Transcript Krakow and Galicia Roots Tour Photographed and presented by Music: Jair (Yair) Moreshet, 2008 Chopin, Nocturne in C-sharp Minor Krakow is one of the largest and.

Krakow and Galicia
Roots Tour
Photographed and presented by
Music:
Jair (Yair) Moreshet, 2008
Chopin, Nocturne in C-sharp Minor
Krakow is one of the largest and oldest cities of Poland. It is Poland's medieval and renaissance
Krakow:
Market cities
Square
royal capital and was in the 15th century among
the mostMain
magnificent
in Europe.
- It is among the first sites incorporated in the UNESCO list of world heritage.
Main Market Square: Cloth Hall, the city’s old trading center
St. Adalbert’s Church on the Main Market Square
The Florian Gate and a remaining section of the medieval city wall
St. Mary’s Basilica on the Main Market Square
Summer festivities at the back of St. Mary’s Basilica and St. Barbara Church
The Church of St. Peter & St. Paul
The Wawel Royal Castle and Cathedral
Szeroka St. was the Main Square of the Jewish community in the historical Kazimierz
neighborhood of Krakow. Today It is a lovely tourist center with restaurants serving traditional
Jewish food, accompanied by live performances of Hasidic Kleizmer bands.
This Synagogue has been active continuously since its inception close to the beginning of massive
Jewish settlement in Poland. The massive settlement began in the 14th century by invitation of King
Kazimierz the Great, who extended to them political protection from persecutions all over Europe.
Sokolow, where my father was born, is a typical small town (“Shtetl”) in Galicia.
At that time
Galicia was a part of the Austrian Empire, along with today’s Czech and Slovakia Republics. (As a
grownup my father moved to Krakow, and in 1928 he immigrated to Israel as a young pioneer.)
The yard / farm of a current local resident whose lifestyle is apparently much as it was
centuries ago.
The owner and his next door neighbor.
The woman seemed to still remember my family’s last name.
The area seems to experience now some prosperity. Here is a roadside inn on the way to Sokolow.
Whereas
parents
Israel aasvisit
pioneers
in the 1920’s,
my father’s
parents chose
No Roots my
Tourown
in the
area immigrated
is complete to
without
to the Auschwitz
II-Birkenau
extermination
to
stay in their “Shtetl”.
They were murdered in the nearby forest before the “industrialization” of
camp.
the project began.
In WW I my grandfather served in the Austrian Army (on the German side)!
Several cargo trains a day were going through the gate structure into the Birkenau camp (here)
carrying mass transports of men, women, and children from all over Europe.
-Having
the most
moving
life was
coming across
Israeli tour-group
in front
of the Gas
spent
mostmoment
of my lifeofinmy
Israel
on Defense
(both inthis
Research
and Analysis
of certain
Chambers
- Crematoria
complex,
wrapped
Israeli in
national
flags
engaged
a low keynote
Modern Defense
Technology
issues,
and ininparallel
33 years
of and
active
Military in
Service
in Ground
singing
Troops),of “Never Again”.