Week 6: Cultural Blog 22/03/13 - 29/03/13

Catching up with Mateusz

The Salt Mine Hall

Over the last week I have travelled to many different places, including Toruń, a place famous for Gingerbread and being the birth place of Copernicus.

I also went to visit Krakὀw, which is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. I got in touch with a friend from Krakὀw who I hadn’t seen in a couple of years and he joined my friend, Zane, and I on the tour of the salt mine, which was very impressive, especially the salt mine hall. We also visited the Main Square, some Cathedrals and a synagogue museum, but the place that struck me the most was Shindler’s Factory.

Oskar Shindler was a German spy and a member of the Nazi party who has been credited with saving the lives of over 1,200 Jews during the holocaust, by employing them in his enamelware factories which were in Poland and the Czech Republic. The Shindler’s Factory is a Museum which takes you through the story of the tragedy of the WWII in Poland and how this affected the Polish people. The museum is distributed in many different rooms, with multimedia elements and sound effects which creates a real experience, as you look at photographs, read letters and read the descriptions on the walls.

 As I was walking throughout this museum, I read about the terror people felt, in particular, the fear the Jewish people shared in the Jewish Ghetto. I had chills as I read about the accounts from different people, some from children of 8 years old.

“Even if you hid in the darkest of gates... someone would always see you enter that gate as a Jew and walk out of it as – as who? .. Your Jewishness came out with every anxious move, with every hesitant step, whenever you hunched your back, as if burdened with the yoke of bondage, whenever you gave that look of a baited animal; it was evident in your whole figure, your face, your eyes, all bearing the stamp of the ghetto.”

Gusta Drӓnger, teacher, fighter of the ZOB. (Shindler’s Factory, 2010)

I had always thought about the treatment of the Jewish people in terms of the Holocaust; however the museum showed the influence the treatment of the Jewish people had on the people around them who were not Jewish. It seems that citizens who were non-Jews came across a moral crossroads. 

Some people attempted to rescue their Jewish friends and neighbours from the Nazi death sentence by hiding them and their identity; however they did this at great risk to their own safety. In this situation, everyone was forced to live in secrecy:

“Secrecy, secrecy with every move. Mind everything and everyone. Every fluff may end with tragedy. A moment’s inattention may cost your freedom; it may cost your life” Jacek Sosnowski (Shindler’s Factory, 2010).

Others fell down another path:

 “The war favoured moral decay. The ethical standards applicable before the occupation declined. In return for a bottle of vodka, a bag of sugar or five hundred zlotys, Polish and Jewish informers denounced Jews to the Germans. Some made quite a lot of money on blackmailing Jews in hiding” (Shindler’s Factory, 2010).

Some did nothing:

“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out--Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out-- Because I was not a Trade Unionist

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--  Because I was not a Jew

Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me.” Martin Niemöller (HMM ,2013)

Liquidation of the Jewish Ghetto

It’s very easy to say what we would have done in this situation, but in reality, we cannot know and therefore we should resist judging the individuals and their choices at this terrible time. This is the message I received from the museum, and I think it’s a very important one, and to learn from the mistakes made to never allow this to be repeated.

References:

HMM, 2013 'Holocaust Encylopedia' available at http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007392 accessed on 30/03/13

Shindler's Factory, 2010 available at http://www.oskarschindlersfactory.com/ accessed on 30/03/13