jewish memory (Kazimierz and Podgórze hope more than one about thirty sites to be seen or visit) and Christian woman, it becomes also place of life for the artists and the students who re-occupy a a long time cheap district. Coffees, pubs, restaurants, nightclubs coexist beside plates in memory of the Shoah, the Jewish arts center and places of worships, constituting a mixture of the kinds which is not always free from criticisms. But a fusion undoubtedly takes place in the discotheques proposing of the music Klezmer and the restaurants a Jewish Cuisine, with of which famous the Carpe stuffed.

See too

External bonds

Visits - Kazimierz
the Jewish festival of Cracow (June-July)
friends of the Jewish festival of Cracow
Museum of the Jews of Galicie to Cracow
Site documented well on the district under all its aspects
JewishKrakow.net